Heading into Facilitator Training

For our final class meeting, we set about fleshing out the schedule for Facilitator Training, going through each planned "section" & activity on day two so we could have a realistic sense of what remained to prepare. This seemed very helpful, as it forced us to move from the general notion of "content" in the training, to "experiences" that help the facilitators learn the content. Throughout our sessions, we've returned to the fact that we want training to make better use of experiential learning practices; scrutinizing the daily schedule allowed us to see if/how we are going to do this. 

Many of us had sketched plans for activities, and plans for "talk." Our review focused on how to best make this content into experiences to engage the Facilitators. We discussed a variety of activities to do this. Almost all of them make use of the changing "rhythm" of "integration and differentiation" (Lakey)--that is, discussing & working with material as a larger group; then working individually or in pairs. This encourages students to engage with the material by thinking about it on their own, then representing their reflections to the larger group, helping them articulate what they learned. 

In general we pointed out that it's a good idea to pattern your "lessons" in 5-10 minute "chunks": introduce new material; have them reflect on it in some way, usually individually or in small groups; have them share their reflections, acknowledging difference throughout a larger group; have them "apply" this material in some way--defining, categorizing, role playing, planning, writing, etc.--that allows them to USE what they've learned. This way, we know they are learning. 

You guys have made some thoughtful, productive revisions to last year's Training, and it has been fun and exciting to work with you. Really. I hope I get a chance to do it again in the future.

Please email me if you need any help as you plan your activities for training; I'll be happy to help you develop lessons and exercises.  As I said, overplanning is best, that way you're never at a loss for what to do. 

Class, June 7

We started…by deciding where to start. As you all know, I put our learning and class schedule into your hands because, simply put, it is your project. So, one way I prepare you to run the Facilitator Training Program together is to let you steer planning and design yourself, while I offer options and guide a little. Also, I model Studio pedagogy, soliciting with elicitive questions, encouraging interactional inquiry.

Of course, when a facilitator (or mentor, teacher, advisor, etc.) does this, it can be frustrating to individuals in the group—especially if they really want or need direction, so we have to be aware of those needs. I addressed this by meta-teaching [teaching about teaching methods], mentioning this method and my intent, and you happily took the bait, grouping up to further develop your materials for Training.

As I went around, I was impressed by your strategic planning as you worked to improve the elements that you deemed lacking in last year’s program. For the most part, I saw a lot of collaborative problem-solving as you fluidly responded to each other’s ideas for your sections. I happy to give some directive assistance when asked, but largely my input consisted of “Studio facilitator” techniques: clarifying the questions you asked me, and giving them back to you; “saying back” the ideas and exact phrases you ran by me; validating your ideas with encouragement. It was great watching you all work together.

We got the news that laptops will be arriving on June 30, at the earliest; fortunately, we have the computer lab—306 CAS, I believe?—to use in the interim. We decided to go ahead and have students create and maintain electronic portfolios, as they will have access to the computer lab. We should strongly encourage them to plan on being “done for the day” at 8:30, giving them enough time to work with tutors and use the computers.

To be sure there is a Mentor accountable for coordinating and problem-solving certain aspects of Training, we volunteered for these responsibilities:

Angela: Assessment & Data Collection

Vanessa: Councelor liaison; Distribution of laptops; space & scheduling; enrollment

Eric, Musheera, Nic: Program Website; announcements; supporting docs

Sam: Food; Conceptual timeline;

Sam & Eric: Support group liaison

Everyone: Facilitator liaison [we assigned Facilitators to each Mentor, as well]

We then moved on to implementing these changes into our assigned website documents.

…And that’s where we are.

For Thursday, June 9:

Complete your revised website documents, and email them to Eric, so he can build the site. We’ll review these, identifying our guiding concepts and principles; offering further revisions and comments.

We will put your plans into practice: We’ll run through a “prototype” of one full day of planned activities, in time-lapse mode. This will enable you to see a realistic schedule in practice—what’s great, what needs more work, and what needs to get hacked.

We’ll model and practice a Writing Studio using your Program docs and/or your creative pieces.

[Learning style survey/inventory? Bias test? https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/ ]

Thursday, June 2

We started out by analyzing the conversation and conflict that cropped up during our meeting on May 31. I encouraged us to do this for two reasons:
1) As Mentors and Facilitator-trainers, we should be able to handle a group's arguments in such a way that helps the individual members of that group become more aware of how those arguments arose; such an awareness does not place blame, but seeks to clearly see what happened in the conversation. This also helps us understand how what we say and do can be interpreted differently by different audiences, so we need to be aware of audience assumptions.
As we saw during our discussion, some Studio groups will have antagonistic students that intend to harm others. For those cases, we need to help Facilitators determine when they can turn such instances into "teaching moments" by increasing the group's awareness of conversational dynamics; when they will need to enforce respect by reminding students of Studio's ground rules and supportive nature; and when they'll need to just "let it go." Of course, these will be situational, but we can help Facilitators be aware of the variety of situations they will encounter.
2) I wanted to increase the "safety" of our own group by bringing an unresolved conflict back to the surface of our conversation, to resolve it; otherwise, it would manifest in other ways. Lakey might say that this makes everyone "uncomfortable," and that this discomfort leads to learning. I think we did as much learning as we could do during that session.

We then went around and explained our personal, selected revisions to the existing training program. I was excited to see our revisions incorporate elements of Schunk & Zimmerman's research compilation, as well as suggestions gleaned from last year's experience. From these revisions, these themes and concepts emerged:
Clear and specific expectations of Facilitators
Facilitator-centered Training, emphasizing Facilitator research and development of usable SRL strategies  for use during Studio
Identify SRL phases to aid Facilitators view of student work
Training and Studio language reflects SRL
Use experiential learning activities during training
Emphasize Studio's integration within University, not simply EOF
Build group dynamics, and awareness of group dynamics
Use learner-inclusive strategies to privilege all learners
Emphasize importance of Facilitators relating to students, and instruct how
Student-orientation of Studio, emphasizing support

These will serve to guide us as we revise the content of this year's training, and as we revise the actual language of the Facilitator Training website, which is where we went next.

We updated Sam's comprehensive list of training topics, and took responsibility for developing each:

1.     Introduction; Objectives; Job Description: DeGarcia/ Vanessa

2.     What-If; Responses: Simone, Marie and Tim

3.     Introduction to Studio Language/Theory/ Discourse: Eric

4.     Jeopardy: Sam

5.     L2 Learners Support Groups: Eric, Sam, Nic, Vanessa

6.     Quiz: Sam

7.     Creating Effective Group Dynamic: Tim

8.     Reading Protocol: Nic, Musheerah

9.     Interactive Inquiry Practices: Nic

10.  Mock Studio Sessions: Everyone

11.  Writing Prompts; Ice-Breakers; Container Exercise: Tim, Eric, Sam

12.  Data Collecting Practices; Notations; Pre/Post Survey:  Angela, Simone, Nic, Sam

13.  Technology; Using Net Books; Purpose of Electric Portfolio; Kean Google Tutortrac Training: Vanessa, Sam, Angela

14.  Course List of Summer: Marie

15.  High Order Concerns vs. Low Order Concerns: Musheerah

16.  First 5 minutes: Angela

17.  Reflective Assessment of Training

18.  Dress Code: Nic and Tim

19.  FACEBOOK; TWITTER : Simone, Eric (Sam)

20.  Self-Regulated Learning: Nic, Simone, Tim, Sam

 [Thanks, Sam!] Accordingly, we also each took responsibility for making revisions to the Facilitator Training website We divided ourselves into training groups A & B for the morning and "afternoon" sessions.

And that's where we are, heading into our final week. I'm elated to see this cohering, and looking forward to next week, as we bring our individual revisions together and hash out our preferences.

For Tuesday, June 7:

1) Develop and create any actual documents and/or activities you plan to use during Facilitator Training: revised protocols; alterations of data collection; assessment; experiential learning activities [it may help to review Lakey's Part III, and look at http://www.trainingforchange.org/]; writing prompts; Brainology; SRL-related material; L2-specific material for Facilitators, etc.
We want to have these to review during Tuesday's class, and so we can go ahead and finalize the conceptual timeline.

2) Revise the actual language of your section(s) of the Facilitator Training Website:
https://sites.google.com/site/kueeostudio/home

3) Bring at least two pieces of writing to present during a Writing Studio session. To make this fun (and productive to us as writers), one of these can be a "creative" piece, an academic piece, or any other piece you'd like feedback on. The second piece should be the website sections and/or content you're writing for your Facilitator Training topics. Of course, both pieces you bring can be material for Facilitator Training.
For both, prepare for Studio by writing the following: A) state your audience, focus, purpose; B) state the progress you've made thus far; C) state what kind of feedback you'd like from the group.
Post these on your blog, or email them to all, viewable via google doc. I think we have everyone's email address, but I'll send an email with everyone included.

Class May 31; prep for June 2

I want to start off this entry by saying that one thing that makes me truly, truly happy about our class is that we all are part of it because we want to make sure that people who haven't had good chances to be empowered, are given those chances. Of course, we differ on how we want to do this. And that diversity is VITAL to our productive group that has the flexibility to view (and review) Studio's Facilitator Training with multiple perspectives. Demonstrating that diversity is also what will allow the Facilitators you train to find their own preferences for how they facilitate. So, thank you for bringing to class your own identities & experiences & opinions, pedagogical preferences & careful consideration of others.

Our involved discussion about the assumptions underlying the language strategies--especially "Code Switching" [thanks to Eric and Sam]--productively unpacked a bunch of concepts and concerns that were under the table. We really worked through a lot of material here. Below, I'll get to the themes and principles that emerged.

And, like you guys said, maybe we stormed. Did we? With or without Lakey, I do think our conflicts were productive in that they helped us to see each others' personalities and roles within the group. Of course, we'll continue to do this. Going forward, I do want to make sure that we're respecting each other's ways of communicating, and really hearing the goodwill that we have for each other. In turn, this awareness related directly to thinking about the ways you're going to help your facilitators handle such communication differences.

Throughout our discussion of specific Studio Program revisions, several principles or themes recurred:
critical awareness and pedagogy
base practice in theory
base practice in experience
fostering student awareness of implications of writing with a specific purpose and for a specific audience
student-orientation of Studio practices; supporting student focus and agency; encouraging students; building student confidence where warranted
empathizing with student, and offering concrete and helpful advice
emphasizing an incremental learning model
emphasizing learning process (strategies for learning) over performance & outcomes
making Studio expectations clear, esp. to aid marginalized and hesitant students
collaborative nature of Studio--help group offer help and solutions; building group candor
[Additions? Please add in comments, or email me.]

After further discussion on Thursday--as we make our own impassioned revisions to the Facilitator Training Program--these and additional principles will need to be taken into consideration by the person who will revise the actual language of the strategies. Please consider if you are willing and able to represent the group's perspectives, and take on this revision task.
There is considerable conceptual overlap in this list, and there are clashes. Like I said, this makes for an effective Training. Also, it's pretty clear here that it would be harmful to standardize Mentoring and Facilitating practices. While we will each emphasize different things in our teaching, we're empowering the Facilitators to make conscious decisions about how they can best facilitate.

For Thursday:
Please rigorously investigate the various elements and documents (even handouts) of the Facilitator Training Program: https://sites.google.com/site/facilitatortraining/home. Select two or three that you really care about changing. Please make those actual revisions to the best of your ability, and post them to your blog. We'll discuss these as a class, identifying (and, no doubt, scrutinizing) those themes that our revisions embody so that we can clearly identify our values. In turn, those values will need to be considered by each individual responsible for rewriting her/his respective element of training next week.

Read Schunk & Zimmerman, Ch. 4, 5, 14, & 15. With this, we can do a Reading Studio again; we can work on bringing up the text's points during Training revision discussion; or another option?

Also, consider how you'd like to practice a Writing Studio, as we'd all benefit from a refresher, modeling and practicing.