147. Facilitation Moves to Model in Your Professional Development Sessions

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As coaches, administrators, and teacher leaders, we often design and facilitate professional learning experiences for teachers. This episode helps us think about ways to help teachers experience awesome pedagogy as learners, so they may be more equipped—even more interested—in using these pedagogical moves with their students.

Why? 

I was recently talking to Dr. Dawn Bentley, Head of Schools at RFK Community Alliance. She referenced Triple Track, an approach developed by Thinking Collaborative. In this approach, professional development workshops are designed with three tracks in mind. Track 1 are the  strategies used to support teachers’ learning in the PD itself. Track 2 is to consider applications for these strategies with adult groups, and tips for sharing them with other educators. Track 3 is for applications for these strategies in classrooms with students. 

We’ll focus mostly on Tracks 1 and 3 here. 

What?
I’m breaking these down into specific categories of pedagogical moves, similar to how I think about protocol purposes. 

Moves During to Set Up

• Land acknowledgement
• Recognition of intellectual ancestors and contemporaries 
• Opening activity (e.g., asset-based language using Values in Action traits)
• List the Learning Targets
• Share and get consensus for collective agreements  

Moves to Personalize

I like using WIN Time with the following options: 

• Explore the choice board resources (with various content sub-specializations and modalities) 
• Start adapting or building a resource you will use in class
• Brainstorm with a partner
• Ask me a question 
• Build a sustainable plan (focus on structures and systems) 

Moves to Engage 

• Pause and invite additions, adaptations, concerns 
• Reflection Questions following a creation activity such as: What did you create? What challenges are coming up? What questions do you have? What ahas did you have? 
• Collect and Display to generate ideas from all participants (a Math Language Routine from Illustrative Mathematics) 
• Rhonda Bondie’s Think Talk Open Exchange protocol 
• Color, Symbol, Image protocol from Harvard’s Project Zero (I like using pre-made cards to support this activity such as Dr. Amy Climber’s Climber Cards) 

Moves to Close

• Self-assess on Marzano’s scale (I adapt this to 1 through 3) 
• Design and share your next action step 
• Invite participants to share their feedback on a short survey 

More Moves…

For reading “texts” or critical analysis. 


Final Tip

My favorite tip for PD facilitators and teachers is to create a common slides resource bank of the moves or slides you regularly use (or want to use). That way, when you’re planning, you just pull the ones you need over! (If you love this idea, you will absolutely love the resources I have for you below.) 



To help you get a sense for some of the moves I model, check out the video series below! In it, I walk through specific slides I use for each protocol, and then share the slide decks with you for free through a link in the video description. 

And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 147 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript here. ​

If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where I explain how to improve the quality of discourse in your school: