It is January and -31 from where I’m writing. For most Americans, the season after New Year’s and before Valentine’s day is all about the Super Bowl, The Oscars and the Grammys. But in the land of AIW, we know better—this is the season for Mid-Year Institutes. These regional collaboration days are an important opportunity for practitioners of AIW reform from different schools to meet together and exchange ideas, score and “talk AIW.”
This tradition started in 2008 when the nine original pilot schools in Iowa Department of Education’s high school reform project. Originally, the Mid-Year Institute was a two-day event, with the first day dedicated to scoring artifacts from the field and the second day set up as a conference, with workshops targeting specific issues or practices in the field. Over time, the tradition has been condensed into a one-day event and expanded to several locations with distinct regional twists. Some Institutes include a keynote to kick off the day, while others are all about the workshops, and move participants through 90-minute blocks of time. The only common elements that remain include scoring with people form the same discipline who are not from your regular AIW team, (and preferably not from your school) and exchanging of ideas on how to make our practice better using the Framework for AIW and the scoring standards.
This AIW Mid-Year tradition is remarkable and part of why some regions retain vibrancy and freshness in the reform. Yet, sometimes the evaluations don’t reflect how amazing the event truly is. In short, some of us (yes, I would put myself at the top of this list) need reminders about which small stuff to sweat and what to let pass. So as I prepare for my own break out sessions and select the sessions I’ll be attending as a participant here is my own list of reminders:
Reminders as a Participant
Ask for what you need. When I’m in a session and the presenters are talking “at the audience” too long, it’s ok to politely ask for some time to discuss the ideas being presented with a partner or in small groups. I’ve found that more often than not, the presenters wrote that in their workshop lesson plan, but find themselves talking too long because they are nervous. A gentle nudge towards group discussion can be a welcome reminder to an anxious presenter.
- Be kind and prepare to disagree. AIW is at its best when cognitive dissonance flourishes. That said, there are times when passion becomes stubbornness; when a strong point of view turns a good thinker into a jerk. I find the best antidote comes from the three features that define substantive conversation, especially the second feature: “conversation involves the sharing of ideas....(and)...is not completely scripted or controlled by one party,” 1
- See the glass as half-full. Lastly, I try to always remember that we are all learners, including the presenter. Even if the workshop was less than I had hoped for, the evaluation is a place to give constructive feedback—not to scare the presenter away from ever doing a workshop again.
Notes to Self as a Presenter
- Don’t talk too much. I try to always remember that People are there to learn and the best learning on these days comes from the power of the collective, not from anyone person (including me). My job is to frame the learning objectives and create the space for others to learn from each other. My anchor question for this is Who is constructing the knowledge?
- Everyone wants to walk away with something of value. While this may be different for different people, I need to make sure that participants have a chance to think about what to take back to their classroom or school. This should be unique for each person, but common to the theme or topic of the workshop. My anchor question for this is What’s the Value Beyond the Workshop?
- Cite, acknowledge and thank. This is always tricky because in education we teach our students how to cite, yet as teachers we customarily “beg, borrow, and steal,” whatever we can. It’s a strange double standard. Having spent more of my own professional career in K-12 teaching than in academia, I struggle with this issue myself. Recently I’ve been thinking about it a lot more, especially when I read a recent blog by a famous educator who linked the what we in the AIW world fondly call the bluebook, without citing the source or even referencing its content correctly. As a relative novice in the world of citation, I passed this particular situation along to my more famous co-authors, Fred Newmann and Bruce King, to handle the response. As for myself, here are some resources and questions I’m currently looking at to expand my own understanding of how to do a better job.
- Who set me up for success in this workshop?Was there a teacher’s story, a video clip someone gave me, an idea offered that created breakthrough thinking for me as I put the workshop together? If there was, I can use the “hat tip” approach, common among journalists to acknowledge the source of a scoop, story or idea for their article. 2
- Did I modify, adapt, or recycle someone else’s stuff? This is always tricky. But here is the best rule to live by. If the person who originally created what I’m using sat in my workshop and would recognize it as theirs, I should have a footnote or acknowledgment thanking that person, or at least acknowledging the origins of the idea. The best source I’ve found for thinking about this are outlined in the general guidelines for sources and citations at Dathmouth 3. It’s a practical and understandable way to think the intellectual sharing of ideas and I highly recommend reading it.
- Is what I’m talking about “common knowledge?” The best example of this for an AIW conference or workshop is the language in the AIW framework. It is not necessary to cite when you use key words, such as “substantive conversation,""disciplined inquiry," or "elaborated communication.” We all know they are stadnards in the AIW framework. However, when we move outside our AIW family and do general presentations or publications, properly citing the work is important.
Footnotes:
1 Newmann, F.M., King M.B. & Carmichael, D.L. (2009) Teaching for Authentic intellectual work: Standards and Scoring Criteria for Teachers’ Tasks, Student Performance, and Instruction. Minneapolis, MN: Tasora Books, (80).
2 The Wall Stree Jounral example of a hat tip is available at http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/04/21/univ-of-cincinatti-psychiatrist-under-more-scrutiny-over-funding/?mod=WSJBlog?mod=relevancy and came from a wikipedia defining hat-tipping at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hat_tip
3 Source at http://dartmouth.edu/writing-speech/learning/materials/sources-and-citations-dartmouth#2E