The EduProtocol Field Guide: 16 Student-Centered Lesson Frames for Infinite Learning Possibilities

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Welcome to Principal Center Radio, bringing you the best in professional practice.

[00:06] Announcer:

Here's your host, Director of the Principal Center and Champion of High Performance Instructional Leadership, Justin Bader. Welcome everyone to Principal Center Radio.

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I'm your host, Justin Bader, and I'm honored to be joined today by Marlena Hebern. Marlena is a Google-certified innovator, Google trainer, co-founder of EdCamps, including EdCamp Yosemite and EdCamp Mammoth, and she's the author, with John Carripo, of the Edu Protocol Field Guide, 16 Student-Centered Lesson Frames for Infinite Learning Possibilities.

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And now, our feature presentation.

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Marlena, welcome to Principal Center Radio.

[00:43] SPEAKER_00:

Well, thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here.

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Well, let's jump right into what a lesson frame is. So in the EduProtocol field guide, you've got 16 different student-centered lesson frames. So let's just start by talking about what those are.

[00:57] SPEAKER_00:

So if you think of a lesson frame as a picture, and you have a picture that's sitting on the coffee table, and that picture's beginning to get a little bit faded, you can take that picture out and put in that same picture frame a new picture. Maybe it's a Christmas picture. And now what you have is a brand new picture, right? But the frame stayed the same. It's the picture that changed. So what we think of protocols is that the lesson frame stays the same.

[01:24]

What the kids are doing basically stays the same. What changes? is the curriculum or the age of the kids. Maybe one year it's being used with third graders and another year it's being used with eighth graders. It works the same way. So that's the basic of what an edu protocol is.

[01:40]

And so let me give you an example. One of my favorite ones is called Cyber Sandwich. And we like to name them because giving them a name gives them an identity. And when a lesson has an identity, then when the fourth grade teacher says, we're going to do a Cyber Sandwich, and the kids did that in third grade, they know exactly what it is and what the expectations are. So for Cyber Sandwich, the kids are reading an article and they're using all the things that the teacher's using for annotating or however they're analyzing that article they can use. It's very flexible.

[02:09]

There's no right or wrong way. It's whatever the teacher's already doing. So the students read the article and then they come together where they're taking notes on what they noticed about the article. And then they pair share with a partner using a Venn diagram and together they're noticing what you notice and what I notice. And what did we notice that's the same? And what we're finding is that some kids come to that table from a very emotional background, maybe, where they're relating to that article the feelings of the people involved.

[02:39]

But maybe another student's relating to that article in a very analytical sense, like what happened? What's the data? And so when these kids start to talk to each other, they begin to deepen their understanding of what that article was about. So then they pair share in the Venn diagram. And they're combining into that middle section what they both see that they noticed. And then they go down to the bottom and they're just writing the summary paragraph on their own.

[03:02]

Now they're on their own, they're not working with a partner, but they can use the notes that the partner created with them. And they're writing their own summary of that article. And so that would be an example of a protocol and how it doesn't matter what they're reading. It could be any story, any analytical text, anything whatsoever. They can use that same protocol with a different content.

[03:23] SPEAKER_02:

Well, that makes total sense, Marlena. And it reminds me of something that I experienced as a fairly new teacher. And I wonder if you could help me compare and contrast here a little bit. I learned about thinking maps as a new teacher, you know, things like a bubble map or a double bubble map or, you know, like a Venn diagram would be similar. So help me situate this. the protocols that you have in the EduProtocol field guide a little bit.

[03:48]

How do they compare to things that we might think of as just a visual tool or something like a Venn diagram? You've given them names, you've layered on quite a bit that allows students to connect to them and use them in different ways. So just help me understand that a little bit.

[04:02] SPEAKER_00:

I think they're very similar in some respects, but in other respects, they're very different. So one day I walked into a classroom and on the wall, there were 15, I kid you not, 15 graphic organizers up on the wall. What shocked me about that is it was a second grade classroom. So in second grade classroom, the teacher's using 15 different graphic organizers. The kids are not learning the graphic organizers. They're not named.

[04:27]

The kids don't know. It's just a worksheet to them. So what's happening when they're given this the kids are asking the teacher, what do I do now? The kids aren't learning that process. In using the protocols, what we're trying to do is we're trying to use them over and over and over again so that the kids really become comfortable and familiar with the task that they're doing. And there's actually a theory that describes that.

[04:50]

It's called the cognitive load theory. And what it says basically is that we can't learn two things at once. So if we're trying to teach the kids tasks, and we're also trying to teach them content, what's gonna happen is that the kids are gonna focus on, am I doing it right? Instead of what am I learning in the content? So we're trying to remove that barrier of doing it right by just teaching them how we want it done and doing it over and over and over again. And then as we use different content, they can begin to focus on the content.

[05:20]

And that task, which includes technology skills, right? How do I add a picture? How do I do a text box? They'll learn those steps So that then they can just focus on the content.

[05:30] SPEAKER_02:

I love it. So you're separating out the process or the learning task and saying these things are going to be consistent. They can build on each other from grade to grade. Kids are going to learn a set of protocols to follow. And then whatever the content is, we can swap that in. It's novel in that way.

[05:45]

But the process is not confusing and overwhelming because it's something that kids have been learning over time.

[05:50] SPEAKER_00:

Exactly, exactly. And the cool thing about it is what it does for the teacher, because the teacher also doesn't have to worry so much about how we doing that task. For the teacher, it does the same thing. It frees them up a little bit to be teachers and to interact with the kids and engage with the kids and think with them, rather than to be worrying about, well, you know, that circle needs to be like this. And you need to, you know, you put the bubble in there, but now you're supposed to have three bubbles coming off of it. So It just frees the teacher up also, I think.

[06:21] SPEAKER_02:

Well, and I think it's important to recognize that as educators, we do this anyway. We just tend to do it with not very good activities, if I can be honest. I know one of the things that I went to very frequently was the thinking maps, the different diagrams, and then a PowerPoint. and then whatever lab activity I had. And honestly, my repertoire could have been a little bit deeper than a PowerPoint for lecture and then the lab activity. So let's get into some examples.

[06:49]

If we're going to go beyond worksheets and PowerPoints and things like that and really make these engaging and cognitively demanding and supportive activities for our students, what are some examples of that that you've included in the book?

[07:01] SPEAKER_00:

So some examples. Well, I think one that's been just gaining in popularity that John Crippo does quite a bit is called Iron Chef. And really, it's a jigsaw activity where students, you've got four kids working in teams and they're working on four slides. Each one has a task that they're completing on that slide. So maybe they're learning about U.S. history.

[07:23]

You know, maybe you have four people that they're studying. And so each slide is a different person, for example. And so they're creating that slide deck together. But then we want to introduce a little bit of fun and game element into it because we all learn better when we're having a good time and we're enjoying the activity. So the kids are completing that activity in a specified amount of time. And when it's done, they're done.

[07:44]

They've got 10 minutes, literally. They're only making one slide. They don't need more than 10 minutes. So they've got 10 minutes. They create that slide. And then it is hands off.

[07:51]

They are finished. And then we have the kids go up and present their slides to the class. But what's happening is we set up this little panel of the next group, right? The next four kids. And that is our American Idol panel that's going to be giving feedback to the presenters on how they're presenting. And so that little panel is looking at, you know, is information accurate?

[08:10]

Are they presenting well? Or, you know, are they just, you know, saying, um, um, um all the time? Or are they actually showing good presentation skills? Do the slides have good color? And are they put together nicely? And that kind of thing.

[08:22]

So we've got a few points for these kids to provide feedback. And then when that group is done, they give the feedback. And that's how kids learn. The presenting skills is by giving the feedback, right? If you're judging somebody else, you're more likely going to be aware of what you need to do when you're presenting. But the other thing that it does is in a class of 30, we've got five or six groups presenting the same thing over and over again.

[08:45]

So your kids who are the audience... they're listening to that presentation being given five times. So that content, instead of being delivered by the teacher giving a lecture, it's being delivered by the peers who are repeating the presentations.

[08:58] SPEAKER_02:

Very cool. And what do you call that one?

[09:00] SPEAKER_00:

We call it Iron Chef.

[09:01] SPEAKER_02:

I love that. No joke. I was just at the dentist and they had one of those Iron Chef or chopped kind of shows on at the dentist's office. And, you know, you have to kind of sit there and and do nothing when you're getting your teeth cleaned. So that's what I was just doing. And I think that's a great frame for students that they're familiar with.

[09:19]

Kids see these shows, they're familiar with the idea. That puts them in a different mindset about peer feedback. I can't think of a single time as a student that I was either asked to give peer feedback or receive peer feedback in a way that was not extremely awkward. It was just not familiar and it was not something that we were taught. It was not something that we practiced. So if we did it, it was rough.

[09:42]

It was a difficult experience. But what you're saying is that because this is a known activity, Iron Chef is just a thing that we do, it becomes familiar to kids. And what do you see with repetition as they go through these activities over and over?

[09:55] SPEAKER_00:

They get better and better and better. I was in a classroom just yesterday. I was in a classroom and As we were working through, we were just doing frayer. The teacher was using frayer and using it for vocabulary, which we've also included in here as a protocol. Well, I said to him at lunchtime, I said, that last period, the fourth period was really good. I said, I thought your delivery and the order that you delivered in, I think made a lot of sense to the kids.

[10:20]

I thought that was really good. And he said, you know, I find that I get better by the end of the day. By the time I've done this six times, I'm way better. And so I asked him the question, how do you think the kids might work the same way? And he was like, oh, if they do this a lot, maybe they'll get better at it. So that's exactly what we want to see.

[10:41]

So the more kids are doing it, of course, the better their slides are going to get, the better their presentations are going to get. If you think how many times do we really have kids present in front of the class, usually it's a couple of times, and it's very high stakes. They're up there. They've got their little 20-minute talk they're going to give, and we do it once a year, right? We want them up there every week. It's 30 seconds to one minute that they're presenting on their one slide, but we want them to do it over every week.

[11:08]

And so then they become comfortable in front of their peers.

[11:11] SPEAKER_02:

So you mentioned that that activity is called frayer. What is frayer? Take us into that activity.

[11:15] SPEAKER_00:

So frayer is, it's a very cool way to learn about vocabulary. So we've got this paper and if you imagine it just folded into four squares and in the middle, write the word frayer. And in the top left square, you would say, what is the definition of this word? And the right hand, you would write, what are characteristics of that word? So if my word was friendly, you know, my definition might be a person who is nice to another person. But the characteristics are a smile, a handshake, warm feeling, right?

[11:46]

Those would be characteristics. And then on the bottom left, you would write an example. And one thing I love about technology is the kids can go into Google and they can search an image to be the example rather than write it out. And then on the right-hand lower corner would be a non-example, something that it is not. And so the coolest thing about a frayer is because it's not using words like synonym and antonym, it can be used for anything. It can be used for math concepts, science concepts.

[12:14]

It's kind of what you were talking about, mind maps and bubble maps, but it's very simple, just the four squares. But it can be used for anything.

[12:20] SPEAKER_02:

Well, and Marlena, I've definitely seen that model. I don't think I knew that it was called the Freyer model, but what you're saying is definition, characteristics, example, and non-example, right?

[12:29] SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. Right.

[12:30] SPEAKER_02:

Well, let's talk about one more protocol. You've got one called Booka Kucha. And I have to think that that's probably related to Pecha Kucha, the kind of TED Talk-like presentation format. But tell us what Booka Kucha is.

[12:43] SPEAKER_00:

Booka Kucha. is just a method of having the kids apply the concepts that are being learned in class with maybe a class anthology to the book that they're reading on their own, maybe their library book. So, for example, if the class is learning about conflicts in literature and different conflicts, then the question to the students would be, what's a conflict in your book? So the students do this maybe once a week. They stop wherever they're reading. If they're on page 15, that's fine.

[13:10]

And they take a look at their book and they think, where I am right now in my book, what are the conflicts in my book? And then they create three slides. Three slides because what's a conflict? What's another conflict? What's another conflict? Because we want the kids to go a little bit deeper into that thinking.

[13:25]

And then they present that slide to their peers. And it's a great way to validate reading. If you're using a third party program to validate reading, then this is a great way that can supplement or replace that.

[13:36] SPEAKER_02:

So then they present those three slides in three seconds each. Is that right?

[13:40] SPEAKER_00:

20 seconds. You figure about 15 to 20 seconds per slide per kid. So with three slides, one student should be able to get through those three slides in one minute, which means in a class period, you can easily get through 30 kids. We want kids to be up and presenting, but we have to think about structuring it so that we can actually get through it. Because when we have kids do that one presentation once a year for 20 minutes, it takes a week to get through a class, right? And so that's why we only do it once a year.

[14:10]

But if we can get it down to one minute per kid, then we can get those kids up and presenting more often in shorter periods of time.

[14:16] SPEAKER_02:

Well, and I think paradoxically, they're likely to have better work if they only have a minute to present, right? It's like the old saying, sorry, I didn't write you a shorter letter. I didn't have time. So, you know, here's Mark Twain or whoever supposedly said that, that the, you know, the quality goes up when the stakes are a little bit higher, when the pressure's on a little bit, just like Iron Chef.

[14:35] SPEAKER_00:

Yes. And kids need repetition. And they learn when they get up the first time and they stumble through their presentation. The second time they think through what they're going to say a little bit better. And then the third time, you know, they're starting to say, well, I want to have a couple. I want a card with some notes on it so I know what to say.

[14:52]

Right. And they start preparing on their own about what they're going to do. But if you only give them that one high stakes shot once a year or twice a year. You're not giving them time to develop their practice through their own repetition.

[15:03] SPEAKER_02:

Well, Marlena, let's talk about a couple ways that schools could use these frames, could use the EduProtocol field guide. Obviously, there's a lot of potential in making these school-wide practices so that, as you said, students are learning them and layering on from grade to grade as they go through their school experience. These are familiar structures that they can plug new content into and just be ready to roll with it. So obviously school-wide is one approach. What are some ways that you've seen schools use this model, use these frames school-wide?

[15:36] SPEAKER_00:

I would say just start small and start with one. Booka Kucha, I think, is an easy one to start school-wide because you can get everybody on board and they can see the effects of it. And I think it has a good purpose in the classroom. There's another one that we call Math Reps that Lisa Nowakowski has been developing where we just take a format of a number and then the kids say it's decimals. The kids are working out decimals and all the possible ways they can work out a decimal. But this can work at any grade level with any math concept.

[16:06]

So I think just starting with a small, take one, choose one, and implement it school-wide where you've got everybody kind of on board. Once the teachers begin to see that this can actually lessen some of their teaching load, then I think they become more willing and on board to try it. The other cool thing about it school-wide, the technology skills that teachers need to do these are actually fairly fairly basic level skills. So let's just say if you are Google, because they work in Microsoft as well or any other domain, but if you're in Google, if you understand slides and docs and how to share and how to put an assignment into Google Classroom and how to sign, you know, copy for every student and how to make groups so that kids can work in groups, you're good to go. There's not a lot of fancy, high-end, super techie things that they need to know. It's fairly entry-level skill set that the teachers need.

[16:57]

Which means that even your teachers who are not super, quote unquote, super techie, will be able to tackle these and use them in the classroom. And I think the thing that teachers see is that as, say, Iron Chef, as that's happening, they're giving the feedback in real time and they're grading in real time. There's no grading after school that happens. It happens right there in the classroom. So the teachers begin to see, oh, I have time to give the feedback. I don't have to sit through two hours on the weekend grading these reports because it's happening in the real time.

[17:29]

And they see that, and I think that they like that.

[17:31] SPEAKER_02:

Well, let's also think about an individual teacher. Our listeners who are school administrators or kind of living in that world probably have someone in mind who would love to hear about this book and just run with it. So thinking about the people who individually kind of gain the most from your book, who do you have in mind to be kind of an across-the-board, rapid implementer?

[17:53] SPEAKER_00:

Nate Shankles. And he's on Twitter at Nate Shankles. Lisa Nowakowski. Lisa DeLapo. John Carrippo, if you just follow John Carrippo, he puts tons of stuff out there that retweets and whatnot. I do too.

[18:07]

We have a website called eduprotocols.com that we have been posting work. Teachers send us their samples. They love to share them. And teachers, it's so neat if you're on Twitter because teachers are so willing to just put their stuff out there. So we've been curating some of that and putting it on the website, eduprotocols.com.

[18:27]

And then also, if you want to see what teachers are doing, The easiest, fastest way is just go to the hashtag on Twitter, eduprotocols, E-D-U-P-R-O-T-O-C-O-L-S. And you'll be able to see what teachers are posting. And if you ask them questions, they are more than willing to share.

[18:44] SPEAKER_02:

So Marlena, as we're thinking about individual teachers who might benefit from this book, what are some of the different kind of individual scenarios? If the principal has someone in mind who would really benefit from the book Edu Protocols, who would that be? What would that look like in their practice if they were just perfectly poised to take these strategies and run with them?

[19:03] SPEAKER_00:

I think that if a teacher is in the classroom saying, I don't really know what to do with technology, so I don't really know how to get started, this would be a good book for them. I was in a school and they're using a program and we were talking about collaborating and engaging the kids in a deeper way. And they said, well, we're doing everything that we could do. But they're not because they're just using this one program. that would be the teacher you could buy this for. We also, we wrote the book keeping in mind new teachers coming into the profession who they know they're supposed to do something, but they're not really sure what this book will help them.

[19:38]

And also the teachers who've been teaching for a long time and maybe aren't really sure what to do with this new thing called technology and how to get their kids into it and what benefit it might have for their classroom. I think that this would be a good book for them also. And then your teachers who are competent in using technology. They feel comfortable. They have a very good self-esteem about using technology in their classroom. Obviously, that's a natural fit for them as well.

[20:00] SPEAKER_02:

Well, Marlena, thanks so much for joining me on Principal Center Radio.

[20:03] SPEAKER_00:

Well, thank you for having me. It was really great to talk to you and to share the book with everybody. And please, everybody, just reach out. We love the community that's building around edgy protocols, and we love answering questions and helping people out. John and I, we always say, free lifetime support So we're here to answer questions and to help the process.

[20:24] SPEAKER_01:

And now, Justin Bader on high-performance instructional leadership.

[20:28] SPEAKER_02:

So high-performance instructional leaders, what did you take away from my conversation with Marlena Hebern about edu protocols, about these frames that we can reuse with new content in order to take students through familiar learning activities so that the activity itself is is not a barrier. I'll tell you, I love this idea, and I think the more we can support the level of cognitive demand that we want to see on the content itself, the more we can scaffold the activity or make the activity a familiar one, I think the better thinking we're going to see about the content itself. And I think there's just a ton of potential there. So as Marlena mentioned, she's got a great website at eduprotocols.com. And I want to encourage you to check that out and try these out in your classroom.

[21:17]

If you're a teacher, if you are a coach who supports teachers, maybe suggest some of these protocols to teachers that you work with. And if you're an administrator, hey, try one in a faculty meeting. I have never heard the complaint that faculty meetings are so much fun and too engaging So we really need to tone it down. It's just not something I hear very often. So I want to encourage you, if you are an administrator, if you are responsible for planning faculty meetings, try some of these with your staff because those learning activities, you know, if you have to read a text and make sense of a text, there are protocols for that. And the more you rely on those familiar protocols, the more you can focus on the content because the process is already familiar.

[21:58]

So again, you can check out Marlena's work at eduprotocols.com.

[22:02] Announcer:

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