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EduProtocols: Workflowing Amazing Lesson Design

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

The Amazing Lesson Design Outline (ALDO) serves as an easy-to-use reminder of what you can include in lessons. Not only does it provide handy links to SEL and assessment, but it also does something more – it provides easy, one-stop access to evidence-based instructional strategies. Then, it combines those strategies with digital tools suggestions.

But no one outline can do everything, right? One big omission from ALDO? EduProtocols. Let’s explore how to enhance ALDO with classroom workflows. But first, let’s review ALDO.

What is ALDO?

ALDO is a lesson design outline containing five components:

  1. Relationships First: Trust and Social-Emotionl Learning. Select an activity you can use to connect with students.
  2. Assessment. Select a pre-assessment activity you may find useful.
  3. Teaching and Learning. Select a high-effect size strategy that matches your learning intention.
  4. Assessment. Select a post-assessment activity you may find useful.
  5. Reflect and Share. Select a Reflection Activity.

You may be familiar with Where’s Waldo series of books. You’re trying to find Waldo in a variety of fun settings. That’s one way of looking at the Amazing Lesson Design Outline (ALDO). Within the five-part outline, the lesson design blends in and offers resources for the following:

  • Positive teacher-student relationships. This part of the outline takes brain-based learning and social-emotional learning into account.
  • Evidence-based strategies. For example, high-effect size strategies detailed in the VisibleLearning MetaX database)
  • Digital tools. There is a vast array of digital tools available today. How can you pick the right one and use it to augment the effect of a paired instructional strategy?
  • Assessment. How can you assess students and then provide quality feedback about where students are?

ALDO integrates research from several key authors. As a result, educators have shared it a zillion times on social media. What ALDO is missing, though, is a connection to EduProtocols.

What Are EduProtocols?

Having read the first two books by Marlena Hebern and Jon Corippo, I found myself marveling at their work. EduProtocols makes blending research-based strategies and digital tools fun and exciting.

“EduProtocols are instructional lesson frames. They are designed to engage students in learning through critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. EduProtocols can be used with any subject, any grade level.”

What’s amazing is that EduProtocols have been out there since 2018. But there are still folks who may be unfamiliar with them. This means that there are tons of great EduProtocols resources out there for you to explore.

I love the use of the word “workflow” in the EduProtocols Field Guide #1. In it, the authors describe protocols as:

“workflows which can be repeated with changing content…[they] stabilize workflow for the teacher. The protocol shifts the main workflow from teacher-to-student to student-to-student.”

Resources for Exploring EduProtocols

Trust me, you can go down a rabbit hole exploring EduProtocols. Keep the idea of EduProtocols as “workflows” in mind.

Image Source: Jon Corippo’s Wakelet

For now, here are a few links that will start you on your journey:

Where Do EduProtocols and ALDO Connect?

My big question has been, “How would EduProtocols fit into the Amazing Lesson Design Outline (ALDO)?” I suspect that question popped into my head for a simple reason. My brain is trying to make sense of where EduProtocols fit into my schema, or my theory of how things work together.

Since EduProtocols are workflows, it seemed pretty obvious to include them in ALDO. ALDO is awesome because it combines three elements: 1.) instructional strategies, 2.) digital tools, and 3.) FUN.

Here, you can see section one, “Relationships First,” within the WALDO outline. It contains a plethora of linked activities and resources to choose from.

In ALDO, you can match phases of learning, instructional strategies, and digital tools and now includes EduProtocols for each phase and strategy, Here is the chart providing suggestions and resources under DIGITAL TOOLS: SUGGESTIONS in the ALDO.

There’s a lot to plug in, discover, and explore with ALDO! But designing lessons with strategies, workflows, and digital tools in mind helps me to see how EduProtocols fit into existing evidence-based instructional approaches. I hope that it does the same for you.

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science lesson
Educational ResearchScience

Interactive Science: How to Design Research-based Science Lessons

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Recently, a school district administrator emailed me and asked, “If you were going to blend strategies that work into a science lesson, how would you do it?” That question really piqued my interest. Mixing instructional strategies that are proven to work with best practices in science teaching and learning sounds like a win/win. After much thinking, here’s how I would accomplish this, based on the research.

Step #1: Set Goals for the Science Lesson

Dr. John Almarode, who wrote Visible Learning for Science, suggests setting the following goals for science lessons. The goals are straightforward and represent a wonderful response to the question asked.

  • Get students interested in lifelong learning and science that works.
  • Give students more control over their own learning.
  • Build in ways to assess students to discover where they are, and then match strategies to what they need to learn.

The first goal is practical and makes learning relevant to the learner. The second ties into John Hattie’s strong belief in the need for students to be self-regulated learners, individuals who must have agency and ownership over their learning and are able to track their progress. In tracking their own growth towards learning targets, they can make decisions, which gives them voice and choice.

Step #2: Pre-Assess Student Learning

When determining what students already know about a topic or skill, you have to ask, “How do we pre-assess students where they are at?” This leads to the question, “What are some formative assessments we could use?” These assessments provide insights into where students may fall on the SOLO Taxonomy. SOLO stands for “Structure of Observed Learning Outcome.” This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned SOLO, as have many others.

Let’s revisit what SOLO Taxonomy offers:

SOLO illustrates the qualitative differences. It indicates the differences between student responses and their levels of understanding. It classifies outcomes, relying on complexity and understanding.

SOLO does this so that you can make a judgement on the quality of student responses to assessment tasks. It relies on five levels of understanding:

Prestructural: at this level the learner is missing the point

Unistructural: a response based on a single point.

Multistructural: a response with multiple unrelated points.

Relational: points presented in a logically related answer.

Extended abstract: demonstrating an abstract and deep understanding through unexpected extension.

This FutureLearn chart clarifies the levels:

science lesson

The Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) taxonomy (Adapted from Biggs & Tang, 2011) as cited in source

The main benefit of the SOLO Taxonomy is that it gives you, as the teacher, a set of specific terms (e.g., Unistructural, Multistructural, Relational) that can describe a student’s level of understanding. This level of understanding pinpoints what strategies may work best for them as they more through the learning process.

For students who are unistructural, they are in the surface phase of learning. This means that you might rely on those types of strategies, which could include vocabulary programs, direct instruction, and/or flipped classroom.

For learners who are relational, in the deep learning phase, different strategies work best. These may include concept mapping, metacognition, and reflection.

Knowing where a child falls on the taxonomy helps identify their level of understanding. It also assists you in knowing what to do next and to set success criteria.

What Is Success Criteria?

This phrase involves students knowing and understanding the answer to a simple question. That is, “How will I know I have learned it?” It is sometimes expressed as a statement, “I’ll know I’ve got it if….” You may want to revisit COLOSO in this blog entry.

Step #3: Build Learning into the Science Lesson

Ready to start on lesson design? Let’s take a look at the process Dr. John Almarode elaborates on. I’ve included a few resources for each area. What would you add?

“Science education needs a mix of demonstrations, labs, and experiments. It also needs reading, writing, and discussing with other scientists,” says Almarode. To that end, the lesson process he describes looks like this:

a) Paired Demonstration and Writing Down Observations

  • Demonstration
  • Encourage students to write about what they observed

b) Clarifying Terms and Vocabulary

  • Discussion about vocabulary terms
  • Have students revise their writing using correct terms

c) Wrap-Up

  • Final wrap-up

One key point that jumped out at me?

Every lesson (surface, deep, transfer) needs to have a clearly articulated learning intention. That learning intention must connect to success criteria. Remember, that is “What am I learning?” (learning intention) and “How will I know I have learned it?” (success criteria).

That’s quite a jump. To help the process make more sense, I put this diagram together that captures my understanding. Don’t be afraid to share your version.

Get a copy of this image via Google Slides or via Diagrams.net (requires you to authorize Diagrams.net in Google Drive account).

As you can see from this diagram, there’s a lot going on. To complicate matters, I’ve included some additional tools and strategy suggestions. How would you approach lesson design in your classroom with these three steps?

Matching Process to Resources

To provide some support, please find some relevant resources organized by the step in the process. I’ve organized them into a meta-collection in Wakelet. Explore and have fun.

science lesson design
Access this Wakelet Meta-Collections online at https://tinyurl.com/stwscience

Feature Image Source

Photo by author.

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high-effect-size
Good Teaching

High-Effect-Size Instructional Strategies and Digital Tools

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Did you see School Library Journals blog entry from February 11, 2020? Titled, 18 Tech Tools for Content Creation, Coding, VR, Audio, and Video, it offers a list of digital tools. While this is, no doubt, a fantastic list, it may send the message that all we’re doing in ed tech is gathering tools. Imagine that neighbor, who when you walk into their garage, has every tool imaginable. Each is shiny, pretty, and seldom used. That sends a message, right?

The message is that collecting digital tools, a dime a dozen now, is our sole purpose in educational technology. We all have digital tools in search of instructional activities. The question is, How could we do this better?

high-effect-size

Did You Know?

Only one of the SLJ’s tools, Microsoft Immersive Reader, has earned a research-based design product certification. The certification is new from ISTE’s EdSurge’s Digital Promise program. How are the digital tools you select for use in the classroom aligned to research?

Lesson Construction

Ready to drop a few digital tools and apps into your lesson and spice things up a bit? Before you do, however, consider whether “sprinkling” tools into popular lessons will actually add value to the learning or distract from our ultimate goal.

How Can You Tell If Digital Tools Add Value?

Does the technology we add to a lesson add value or subtract from it?  One way to focus curriculum and instruction teams as they are planning lessons is to ask some questions:

  1. Are the lesson plan components reflecting high-effect-size (HES)  instructional strategies?
  2. Are you focused on activities that are cool or evidence-based strategies that work?
  3. Do all lesson plans incorporate the teacher clarity goals strategy? How are those communicated to students?
  4. Which specific digital tool is proven to work best with a specific HES instructional strategy?

In my Coaching for Results series, I explore how to better answer these questions using high-effect-size instructional strategies.

Lesson Plan Components

Need an example? Let’s take a look at what is typically found in a lesson plan:

  • Grade
  • Subject
  • Topic
  • Description
  • TEKS
  • Technology TEKS
  • 4Cs
  • Resources (linked in G Suite EDU Drive document)
  • Device Type (e.g. Laptop, Chromebook)
  • Suggested Apps

As you can see from the list, there’s something missing, right? Let’s explore this in the context of a web-based lesson plan example.

high-effect-size

Sample Lesson Plan

Grade Level: 3rd grade

Subject: Language Arts

Topic: Understanding and Analyzing Text

Description: Students will use Google Drawing to create a book snap. Teachers can ask students various questions or use analysis tools in the snap. iPad users can use Book Creator or the simple drawing tool on iPad. They will do that after taking a picture of their book selection.

LA TEK: Figure 19: (A)  establish purposes for reading selected texts based upon own or others’ desired outcome to enhance comprehension; (B)  ask literal, interpretive, and evaluative questions of text; (C)  monitor and adjust comprehension (e.g., using background knowledge, creating sensory images, re-reading a portion aloud, generating questions); (D)  make inferences about text and use textual evidence to support understanding; (E)  summarize information  in text, maintaining meaning and logical order; (F)  make connections (e.g. thematic links, author analysis) between literary and informational texts with similar ideas and provide textual evidence

Technology TEK: (1)Creativity and innovation (A)  create original products using a variety of resources; (B)  analyze trends and forecast possibilities, developing steps for the creation of an innovative process or product; and (C)  use virtual environments to explore systems and issues. (2) Communication and collaboration (A)  draft, edit, and publish products in different media individually and collaboratively; (B)  use font attributes, color, white space, and graphics to ensure that products are appropriate for multiple communication media, including monitor display, web, and print; (C)  collaborate effectively through personal learning communities and social environments; (D)  select and use appropriate collaboration tools; (E)  evaluate the product for relevance to the assignment or task; and (F)  perform basic software application functions, including opening applications and creating, modifying, printing, and saving files.

4Cs: Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Creativity

Resources: How to make booksnaps,  Book Creator

Device Type: Laptop, Chromebook, IPAD

Let’s review this lesson in light of the questions asked earlier.

Focus on High-Effect-Size Instructional Strategies

1. Are the lesson plan components reflecting high-effect-size instructional strategies?

In the example, there is no high-effect-size instructional strategy recommended or evident. The purpose of the LA TEKS reference is to enhance comprehension. The suggested activity is a book snap. A book snap allows for a digital representation of text excerpted from a book or text. In other words, it is a way for students to summarize (0.74 effect size) a book. Visible Learning Meta X defines summarizing as relevant to reading comprehension.

Summarization can include any of the following behaviors:

  • Deleting unnecessary material
  • Getting rid of material that is repetitive
  • Substituting a subordinate term for a list of items or actions
  • Selecting a topic sentence
  • Constructing a topic if one is only suggested by the text

In a book snap, you focus on selecting sentences, then you bring the characters alive or share an opinion. Depending on the type of book snap, you can also engage in metacognition (0.58 effect size):

Meta-cognition is thinking about thinking. It includes methods used to help students understand the way they learn.

As you can see, having students make a book snap with Google Drawings implies a lot. But we miss the boat if we don’t address the high-effect-size strategy. Worse, this TA:TEKS connection could be more specific. Reference the TA:TEKS connection, but list the specific actions. That is, inserting images, cropping, using digital camera, font choice, and selecting text.

How could we change the description of this lesson? Change it in a way that better reflects the high-effect size instructional strategies.

A video tutorial of how to create a book snap:

Are you focused on activities that are cool or evidence-based strategies that work?

“Book snaps are cool because they are a way to express creativity through a book. You can share how you think about a character or part of a story,” says one student in this video. (That’s a great video to watch to learn how to make book snaps, by the way.)

How long does it take to make a book snap? Would the Reciprocal Teaching (0.84) strategy work better than summarization with book snaps? If yes, why not use that approach, even if there is no technology involved?

Teacher Clarity and Digital Tools

Do all lesson plans incorporate the teacher clarity goals strategy? How are those communicated to students?

How would you craft the Teacher Clarity learning outcomes? One way is shown below:

  • Today we will select sentences that best summarize a key concept in the text
  • So we can learn to identify important parts of the text and get rid of parts that are extra or repetitive
  • We will know we have it when we are able to briefly explain a text in a few sentences.

You may need to ask whether this lesson is surface, deep, or transfer learning oriented. Summarization and metacognition are surface learning. When you’re putting together a lesson, how could you specify the learning goal? That is, the intended goal of surface, deep, and/or transfer learning?

Which specific digital tool is proven to work best with a HES instructional strategy?

Although the HES instructional strategy is absent, the digital tool is Google Drawing. Google Slides would also work. There are many digital tools possible, but focusing on one is best practice.

The message isn’t to avoid book snaps. It’s to be intentional and up front about strategies that work. That is, explain which high-effect-size instructional strategy you are using and how that digital tool fits in. Otherwise, you may fall into the trap of chasing activities that are fun, cool, and use technology for technology’s sake. Avoid quoting entire swaths of TEKS and TA:TEKS. Instead, explain in brief what you are teaching and students are learning.

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