Dialog to Action (D2A)

Conversations are core. Essential. Crucial.

Conversations are active reflection of what we do and allow us to figure out how we are going to do THAT better.

Conversations are the foundation to taking action – action that leads to better lessons, better technology integration, better student engagement and better classroom connections to our world.

Simple logic tells us, then, that creating opportunities for dialog is a key step in improving our desired outcomes. The trick is getting people there, piquing their curiosity and getting them to follow through with action in their classrooms. Triggered by a ‘Tuning Protocol Process‘ activity (PPT) (Video) from years back, a common (but flexible) structure for dialog can have a tremendous impact on reflection and promote action to follow. Here are the unrefined steps that are floating around in my head (slightly formalized thanks to visiting a local high school dialog session):

The Rules:

1. Stick to a specific content area to help promote thinking within the group
2. Keep it small – 4 to 8 people
3. Keep it short (team time, 45 minutes, something reasonable)
4. Plan ahead, starting with the lesson/product first. Back track to find resources and content that relates to the lesson you finish with. (mind you I did NOT follow this rule for the Science example below)
5. Repeat at least three times with a group across the year.

The D2A process:

1. Pique group interest: Grab a recent content related resources that will grab the groups attention. Give them some time to discuss is, desconstruct it and/or talk about the positives and negatives.
2. Focus the group: Connect the engaging activity directly to content or objectives that the group is currently working on.
3. Engage the group in focused, instructional dialog: This is where the rubber meets the road. Pull up a lesson, activity or classroom process that relates to the group. This could be a lesson previously taught, one from another campus (to reduce anxiety) or one from a database. Locally created is better. One with potential for improvement is great. A lesson that matches the current (or soon to be taught) objectives is awesome. Take the group through this discussion:
   1. Understand the lesson – what is it all about, how do you think it was taught?
   2. Identify strengths and weaknesses (warm/cool feedback) – do the products/teaching match the original objectives?
   3. Generate ideas for improving it, changing it and incorporating thoughts from the group’s #1 and #2 dialog
   4. Plan for implementing it – even if it is one person in the group that then shares how it went the following week

Science Team D2A Example:

1. (PIQUE) Setup a Poll (polleverywhere.com) to get answers to the question: ‘Why is/should Science be a required subject?’
   1. Watch TED Video: Jonathan Drori – What We Think We Know (pause for reflection on misconceptions during the video (where does stuff come from to make a tree – from the air not the ground) and engage in team dialog)
   2. Share #scichat as a resource for continuing personal learning on Twitter
   3. Come back to poll results – Display results (maybe you got some additional responses from your Twitter network before the D2A session… Why science? Develop common purpose for the dialog.
2. (FOCUS) Pull up the Data as Art post. Discuss how visualizing data can help us get past misconceptions and get to the true core of teaching Science. How do we typically deal with data in our Science classrooms?
3. (ENGAGE) Using the Climate Lesson described in a previous post, begin discussion around the original lesson. Go through the 4 step dialog process mentioned, including discussion around graphing data (and what other options are out there) and how the lesson can be improved. Get at least one group member to commit to implementing the lesson and reporting back (even over email) on how it went.

This is really just a rough example of the process in action. It would look different for different groups on different campuses. It may take 30 minutes or it may take an hour. I guess this could even be a model for talking 1-on-1 with teachers (where steps #1 and #2 happen electronically first).

We must find ways to help enact reflective change in our local environments. Talking about ideas is great. Learning new things on our massive personal learning network is wonderful. It seems to me that if we take the D2A process and ‘wash, rinse & repeat’ across different content areas on our campuses, we will help enact that change one small-group at a time.

Thanks to E. Plybon for sharing her Science dialog session at her campus. Meshing ideas together only comes from those that thought of it before us.