Teach Better - Work Less - Achieve More: Summer EduProtocol Workshops

This summer's professional learning offerings include THREE opportunities to learn about EduProtocols. Many of you have already attended the original workshop that features some of the most popular protocols for any grade level and subject area. If you are new to EduProtocols and have not yet attended the workshop, this is a good place to start your EduProtocols journey. If you already attended the original workshop, there are two new ones to help you expand your repertoire. Regardless of your experience, each of the workshops offers an opportunity to experience EduProtocols from the point of view of a student. All of the templates will be shared so you can plug in your own content links and fine tune the slide decks to suit your classroom needs. 

EduProtocols 1: Teach Better - Work Less - Achieve More

Tuesday, July 18, 8:30 - 11:30, WGHS LGI

Audience: K-12 teachers who have not yet attended the original EduProtocols workshop and are interested in using some of the BEST introductory EduProtocol strategies for low-prep/high-impact teaching and learning.

• Frayer a Friend We'll start things off with an icebreaker using the Frayer vocabulary template
• Fast and Curious: World Languages vocabulary will be the context for a fast paced game using Quizizz. Through repetition, we will shoot for mastery in minutes!
• Thin Slides: We will use the same World Languages vocabulary and will represent each word with one image and one word to create a visual representation of your understanding of a topic
• Cyber Sandwich: In this digital think-pair-share, you will work with a partner to learn about some local history.
• Sketch and Tell: We will use one of Marzano's high yield strategies (non-linguistic representation of a topic with a written explanation) to demonstrate your learning of the local history topic
• Iron Chef: Who doesn't love the '80s?! We will use a digital jigsaw activity to learn about some of the most prolific music acts of the 1980s. 
• Great American Race: If time permits, we will use the same '80s bands as a context for an engaging "Who Am I?" game. 

EduProtocols 2: The Catalina Lesson Mixer

Wednesday, July 19, 8:30 - 11:30, WGHS LGI

Audience: All K-12 teachers are welcome to attend, even if they haven't attended the original EduProtocols workshop. Teachers in grades 3-12 might get the most out of the EduProtocols that are featured in this workshop. Secondary Humanities Teachers, especially Social Studies Teachers--you won't want to miss this one!

• Thick Slides: Think of Thick Slides as a research template. In this activity, we will explore some local history 
• Number Mania: In the context of the same local history topic, we will crowd-source some data to help you quickly create an infographic to demonstrate what you have learned
• ParaFLY: In this activity, we will work on paraphrasing a source and will demonstrate how to give formative feedback in real time.
• Retell in Rhyme: In this paraphrasing activity, you'll be tasked with creating a series of rhyming couplets  to synthesize the main idea of a given topic
• Primary Source p*ARTS: Social Studies teachers won't want to miss this one. We will adapt the 8 p*ARTS template (8 parts of speech) and apply it to primary source analysis. As an added bonus, we will complete this activity in the spirit of an Iron Chef.  
• Archetype Four Square: Using historical figures from the Primary Source p*ARTS activity, we will use the Frayer model to describe historical figures through the lens of the archetypes they represent.  
• Game of Quotes: This will be a fun way to do a close read of a complex text 
• Word Up: We will reflect on the workshop using the Word Up protocol to represent how we are feeling through gifs, memes, and images.  

EduProtocols 3: Prestige Worldwide

Wednesday, July 20, 8:30 - 11:30, WGHS LGI

Audience: All K-12 teachers are welcome to attend, even if they haven't attended the original EduProtocols workshop. Teachers in grades K-6 as well as those who teach literacy and math might get the most out of the EduProtocols that are featured in this workshop.

• Frayer - Fast & Curious - Repuzzler: Using the 3rd Grade CKLA unit on The Frog Prince, we will use a series of engaging EduProtocols to help with mastering vocabulary.
• Game of Quotes: Using The Frog Prince as context, we will do a close read of the text to find some quotes that match some engaging prompts.  
• 8 p*ARTS: Using a whacky picture as a stimulus, we will describe what is happening in the picture in terms of the eight parts of speech.  
• Random Emoji Power Paragraph: This writing activity is beloved by students. Using a random emoji spinner, we will practice writing a 5-sentence paragraph that can be shared and assessed in real time.  
• Math Reps: Starting with a "number of the day", you will demonstrate your mastery of "number sense" skills. 
• 3-Act Math: You will enhance your mathematical problem-solving skills as you view a video, make a prediction and adjust your thinking as more information is revealed
• The Chatterbox: This EduProtocol is based on the classic TV gameshow, Password. You will work in teams to discuss math vocabulary.
• Convince Me That: In this EduProtocol, you will be given the correct answer to a math problem and will explain WHY that's the correct answer.
• Word Up: We will reflect on the workshop using the Word Up protocol to represent how we are feeling through gifs, memes, and images.  

Check out our Summer Professional Learning website for registration link to ALL of our summer workshops. 

Teach Better -Achieve More - Work Less: 3xCER and 3XGenre Challenges

The 3xCER Challenge is a great way to introduce students to a writing strategy that can develop analytical thinking and argumentative writing skills. Modifications can easily be made to turn this EduProtocol into the 3xGenre Challenge in which students write in response to a stimulus using Narrative, Informational, and Persuasive writing genres.

The Gist
Students need to be able to make a claim, state and cite evidence from a variety of sources, and then communicate their reasoning by connecting the claim and the evidence.

The Flow
Students make a claim, research with at least three data points, explain evidence, and persuade/reason by linking claim and evidence.

Academic Goals

• Students cite specific evidence when offering an oral or written interpretation of a text.
• Students use relevant evidence when supporting their own points in writing and speaking, making their reasoning clear to the reader or listener.
• Students draw upon and write about evidence from literary and informational texts.

Teacher Prep

Step 1: Introduce the topic for the claim students will make/persuade

Step 2: Adjust slide template for specific goals

Instructions

Step 1: Provide students with a question, inquiry, phenomena

Step 2: Student formulate a claim

Step 3: Students research with at least 3 data points. Teacher may need to scaffold and provide direction here.

Step 4: Students identify evidence that supports claim.

Step 5: Student explains each piece of evidence

Step 6: Student writes to persuade by linking the claim and evidence.

Adaptations

3xGenre Challenge

This adaptation is meant to help students become better writers by providing them with an opportunity to write a paragraph about a topic using three different writing genres: Narrative, Informational, and Persuasive. Share a video and task students with writing a paragraph using each of the three genres.

See the slidedeck below for instructions, templates, and examples and feel free to make a copy!

Teach Better - Work Less - Achieve More: Group Brainstorm EduProtocol

Four students work side by side (or across the room) to generate ideas. Students will inevitably read the ideas of their peers and think of even more fantastic spinoff ideas! In this EduProtocol, all students will find a safe space to generate free-flowing ideas.

Academic Goals

• Allow students to "play" off ideas while allowing all students to contribute at the same time.
• Allow weaker students, especially English-language learners, students with special needs, and shy students to have a scaffolded experience through the support of their peers.
• Generate many ideas quickly.

Teacher Big Ideas

• Use a quiet brainstorm session, which allows all students to participate equally.
• Create an environment where all ideas are accepted and considered.
• Support all learners.

Prepare for the Activity

Step 1: Prepare a slide that provides space for four students to collaborate.

Step 2: Share it with groups of four students.

Instructions

Step 1: Define a brainstorming subject.
Step 2: Set a timer.
Step 3: Allow students to silently brainstorm for the allotted time.
Step 4: Students comment on each other's items without discussing aloud.

Variation

Use the brainstorming activity with partners, using two boxes on a page instead of four.

Adapting for Littles

• Allow just enough time for littles, who are slower writers than their older counterparts.
• Use voice-to-text feature if available in your word processing program. Set to fourteen- or sixteen-point font so littles can begin to read the generated text.

Check out the slide deck below and feel free to make a copy of the template, including step-by-step directions for this EduProtocol.

Teach Better - Work Less - Achieve More: The Scoop EduProtocol

In The Scoop EduProtocol, students listen to a passage explaining a process or concept and then retell that process to a partner.

Academic Goals

To listen and retell nonfiction content
To provide feedback to a peer
To speak fluently and clearly

Teacher Big Ideas

• All students need practice retelling what they have learned.
• Retelling uses different modalities than just listening.
• Teach students to listen to directions and instruction the first time.

Prepare for the Activity

Step 1: Find an audio passage, video clip, or an excerpt that can be read aloud. Look for course-related content or content from another area. YouTube clips of science concepts work well. Keep the passage to one minute. Short is better than long. Listenwise is another outstanding resource for non-fiction audio content (no need for student accounts--teachers can log in with Google and share links to audio files. Once logged in, click the Lessons and select Search to locate free content).

Instructions

Step 1: Play the passage while students listen.

Step 2: Students retell the passage to a partner while using Screencastify or Flipgrid to record (If these programs are not available, have students focus on retelling to a partner).

Step 3: Listen to the passage again and allow students to self-evaluate.


Key Points to Remember

• This is an oral activity.
• Keep the passage to one minute.
• Resist the temptation to find easy content or below-grade-level content--if anything, you should step it up!
• Scaffold by slowing the YouTube video speed to begin with until students develop listening fluency.

Adapting for Littles

• When adapting for this activity for littles, use a more straightforward passage that is grade appropriate in content, length, and speed.
• Slow the video with reduced speed (an option in YouTube).
• Remember the listen-retell-listen method to allow students to self-evaluate for missing parts.

Check out the slide deck below and feel free to make a copy of the directions for this EduProtocol.

Teach Better - Work Less - Achieve More: Booka Kucha EduProtocol

The Booka Kucha EduProtocol offers a spin on the traditional book report. The name for this EduProtocol pays homage to a Japanese presentation format called Pecha Kucha: 

The PechaKucha 20x20 presentation format is a slide show of 20 images, each auto-advancing after 20 seconds. It’s non-stop and you've got 400 seconds to tell your story, with visuals guiding the way. PechaKucha was created in Japan in 2003 by renowned architects, Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham. The word “PechaKucha” is Japanese for “chit chat.”

Ideally, in a class of thirty, each student will be reading a book of their choice at any given time, but it can be difficult to hold thirty different students in thirty different books accountable for reading. This activity is designed so that each student develops their own book report at the same time as their classmates, regardless of the page number the student is reading. Everybody pauses the reading at the same time, develops four slides based on where they are in the book at that moment, and presents three of the slides within a one-minute snapshot (three slides at twenty seconds each). This allows the teacher to grade everyone in about one period and encourages a culture of reading the the classroom. Done regularly (weekly, bi-weekly), the Booka Kucha provides a format to easily document student reading progress while helping students to analyze their own reading at a deeper level.

For this activity, the teacher chooses a theme for the BookaKucha book reports; for example, each student creates a report-style (thick slide) slide deck based on...

• Three different settings in the book
• Or three different characters
• Or three important events
• Or three conflicts within the book

Any literature theme such as character analysis, morals of the story, plot, or setting will work well for this protocol. Remember to choose just one of these themes at a time.

Example: Using Wonder, by RJ Palacio, a student will identify three conflicts within the book:

• Slide 1: Title Slide--Name of the book, author, illustrator, student's name, and number of the last page read
• Slide 2: Conflict One--man (Auggie) against himself (a facial deformity)
• Slide 3: Conflict Two--man (Auggie) against the world
• Slide 4: Conflict Three--man (Auggie) against man (Julian, antagonist)

Each slide would explain the lead-up and details of the conflict. Students would present slides two through four to the class in a quick, one-minute presentation. The presentations are intended to be a snapshot of the reading and the thinking behind the development of the slides.

Academic Goals

• Foster interest in peer-reviewed books and a class culture of reading.
• Practice presenting in a concise and systematic manner.
• Include weekly or bi-weekly comprehension reflections.

Teacher Big Ideas

• Booka Kucha brings a component of both book talks and lit circles to book reports.
• Finding one conflict or element in a book is easy; identifying two or more is the challenge!
• Presentations are easy to grade and manage in real-time.
• Fast presentations: A one-minute (three slides at twenty seconds each) presentation per student should take about a forty-minute class period, or less, for the entire class to present and be graded.
• ALL students complete a BookaKucha once weekly or bi-monthly to develop fluency and to ensure exploration of a wide variety of book themes.

Prepare for the Activity

Step 1: Choose a theme for this round's BookaKucha. Below are some suggestions for three-slide presentations:

• three characters
• three lessons learned
• three wishes the characters would make and why
• three settings in detail and why the setting is important to the story
• three conflicts from the following themes:
• man vs. nature
• man vs. society
• man vs. self
• man vs. man
• man vs. reality
• man vs. god

Step 2: Develop a blank template for students indicating what kind of information will be included on the slide.

Instructions

Step 1: Students create their presentations using this format:

• Slide 1: Student name, current page number, and bibliography-type citation that includes the name of book, author, and other relevant citation information
• Slide 2: One image and description
• Slide 3: One image and description
• Slide 4: One image and description

Step 2: Student build their slides. Students will include quotes and text evidence to support their claim and cite the page number as a reference.

Step 3: Students present only slides two, three, and four, with each slide automatically advancing after twenty seconds (three slides at twenty seconds each equals a one-minute presentation).

Step 4: Grade presentation in real time using a rubric and provide immediate feedback to student (i.e. one "I wonder" and two "Hallelujah" statements to frame feedback providing one growth point and two positive praises for the student.

Tip: When a student presents a slide in five seconds, don't forward to the next slide. Wait the full twenty seconds so that the students will eventually learn the timing of twenty-second intervals. Eventually, we want the student fo fill the time allotted.

Variations

• Allow two to three students reading the same book to develop a shared BookaKucha.
• Make choosing the literary device a fun event. Let a student draw it from a hat or spin a spinner to determine the theme of the week.
• The following week, students add to their existing slide deck rather than begin a new one. Rotate by month, quarter, or by the book so that one book is in one slide deck.

Key Points to Remember

• Introduce BookaKucha slowly (i.e. one to two slides from a shared book until kids understand the protocol.
• Pause the reading to allow students time to think about their reading.
• This activity is a snapshot over time; snapshots reflect growth.
• To record growth, consider archiving randomly selected weeks in student portfolios for comparison over the course of the year.
• The template may be built by the teacher to guide the students, but let the students to the work of building content.
• Older students may do well with an outline instead of a template.
• Remember that the first attempts will be lacking but will improve over the following weeks.

Adapting for Littles

• Shorten the slide deck. One slide with an image, and a short "sharing" of the book is enough.
• Provide a few images at the beginning for students to choose from. The image does not need to match the book; for example, using an image of Marc Brown's Arthur character is not necessary. Encourage children to look for an image that represents the book's big ideas.
• Be flexible on the time and don't advance the slides too abruptly. The goal for younger students is standing up in front of a screen and talking while facing the audience. Using paper notes with one or two key points is acceptable.
• Immediate feedback is imperative for student growth.

BookaKucha Bingo Remix

In this protocol, students choose their own prompt for their book by using a bingo board. This way, they are provided choice while working through a variety of comprehension activities.

Instructions

Provide a bingo board for each student to track progress. Be sure you spend time teaching the different responses before asking students to work independently on prompts. The bingo board may have as few as three items repeated three times, or it may be more complicated, like the one on the slide below.

Adapting for Littles

Littles can tackle the bingo board as well. Make sure they fully understand how to do each of the responses you choose to include on the bingo card and then slowly introduce auditions to the board as the class is exposed to and masters each prompt. Even two items repeated several times on a bingo board is fun for littles. Or try a class bingo board and work through it as a whole team!

See the slide deck below for detailed instructions and feel free to make a copy of the template.

Teach Better - Work Less - Achieve More: Game of Quotes EduProtocol

This EduProtocol is unique in that it is an adaptation of the game BYOB (Bring Your Own Book) by Gamewright. Heather Marshall, an ELA, History, and Media Studies teacher, adapted this game for use in her classroom to encourage reading. The basic idea of this game is that a prompt is chosen, such as "a phrase that could inspire revolt" or "a sentence in a fortune cookie", and students search their book for the best response.

Academic Goals

• To get kids excited about reading and connect to the text
• To find textual evidence quickly
• To improve recall or read material

Teacher Big Ideas

• Move beyond surface-level questions by tying in literary devices and themes from class studies.
• Reinforce at-home reading.
• Silent reading alone has little instructional value, so balance appropriately within your overall curriculum.

Prepare for the Activity
Create a slide deck with prompts for the questions. Use the BYOB game for prompt ideas or download some from the bringyourownbook.com website. Feel free to use the prompts listed below in this slide deck.

Instructions

1. Students read quietly for eight to ten minutes.
2. After eight to ten minutes of reading, reveal the prompt for round one.
3. The students flip through the pages of their books looking for a good response to the prompt. Once a students says, "Got it!" the rest of the class has two minutes to lock in their answer.
4. Students share their responses in table groups and vote on a winner. The table group winners share their answers one-by-one. It's ok not to vote on a winner or to allow students to share the best response from each table group.

Key Points to Remember
Have fun but go deeper into standards and themes for the prompts.
Finding prompts in their books will reinforce curricular goals.
Students will want to flag potential quotes. Say, "Yes!"

ELL Tips
ELL students will struggle with the complex vocabulary in nonfiction. Consider adding scaffolds such as Listenwise stories on the same topic, or use picture books that cover the same content. More advanced ELL students will be able to use Rewordify.com to better understand unfamiliar vocabulary words.

Adaptations
Use this scavenger hunt concept in math, history, or other content areas. Create your own cards related to your subject area.

Adapting for AP
This game can also be adapted to help students practice and improve their historical thinking skills. Try using the College Board definitions of the nine historical thinking skills:

• Analyzing evidence: content and sourcing
• Interpretation
• Comparison
• Contextualization
• Synthesis
• Causation
• Patterns of continuity and change over time
• Periodization
• Argumentation

For advanced players of Game of Quotes, consider having students group their quotes into the four categories articulated by the College Board:

• Analyzing historical sources and evidence
• Making historical connections
• Chronological reasoning
• Creating and supporting an historical argument

Every AP exam question assesses one or more of these nine historical thinking skills and four thematic approaches. Being able to help students meet proficiency expectations dramatically helps their performance on the end-of-course exam.

Adapting for Littles
Keep prompts child-friendly so students can relate to them. Also use prompts from the content so the quotes they find support the main ideas and goals of instruction. There's no need to choose winners; you can set it up so everyone wins! Try having the whole class read the same book so the same quotes are accessible to all learners.

See the slide deck below for detailed instructions and feel free to make a copy of the template, which includes over 100 prompts.

Teach Better - Work Less - Achieve More: Retell in Rhyme EduProtocol

In this protocol, students will use historical details from a text to create rhyming couplets. Writing personal reactions and interpreting texts can increase reading comprehension to support responding to a text. Students who like to rap or who enjoy writing poetry will excel with this protocol!

Academic Goals

• Help students determine the central ideas or information in a primary or secondary source.
• Build student confidence in playing with language, improve creativity, and inspire future poets and songwriters.
• Develop paraphrasing skills. ParaFLY may help students prepare for this protocol in the weeks leading up to its introduction.
• Students practice writing accurate summaries that describe relationships among key historical figures and events.

Teacher Big Ideas
Responding to a text in writing has an effect size of .77 on reading comprehension. Remember, an effect size of .40 is a normal year's worth of growth. So anything above a .40 will positively impact student learning.

Prepare for the Activity
Find a reading that has a natural three-act structure, meaning a beginning, a middle, and an end. The textbook can be a good starting place. You can also find firsthand (primary source) accounts from eyewitnesstohistory.com because they have a wide selection going back to the ancient world.

Instructions

1. Give students the same reading and instruct them to construct an epic poem about the past. The poem should use only this source and contain at least ten rhyming couplets (or twenty lines).
2. Set a realistic timeline, i.,e. 30 minute blocks with student presentations of a few verses at the end of the period.
3. Construct a chart for "grading" purposes and to give students an understanding of where their rhyming skills are compared to others in their class. Consider sharing a Google Sheet with students and allowing them to self-report the number of couplets they have written.

Key Points to Remember

This EduProtocol can be used as a formative assessment. The rhymes your students create will be the main or most important ideas they have pulled from the reading you provided. Do they tell the whole story of this historical event? Students who use insignificant supporting details may need some help in seeing the bigger picture.

ELL Tips
Robert Marzano (2004) has noted that the four disciplines that make up the social studies curriculum contain over 55 percent of a student's academic vocabulary. Using Rewordify.com can help students find synonyms for the difficult words they encounter in social studies instruction. Many students are shocked to discover that their favorite songwriters use rhyming dictionaries and cliché dictionaries to create their magical verses. Let them use the tools the pros use!

Adapting for Middle School
Before beginning a Retell in Rhyme, have students read a section from the text or informative primary source. In the following example, students read a two-page article on colonial regions. Students actively read and wrote down important facts and information in a graphic organizer. The information they collected was framed and focused with a question: "How did geography impact the way of life in colonial regions?" When the timer finished, students worked in groups of two or three to Retell in Rhyme the impact of geography on colonial regions.

Adapting for AP
Historical thinking involves the ability to describe, select, and evaluate evidence about the past from diverse sources (including written documents, works of art, archaeological artifacts, oral traditions, and other primary sources) and draw conclusions about their relevance to different historical issues. Retell in Rhyme helps students conduct an historical analysis of sources by determining which details are the most important and which are simple the easiest to rhyme.


Modifications: History Haiku
A haiku contains three lines; the first and third are five syllables, and the second line is seven syllables. A great way to start off the first five minutes of class is with the History Haiku. As students walk into your classroom, before the bell rings, have a five minute timer running with instructions on the board. Students follow the standard format for writing a haiku to explain what they learned the previous day. This is an awesome, creative way to get your students and class ready for learning.

See the slide deck below for detailed instructions and feel free to make a copy of the template.

Teach Better - Work Less - Achieve More: ParaFLY EduProtocol

In ParaFLY, students use a complex reading task such as a primary source or an informational text to paraphrase. The teacher guides the students one paragraph at a time, having them reword important components of the sentences. Students are challenged to adjust the sentence structure while preserving the meaning of the text. As a bonus, ParaFLY ensures students are grappling with high-level, text-based content in a very complete manner, like what you would want them to accomplish by annotating, but with even higher levels of success and with a high degree of control for the teacher. The ParaFLY protocol is a modified version of the Random Emoji Power Paragraph EduProtocol.

You will need the following:

• Informational text or a primary source that students will paraphrase on the fly.
• A quiz program: We suggest Socrative for this EduProtocol.

Set Up Socrative
Start up a Socrative Short Answer quiz. Socrative Short Answer quizzes literally take 5-10 seconds to set up. You may use the Socrative Short Answer quizzes for all kinds of one sentence, open ended assignments.

Academic Goals

• Paraphrase without relying heavily on the original worlds of the author, demonstrating a true understanding of the text.
• Practice anti-plagiarism skills by altering the original words and structure by providing credit to the original author.

Teacher Big Ideas

• Teach students to use Rewordify.com so that they don't have to do all the heavy lifting. Rewordify.com helps with reading comprehension and vocabulary development by simplifying English to a lower reading level.
• Most Google Books offer the introduction or prologue for free. Ask your students to paraphrase challenging texts that are 5-8 pages in length and have 4-7 important main ideas.

Prepare for the Activity
To prepare for a ParaFLY, create an open-ended question in a quiz program such as Socrative (Socrative allows for a voting feature).

Instructions

1. As always, start with some fun content first, such as the history of hamburgers or tacos. These first rounds of fun practice are key to all students mastering the ParaFLY skill-set.
2. Share one paragraph of a primary source or informational text with students. This is the key to keeping it moving.
3. Launch a one-question, short answer quiz in Socrative. Students will type their answers in Socrative. When students have completed the paraphrasing task, they hit submit. When everyone is done, select Start Vote in Socrative and the students can read everyone's paragraph. It's great for them to immediately admire one another's work. And the teacher can give pointers immediately. The Start Vote option in Socrative is magical because all the students see all the work immediately--no "collecting" or handing in.
4. Monitor student paraphrasing and provide feedback in real time.
5. Repeat for 2-3 more paragraphs, sharing one paragraph at a time. Note: As students gain paraphrasing skills, allow them to add one complete sentence from the text with "as mentioned in the article" or with a parenthetical citation, for example, (Moler, 2021).
6. Have students summarize what they learned today.

Key Points to Remember

• Introduce paraphrasing with fun, less stressful reading.
• Think aloud with students to model the process.
• Only show the part of the document the students are paraphrasing, one paragraph at a time.

ELL Tips
It may be helpful to work through samples together with English language learners so that students can see how we are rearranging existing words and adding new words and synonyms to recreate the meaning in our own words. Use a program such as Socrative so students can see the paraphrasing examples in real time. These examples and timely feedback are essential for ELLs to get the most out of paraphrasing. You can also provide your ELLs a list of vocabulary from the reading, or sentence starters, to help with paraphrasing.

Adapting for AP
Using the ParaFLY EduProtocol makes it easier for teachers to focus on the historical thinking skills of sourcing and situating. Teachers provide excerpts from documents or speeches, and students practice identifying and explaining the source's point of view, purpose, historical context, and/or audience. Teachers can also ask students to explain any limitations to the use of a source.

Modifications: Jigsaw with ParaFLY
Use ParaFLY to facilitate jigsawing through an important speech. Give students sections of the speech, allow them to listen to an audio version of the speech or view the video (if available), or access the transcript and have them paraphrase the author's point of view.

See the slide deck below for detailed instructions and feel free to make a copy.

Teach Better - Work Less - Achieve More: Word Up EduProtocol

The Word Up EduProtocol is a timed team challenge to support vocabulary instruction. Students collaborate to define a given vocabulary word and provide examples of the word using a GIF, Meme, and image. They also provide an historic example and modern example (for social studies classes) and use the word in a sentence. Once the slides are built, students can present from their seats in 15 - 20 seconds each.

Prepare for the Activity

1. Set up a template that includes enough space to include the following for each vocabulary word:

• Vocabulary Word
• Definition
• GIF
• Meme
• Image
• Use in a Sentence
• Historic Example (for Social Studies classes)
• Modern Example (for Social Studies classes)

2. Write the vocabulary words you would like students to learn on index cards. On the other side of the index card, write a number 1-15 (or however many vocabulary words you will be introducing to the students.

Instructions

1. Put students in pairs.
2. Assign one index card to each pair of students.
3. Share the slides so that students can edit the slides.
4. Students will locate their assigned slide (based on the number on their index card) and will spend 7-10 minutes creating their slide.
5. After 10 minutes, the teacher will project the slides and will call on student pairs to present their work. Students will have 15-20 seconds to share their slides.

See the slide deck below for detailed instructions and examples, and feel free to make a copy of the template.

Teach Better - Work Less - Achieve More: The Hero's Journey EduProtocol

In narrative mythology, the "Hero's Journey"is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed--think Achilles and Odysseus among the ancient Greeks; Prince Yamato of Japanese folklore; Hua Mulan, a Chinese heroine; and among our modern mythical heroes, Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins, Princess Diana of Themyscira, aka Wonder Woman, and Peter Parker aka Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman. The purpose of the Hero's Journey EduProtocol is to help students think of their information writing as a story or narrative using Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey format. Students will complete the writing task by developing an idea using a collaborative storyboard in the format of the Hero's Journey.

Academic Goals

• To use story structure to format a narrative to support informational writing
• To build fluency
• To cite evidence and sources in the text
• To plan and develop with a peer

Teacher Big Ideas

• Allow students time to think before writing.
• Go slow to go fast by scaffolding up from the pre-writing activity.
• Many formats can be used for constructing narrative writing, and one is not necessarily better than the other.

This pre-write is in the form of a storyboard (so it will be shorter).

Prepare for the Activity

Prepare a template for a comic strip or allow students to prepare their own. Label the template with the parts of the Hero's Journey and prompts for students.

• Call to Action: Identify the problem.
• Threshold: What is the background of the problem?
• Helper: Who or what is trying to change the course of the problem?
• Abyss: What challenge is the helper facing in his or her quest?
• Transformation: How is the helper trying to change the outcome?
• Return: What might it be like if the helper is successful?

Divide the class into partners who will work together to plan the writing. Then have each student individually write their essay based on the work they completed with their partner.

Tip: Use an identical six-frame chart for students to paste their resource links into for later reference if you have specific sites you want them to use.

Instructions

1. (optional) Consider showing students What Makes a Hero?, a TED-Ed video by Matthew Winkler to help students understand the flow of the Hero's Journey.
2. Provide the template and optional resources to the students.
3. Students create their storyboard using text and images. Note: Images are optional, especially if students are taking too long to find them! They are intended to help students visualize their narrative but are not required. Another Note: The Noun Project is a great place to find black-and-white clip art.
4. Students write their narrative using the images they found to illustrate key points as a guide.
5. Be sure to have students cite sources as they write.

Key Points to Remember

• Don't overdo the prompts.
• The Hero's Journey is a guideline, not a mandate.
• Eliminate unnecessary segments, depending on the topic.
• Keep the storyboard build time very short--it is not the main writing project!

Adapting for Littles

• Simplify and shorten the activity to a beginning, middle, and end. For example, What's the problem? Who solves the problem? How do they solve the problem?
• Preformat images for students to create "libraries" on the side of your slide.
• As student find success, pull back scaffolding.

Hero's Journey Social Studies Edition

Description

The Hero's Journey Protocol is really a concept-sorting activity. A concept sort is a strategy that helps students label, classify, and organize the parts of an historical event into a framework for better understanding. Teachers provide students with a list of people, places, and events from the event. Then, students palace them into different categories and explain their decisions.

Academic Goals

• Improve comparison skills between historical events.
• Boost narrative writing and fluency in historical contexts.
• Elaborate on contextualization.

Teacher Big Ideas

• Comprehensive timelines of an historical event lend themselves especially well to the successful completion of a Hero's Journey Protocol.
• Use simplified readings instead of college-level texts. Instead of using excerpts from the Communist Manifesto or the Long Telegram, try SparkNotes.

Prepare for the Activity

1. Provide students with lists of participants in the historical event, as well as phrases in the event that they might easily associate with steps in the Hero's Journey, i.e. preparing for the invasion, launching the invasion, advancing, retreating, etc.
2. Using a shortened, six-step version of the Hero's Journey may be appropriate when scaffolding for elementary of middle school students, but don't be afraid to give high school students the longer twelve-step framework. It offers twice as many potential connections for your future storytellers.

 

Six-Point Model	Twelve-Point Model
Act I Call to Action Threshold	Act I Ordinary World Call to Adventure Refusal Meeting with the Mentor Crossing the Threshold
Act II Helper  Abyss	Act II Tests, Allies, Enemies Approach to the Inmost Cave Ordeal Reward
Act III Transformation Return	Act III Road Back Resurrection Return with Elixir

Instructions

1. Show students a short YouTube video overview of the Hero's Journey, "What Makes a Hero?" by Matthew Winkler. After watching, practice identifying the stages of the Hero's Journey using commercials of short nonverbal videos from the collection at the Literacy Shed (literacyshed.com), or discuss how the Hero's Journey works in popular films from their childhood (i.e. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, etc.).
2. Provide a template and readings to students.
3. Ask students to map out the selected situations and "characters" on a blank storyboard.
4. Provide ample discussion time so that students can present their explanations and rationale. Give enthusiastic and positive feedback. For example: "Characterizing Rasputin as a test is a very creative interpretation!"

Key Points to Remember

• Don't force the Hero's Journey into every historical situation. It is a framework to practice analyzing narrative, not a mandate to turn everything into a myth that can be assessed with a five-point rubric.
• Don't be afraid to customize elements to make this easier for students. If there isn't a trickster or transformation in a particular historical event, don't include these terms in your materials.
• Focus on the explanations, not the writing. The important part of the Hero's Journey EduProtocol is that students are taking risks by turning their historical knowledge into literary classifications. Reward risk-taking when you see it.

ELL Tips
ELL students may find the six-step Hero's Journey map easier than the more challenging twelve-step journey outlined by Vogler. Remind students that the Hero's Journey is just a more elaborate framework for the three-act story structure (setup, confrontation, resolution). For example, for middle school, consider showing episodes of The Simpsons to review the beginning, middle, and end of stories.

Adapting for AP
Many teachers use AP essential questions to help students prepare for the end-of-course exam. To what extent did the Watergate scandal create a constitutional crisis? To review for this question, ask students to complete a Hero's Journey story map of the Watergate scandal, emphasizing presidential actions that threatened the checks and balances between our branches of government. To complete this, students sort historical figures and events into the Call to Action, Threshold, Helper, Abyss, Transformation, and Return situational steps in the chart. There are not any right or wrong arguments; the goal is to have student practice explaining why they labeled a person as a certain archetype or identified them as enmeshed in a certain situation.

Modifications: As a Summative Assessment

Think of the Hero's Journey EduProtocol as a creative formative or summative assessment. When used before a unit, the concept sort helps the teacher understand what students already know about the content. When used after a unit, teachers can assess their students' understanding of the concepts presented. Conceptual change programs that challenge students to elaborate on concept development by explaining examples and non-examples have a .99 effect size, according to Hattie. Thus, teachers who use the Hero's Journey EduProtocol consistently can expect to see more than two years of academic growth with their students!

See the slide deck below for detailed instructions and examples, and feel free to make a copy of the template.

Teach Better - Work Less - Achieve More: Archetype Four Square EduProtocol

As a social studies teacher, the Archetype Four Square EduProtocol would be a great resource to help students learn about some of the most note-worthy individuals across time and space. World history is full of archetypal characters and situations. Consider revolutions: English, American, French, Haitian, Latin American, Mexican, Russian, African, not to mention more modern historical kerfuffles like the Cuban Missile Crisis, Watergate, and more. You don't have to have a doctorate in Jungian psychology to identify historical figures with personalities that have been prevalent since the dawn of time. If you students need help connecting people from the past to the people of today, this is the protocol for you! The Archetype Four Square protocol helps students apply what they have learned from a unit of study by sorting historical figures into conceptual tropes or familiar characters and situations. Characters might include the hero, the mother figure, the innocent, the mentor, the sidekick, the scapegoat, and the villain. Among the situations, we have the quest, the task, the hero's journey, the initiation, and the return.

Academic Goals

• Deepen analysis skills with historical figures
• Improve student elaboration on historical context and settings
• Strengthen social emotional learning by teaching social awareness, perspective-taking, empathy, appreciating diversity, and respect for others with social studies content

Teacher Big Ideas

You may find it helpful to design knowledge to place historical figures into character and situational archetypes. You may wish to provide icons and definitions of terms for your students so they don't spend too much time hunting for the perfect image.

Prepare for the Activity

Make sure students have a wide variety of sources to consult when they review the accomplishments of their historical figures or situations. Students can practice identifying the steps in the hero's journey using a 30-second political campaign video or radio spots. This does not have to be a text-based activity. Provide students with a summary of the topic or content.

Instructions

1. Provide students with a Frayer-like template and a list of the characters or historical figures that they will need to sort conceptually into character or situational archetypes. Do not ask them to do both at the same time when you are starting out. That task is better performed with the Hero's Journey EduProtocol.
2. Help students with their reasoning skills. For example, "This description makes it sound like Pancho Villa is a Robin Hood archetype because he wanted to take land from the Terrateniente and give it to the poor of Villistas." Model as much as possible using figures from across the curriculum.
3. Consider letting students work out their reasoning in small groups. They will argue over the definitions provided, and that is good practice.
4. Remember, there are really no right or wrong answers here. This protocol hits all of the Four Cs but requires students to collaborate and communicate to apply their knowledge into a new conceptual area. Yes, some students may be off base. Try asking them some questions to steer them back on track instead of giving them the answers.

Key Points to Remember

A mental model is a visual representation of how something works. Mental models help us understand complex thinking. They shape the connections we make with the world's intricacies. We use them to simplify complex ideas and ramifications. Hattie, Stern, Fisher, and Frey (2020) provided a mental model on learning transfer for social studies teachers. It uses a simple three-step process to help students grasp the structure of any subject or topic. First, students acquire an understanding of individual concepts, then they connect two or more concepts in a relationship, then they transfer them to new situations. The Archetype Four Square asks students to use critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity as they consider how their historical knowledge applies to new situations.

Adapting for AP

Some students are so excited when they identify a connection between a historical figure and an archetype that they forget to explain why making the comparison is important. This is key when providing analysis. Tell your students what it means! Explain why this feature or aspect is so important. The end-of-year AP tests in history require students to identify, compare, and evaluate multiple perspectives on a given historical event in order to draw conclusions about the event. The AFS protocol allows students to practice this type of thinking in a low stakes, collaborative classroom setting.

ELL Tips

Despite deficits with academic vocabulary, second language students are very familiar with the narrative structure. Narratives represent shared understandings of human experience. Narrative writing helps students develop audience awareness, organizational skills, and the ability to select and use specific, concrete details, all of which are key in informational and argumentative writing. In short, the AFS EduProtocol levels the equitable playing field in literacy instruction and helps students improve their writing with all types of text. The Archetype Four Square protocol will help students at all levels demonstrate that they can transfer their learning from one subject (English) to another (History). When students start to see that all of their subjects are connected, they become more engaged learners.

Adapting for Middle School

Students in middle school will need quick, direct instruction on archetypes before this lesson is implemented. It's best to share a quick definition of the word archetype along with some student examples. Students in a sixth-grade class used this lesson as a processing activity after a study of famous Egyptian pharaohs. The sixth graders did great with applying the archetypes to the pharaohs and using evidence and reasoning for their decisions. However, students struggled with connecting a modern-day person to the archetype. Practicing making connections across historical people and events is what the Archetype EduProtocol is all about.

Eighth-grade students completed an Archetype lesson combined with an Iron Chef. During this quick lesson, students could choose to read biographies and seven different founding fathers who were present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Students designed a slide based on what they learned about their figure. They listed five facts, included a picture, and applied an archetype to the character to their founding father. Since this was a quick lesson, the archetype characters were created to fit with the biographies of the signers.

Modifications

Think of Archetype Four Square as a baby step toward using the Hero's Journey protocol. The teacher provides the narrative and asks the students to fill in the archetypal characters and explain why each historical figure represents that type. Teachers provide archetype definitions and icons, and students find pictures of the historical figures and add a three- to five-line explanation that describes how the character fits the archetype. Have students add a blank slide explaining their reasoning for each historical figure.

See the slide deck below for detailed instructions and examples, and feel free to make a copy of the template.

Teach Better - Work Less - Achieve More: Six Degrees of Information

You won't find the Six Degrees of Information EduProtocol in any of the EduProtocol Field Guides--that's because I made it myself! This EduProtocol relies on a concept called "hexagonal thinking." When you place an idea on a hexagon, it has six sides where connections could be made to other ideas. When you place many ideas on many hexagons, the discussion about where to connect what will be different every time. Hexagonal thinking provides a springboard for a totally creative discussion. When you give a small group of students a deck of hexagons and ask them to connect them however they choose, every group will come up with a different web for different reasons. Along the way they’ll hopefully question each other and dig deeply into the concepts on the cards, arguing about which idea connects more to an important concept and which example deserves one of those precious six sides.

Academic Goals

• Students make connections between various concepts and/or people
• Students become more comfortable communicating by explaining one's reasoning
• Develop skills that can be used later in larger writing projects

Teacher Big Ideas

• Get kids talking
• Students use relevant evidence when supporting their own points in writing and speaking, making their reasoning clear to the reader or listener.
• Verbal articulation supports writing

Description

While hexagonal thinking is not new in the world of business and innovation, it’s just making its way into the classroom. It’s a method for considering the connections between ideas and finding the nuances in those connections.

Prepare for the Activity

1. Identify several concepts and/or people that you want students to discuss and prepare a slide deck filled with hexagons that are labeled with each concept/person. Alternatively, provide students with paper hexagons for them to discuss and arrange manually.

Instructions

1. Arrange students in small groups of up to 6 students. Assign each student a number.
2. Share the slide deck you prepared (or the paper version) with each group. If using Slides, share it with one person and have them invite their peers to collaborate.
3. Students discuss the concepts and make connections between them by arranging them in a way that demonstrates how and why the different ideas and options connect. Conversations should be about showing how and why students think the different ideas and options connect. Everyone will see things differently, and that’s OK. You need to have people listening and moving pieces to create the web, people debating, people asking questions. Students should continue talking until they find the connections that stick. As students discuss their ideas, they can use the text to find supporting evidence for why they think their connections are strong ones. Each hexagon can connect to up to six others. Arrange and rearrange until everyone in the group feels they have the strongest hexagon web in place that they can.
4. After the web is complete, give students time to explain 6 of the connections on their web by writing a short explanation on their designated slide. This can be assigned collaboratively with one explanation per group member on a shared Slide or each student can explain 6 connections on their own Slide.

See the slide deck below for detailed instructions and examples, and feel free to make a copy of the template.

Teach Better - Work Less - Achieve More: The Chatterbox EduProtocol

The Chatterbox EduProtocol is intended for math instruction but could work with any subject area to help students master vocabulary and concepts. The purpose of this gamified EduProtocol is to encourage students to discuss keywords, concepts, or operations in a fun and agile environment. Give students multiple chances for making sense of the many big ideas in mathematics while providing an exciting, interactive process for all to enjoy. Modeled after the 1960s TV show Password, the concept for this protocol was originally published in Building Academic Vocabulary by Robert Marzano and Debra Pickering.

Academic Goals

• Students discuss and practice using keywords and vocabulary in a fun, engaging way.
• Students grapple with how mathematical ideas relate.
• Embedded review as directed by the teacher or needed by students

Teacher Big Ideas

• Students interact with keywords or concepts through preview, review, or formative assessment.
• Students engage in utilizing language to make sense of mathematics.
• Students consider relationships between concepts.

Description

Several words under a common category are chosen and displayed on a slide in front of the room. In pairs, students explain the concept or topic displayed. One partner has their back to the slide, leaving the view and the explanation to the other partner. The student with their back to the slide listens and tries to guess what is on the slide from their partner's explanation and description. This listening/talking partnership is designed to develop a concept, visualization skills, and listening skills. After one minute, both partners view the words and discuss them. The whole class then tries to figure out the category.

Prepare for the Activity

1. Utilizing a slide deck template, determine what key ideas are most important for utilizing Chatterbox. Key ideas, pictures, or concepts could be a single word, word phrases, or images grouped in a meaningful way. Groups of keywords should be placed as a list on a single slide, with one theme or domain as a commonality between all selected words or ideas, images, or word phrases.
2. After preparing each slide as described above, scaffold the intentional reveal of the items to develop student understanding of the central concept.
3. The timer on each slide should be set for one minute.
4. Ensure a balance of content slides and fun slides. Also, ensure content varies so that all players have opportunities to access the material. This balance provides that necessary brain break between heavy content and will pique students' interest in what will be on the next slide. The success of this protocol hinges on a proper balance and a random mix of both fun slides and content slides.
5. After completing each round, highlight the two to four slides per round of seven slides you would like to review. Further discussion is a powerful opportunity to strengthen connections and tie into the common category showcased on the individual slides.

Instructions

1. While pairs of students will be facing each other, one partner will have their back to the display screen and the other will be facing the display screen.
2. The student facing the screen may use any words to describe the word, phrase, or picture, but cannot say the word itself, any part of the word, or things like, "it rhymes with...", "it sounds like...", "it starts with the letter...", etc. The student trying to guess may skip words or phrases during the one-minute episode.
3. Keeping score is up to the teacher and students to decide, or simply by asking how many were able to get so many words, etc. The goal is to have positive interactions and the opportunity for conversation that will flow from this experience.
4. Once the one minute has elapsed, have partners discuss.
5. The whole class discusses the possible category to which the descriptors on the page connect before the teacher reveals the answer.
6. As a bonus, the teacher may highlight two to four of the categories and words to have students review and discuss at the end of the seven rounds. While seven rounds are not a required number of rounds, it tends to be the "just right" amount of time to keep the experience moving forward.

Key Points to Remember

• If the balance isn't maintained between content and fun slides, the learning and momentum will come to a grinding halt. Keep in mind that if seven rounds are the typical amount, three or four slides should be universally accessible to the entire audience.
• To cover more content, institute two or three iterations of the seven rounds over a couple of days. Students won't mind because they are interacting positively with their construction of learning.
• Be comfortable with students describing words or phrases using non-academic language, or completely unrelated descriptions; this makes the learning sticky and is a powerful connection to bring between the teacher and student.

Adaptations for Primary Students

• Use familiar images and graphics for students to describe. Consider using simple math problems.
• Keep time shorter, say twenty seconds.
• Build up to longer times as the year progresses.
• Provide scaffolds for language and class discussion as needed, such as sentence frames, to get students started. Sentence frames are also beneficial for English language learners.

Check out the video explanation below:

See the slide deck below for detailed instructions and feel free to make a copy of the template.