TOPIC #1: QUESTIONS

Questions for Reflecting on Protocols

Excerpted from Looking Together at Student Work. (1999).
Blythe, T., Allen, D., & Powell, B. New York: Teachers College Press. p.20

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The Process of Reflection. Reflection can occur through discussion and/or writing, preferably at the end of each meeting. Some processes (such as the Collaborative Assessment Conference and the Tuning Protocol) have built-in opportunites for reflection on both what was learned and on the process itself. Written reflections and notes from reflective discussion can provide important clues in planning future meetings.

Example: A high school teacher, after participating in a Tuning Protocol with teachers from many schools, reflected, "I didn't feel like we really had time to look at the student work. We need more time to really look through it, read one student's paper twice, maybe, before we can really say anything about it." This feedback was useful to teachers in planning future sessions.

You might want to draw on some of the following reflection questions to get you started:

• What did we learn?
• What worked well?
• Did the conversation move us closer to our goals? How?
• How did the discussion relate to other school issues?
• Did we do what we said we would -- in terms of our purposes and our questions?
• Did we actually focus on the students' work or on other issues?
• Did we follow the process as we planned? If not, why?
• How could the process be improved?
• How can we build on this to make examining student work a more frequent and important part of our own work?