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Save the Last Word for ME | CLEE Protocol Library

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Research tells us when adults collaborate, it leads to increased equitable outcomes in student learning. We can help you build shared leadership within your team and create effective and engaging agendas to make your work together something everyone looks forward to and ultimately moves the needle on student learning.

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Save the Last Word - Center for Leadership and Educational Equity

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Steps for Engaging in the Protocol - School Reform Initiative

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Microlabs addresses a specific sequence of questions in a structured format with small groups, using active listening skills.

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Microlabs - Center for Leadership and Educational Equity

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Center for Leadership and Educational Equity

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Microlab Guidelines | CLEE Protocol Library

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Research tells us when adults collaborate, it leads to increased equitable outcomes in student learning. We can help you build shared leadership within your team and create effective and engaging agendas to make your work together something everyone looks forward to and ultimately moves the needle on student learning.

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Microlabs_Guidelines - Center for Leadership and Educational Equity

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Attribution

[acf_ProtocolInfo_Attribution]

Description

Chalk Talk is a silent way to reflect, generate ideas, check on learning, develop projects, or solve problems. It can be used productively with any group - students, faculty, workshop participants, or committees. Because it is done completely in silence, it gives groups a change of pace and encourages thoughtful contemplation.

[acf_ProtocolInfo_Related Tools]

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Attribution [acf_ProtocolInfo_Attribution] Description Chalk Talk is a silent way to reflect, generate ideas, check on learning, develop projects, or solve problems. It can be used productively with any group - students, faculty, workshop participants, or committees. Because it is done completely in silence, it gives groups a change of pace and encourages thoughtful contemplation.

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Chalk Talk - Center for Leadership and Educational Equity

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As we live more fully into this digital age, our quality of engagement in real life often wanes.  The goal of this workshop is to reignite those face-to-face interpersonal skills that support civic and civil discourse through inquiry, active listening, and inclusive engagement.  This interactive workshop is designed so that participants will not only have strategies to take back and use in their higher education classrooms tomorrow, they will have an opportunity to engage in analysis of the instructional design of these strategies in order to radically alter the engagement, critical thinking, active listening, inquiry, and reflection skills of each and every one of their students as we all live digitally while seeking to engage presently in the world around us.

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Developed by the Right Question Institute, the Question Formulation Technique, or QFT, is a structured method for generating and improving questions. It distills sophisticated forms of divergent, convergent, and metacognitive thinking into a deceptively simple, accessible, and reproducible technique.

The QFT builds the skill of asking questions, an essential - yet often overlooked - lifelong learning skill that allows people to think critically, feel greater power and self-efficacy, and become more confident and ready to participate in civic life.

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What is the QFT? - Right Question Institute

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The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is a simple but rigorous step-by-step process designed to help […]

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Use THIS LINK to learn more about the strategy and the research behind it.

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Tackling Difficult Issues With Courageous Conversations

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When students are given the agency to plan lessons around discussing topics important to them, they build a strong sense of voice and empowerment.

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Using the Silence to Inspire Participation: The Classroom Gallery Walk

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Using the Silence to Inspire Participation: The Classroom Gallery Walk

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Using the Silence to Inspire Participation: The Classroom Gallery Walk

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An administrator knocked on my door because she thought the silent classroom was empty. What she found was a group of twenty-eight…

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National Constitution Center - Civil Dialogue

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National Constitution Center - Civil Dialogue

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"Five Habits to Heal the Heart of Democracy"

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"Five Habits to Heal the Heart of Democracy"

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The human heart is the first home of democracy. It is where we embrace our questions. Can we be equitable? Can we be generous? Can we listen with our whole beings, not just our minds, and offer our attention rather than our opinions? And do we have enough resolve in our hearts to act courageously, relentlessly, without giving up-ever-trusting our fellow citizens to join with us in our determined pursuit of a living democracy?

"We the People" called American democracy into being. Today, the future of our democracy is threatened. How can "We the People" call American politics back to health at a time when, in the words of Bill Moyers, "we have fallen under the spell of money, faction, and fear"? One answer is close at hand, within everyone's reach. We must return to the "first home" of democracy, which, as Terry Tempest Williams points out, is found not in a centuries-old document or in a distant city, but in the human heart.

A young French intellectual named Alexis de Tocqueville made much the same point when he visited our young nation in the 1830s, returning home to write the classic Democracy in America. In it, he predicted that democracy's future would depend heavily on the "habits of the heart" its citizens developed, and on the health of the local venues in which the heart gets formed or deformed: families, neighborhoods, classrooms, congregations, voluntary associations, workplaces, and the various places of public life where "the company of strangers" gathers. These habits and the places where they are shaped form the invisible infrastructure of American democracy on which the quality of our political life depends. It is an infrastructure we have neglected at our peril, just as we have neglected its physical counterpart.

The heart is where we integrate what we know in our minds with what we know in our bones, the place where our knowledge can become more fully human.

When Tocqueville and Terry Tempest Williams speak of the human heart, they mean much more than feeling or sentiment. "Heart" comes from the Latin cor, so in its original meaning, it points to the core of the human self, that center-place where all of our ways of knowing converge: intellectual, emotional, sensory, intuitive, imaginative, experiential, relational, and bodily, among others. The heart is where we integrate what we know in our minds with what we know in our bones, the place where our knowledge can become more fully human. Cor is also the Latin root from which we get the word courage. When all that we know of self and world comes together in the center-place called the heart, we are more likely to find the courage to act humanely on what we know.

If "We the People" are to help heal our ailing democracy-and if we do not, who will?-we need to develop five crucial habits of the heart. That, in turn, depends on people in positions of leadership dedicating themselves to forming these habits in the local venues I named earlier: families, neighborhoods, classrooms, congregations, voluntary associations, workplaces, and the various places of public life where "the company of strangers" gathers.

An understanding that we are all in this together. Biologists, ecologists, economists, ethicists and leaders of the great wisdom traditions have all given voice to this theme. Despite our illusions of individualism and national superiority, we humans are a profoundly interconnected species-entwined with one another and with all forms of life, as the global economic and ecological crises reveal in vivid and frightening detail. We must embrace the simple fact that we are dependent upon and accountable to one another, and that includes the stranger, the "alien other." At the same time, we must save the notion of interdependence from the idealistic excesses that make it an impossible dream. Exhorting people to hold a continual awareness of global, national, or even local interconnectedness is a counsel of perfection that can only result in self-delusion or defeat. Which leads to a second key habit of the heart...

An appreciation of the value of "otherness." It is true that we are all in this together. It is equally true that we spend most of our lives in "tribes" or lifestyle enclaves-and that thinking of the world in terms of "us" and "them" is one of the many limitations of the human mind. The good news is that "us and them" does not have to mean "us versus them." Instead, it can remind us of the ancient tradition of hospitality to the stranger and give us a chance to translate it into twenty-first-century terms. Hospitality rightly understood is premised on the notion that the stranger has much to teach us. It actively invites "otherness" into our lives to make them more expansive, including forms of otherness that seem utterly alien to us. Of course, we will not practice deep hospitality if we do not embrace the creative possibilities inherent in our differences. Which leads to a third key habit of the heart...

An ability to hold tension in life-giving ways. Our lives are filled with contradictions-from the gap between our aspirations and our behavior to observations and insights we cannot abide because they run counter to our convictions. If we fail to hold them creatively, these contradictions will shut us down and take us out of the action. But when we allow their tensions to expand our hearts, they can open us to new understandings of ourselves and our world, enhancing our lives and allowing us to enhance the lives of others. We are imperfect and broken beings who inhabit an imperfect and broken world. The genius of the human heart lies in its capacity to use these tensions to generate insight, energy, and new life. Making the most of those gifts requires a fourth key habit of the heart...

A sense of personal voice and agency. Insight and energy give rise to new life as we speak out and act out our own version of truth, while checking and correcting it against the truths of others. But many of us lack confidence in our voices and in our power to make a difference. We grow up in educational and religious institutions that treat us as members of an audience instead of actors in a drama, and as a result, we become adults who treat politics as a spectator sport. And yet it remains possible for us, young and old alike, to find our voices, learn how to speak them, and know the satisfaction that comes from contributing to positive change-if we have the support of a community. Which leads to a fifth and final habit of the heart...

A capacity to create community. Without a community, it is nearly impossible to achieve voice: it takes a village to raise a Rosa Parks. Without a community, it is nearly impossible to exercise the "power of one" in a way that allows power to multiply: it took a village to translate Rosa Parks's act of personal integrity into social change. In a mass society like ours, community rarely comes ready-made. But creating community in the places where we live and work does not mean abandoning other parts of our lives to become full-time organizers. The steady companionship of two or three kindred spirits can help us find the courage we need to speak and act as citizens. There are many ways to plant and cultivate the seeds of community in our personal and local lives. We must all become gardeners of community if we want democracy to flourish.

If I were asked for two words to summarize the habits of the heart American citizens need in response to twenty-first-century conditions, I would choose chutzpah and humility. By chutzpah, I mean knowing that I have a voice that needs to be heard and the right to speak it. By humility, I mean accepting the fact that my truth is always partial and may not be true at all, so I need to listen with openness and respect, especially to "the other," as much as I need to speak my own voice with clarity and conviction.

American Democracy is a non-stop experiment in the strengths and weaknesses of our political institutions, local communities, and the human heart. The experiment is endless unless we blow up the lab, and the explosives to do the job are found within us. But so, also, is the heart's alchemy that can turn suffering into compassion, conflict into community, and tension into energy for creativity amid democracy's demands.

Today we are in the middle of another election cycle. Once again, false claims, half-truths, hateful rhetoric, fear-mongering and demonization of the opposition dominate our civic space, driving out the genuine issue-oriented debate a democracy needs to survive and thrive. We need citizens with chutzpah and humility to occupy our civic space and call American democracy back to health. There is no reason, at least no good reason, why our number cannot be legion.
Parker Palmer drew the ideas for this article from his book, "Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit."

Government, politics, and representation are indeed actions that reflect one's values and moral compass. Palmer's essay points to the roots of the American experiment we are living in as ones that are much deeper than what they may appear. Democratic citizenry requires courage and action, not passive engagement. This is something I push my students to grapple with every year: What is your role in our society? In your own life? What does agency look like and feel like for you? As we move into a future that requires young people to consistently make informed decisions about their lives, courage and the ability to reflect on one's actions are critical for them to meet 'democracy's demands.'

Mike Dunn, Ph.D., Dean of College and Career Counseling at Eagle Rock School in Colorado

Use "Five Habits to Heal the Heart of Democracy" in Your Classroom

Parker Palmer's work as an author, educator, and activist focuses on issues in education, leadership, and social change. In his book Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit, Palmer explores attitudes and practices he believes are essential within both individuals and communities to strengthen democracy and the ideals upon which it was founded. This essay encourages students to consider "habits of the heart" that are critical for sustaining democracy in troubled times.

These lessons, available for elementary, middle, and high school classrooms, explore the habits and values that have the potential to nurture a healthy democracy. Students will engage in learning activities that prompt them to consider and envision a healthy democracy in their lives and in the communities in which they live. *Please note that elementary students will engage with a specific quote from the essay and middle and high school students will read and engage with the full essay.

What Students will Uncover

The values and behaviors that are important when considering how to support a healthy democracy

Lessons Include the Following:

Overview and context of the principles, habits, and behaviors that are important to support a healthy democracy

Activities with discussion questions and writing prompts

Activities connecting to the UN SDGs

Companion texts and secondary resources

Updates to current news and events

Connections to National Curriculum Standards and Frameworks

Translations en Español

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Five Habits to Heal the Heart of Democracy

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Parker Palmer presents qualities of citizenship that are essential for sustaining democracy in troubled times.

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Sentence Starters for Meaningful Conversation (EL Education)

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Sentence Starters for Meaningful Conversation (EL Education)

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Update: Dec. 15: _________ Thank you to the nearly 3,000 students who participated. We have now published a post reflecting on what we observed, and calling out some individual students, and one school district, for especially excellent contributions.
Welcome to an experiment.

For much of this year we've been thinking about what more we could do on this site to help students grapple with both the issues of Election 2016 and the classroom challenges of a race marked by extreme rhetoric and deep partisan divide.

Here's what we've come up with:

We have posted five Student Opinion forums related to the big issues dividing Americans this campaign season. The forums will be open to comment from Oct. 3 to Nov. 7 and will focus on the following:

Oct. 3: Immigration

Oct. 4: Gun control and Second Amendment rights

Oct. 5: Climate change and energy

Oct. 6: Race, gender and identity

Oct. 7: An open forum for students to post about any other election-related issue they care about

The challenge? We are asking students from all over the nation and, perhaps, around the world, to practice the skills of respectful, informed conversation across ideological and demographic divides by not only posting their own thoughts, but by reading the thoughts of others and replying to them. What we'll be looking for are not so much excellent posts by individual students, but civil, productive discussions between students.

Asking teenagers to post their opinions is nothing new for us, of course. Every school day since 2009 we've asked a Student Opinion question about something covered in The Times, and all year long we run contests that invite students to interact with news in a variety of ways. In fact, we chose the four issues we are spotlighting in this challenge because we know, from our Summer Reading Contest and last year's Student Council, that teenagers are particularly passionate about them.

But what we're asking for this time is different. Most of the hundreds of thousands of comments we've fielded over the years have been just that - lone comments. With the exception of our weekly, live What's Going On in This Picture? discussions, students rarely seem read what others write, or respond to each other.
For this challenge, we invite you to have a conversation, and we'll be "listening in" as we moderate, and looking to find exchanges between students that:
1. Follow Times commenting standards and are civil and respectful. No name-calling, no profanity, no SHOUTING.

2. Advance the conversation about an issue somehow, whether introducing a new idea or perspective, asking useful questions, making connections to other issues, finding themes or commonalities among comments, presenting new evidence, or anything else.

3. Are grounded in fact, and buttressed by sources. This is not to say that everything you post must be footnoted sentence by sentence, but commenters should provide reliable sources for any controversial claims they make.

4. Show evidence of "listening" and attempting to understand other points of view.

To help students learn to do all this, we've published a companion lesson plan: Talking Across Divides: 10 Ways to Encourage Civil Classroom Conversation On Difficult Issues. You can find teaching activities for each of our guidelines there.
Although this isn't exactly a "contest" with traditional winners, sometime after Election Day we plan to reflect on the results and call out some of our favorite comments and conversations from the five forums.
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Some tips and fine points:
* Any teenager anywhere in the world is invited to join the conversation. Though the issues as we present them will be defined by positions taken by candidates in the presidential election, insights from elsewhere in the world are very welcome.

* The first time you comment, make sure to check the box saying that you would like to receive an email with a link to your comment when it is published. Though our system does not, unfortunately, let you know when someone replies, if you visit the link to your comment regularly, you can see all the responses.

Here is a slightly ridiculous version of what that looked like when I tested it here:

* Feel free to comment, reply, recommend or do any combination of the three as often as you like - within reason, of course. (In other words, we hope you'll chiefly respond on those topics you feel passionate about and weigh in on conversations in which you feel you have something of value to add.)

Questions? Comments? Post them and we'll answer you here. As we say, this is an experiment, and we will update this post as needed to provide more explanation as we go. We'll also link to all the Student Opinion forums as each publishes this week.

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Find a complete list of all our materials for teaching and learning with Election 2016 .

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Our Civil Conversation Challenge for Teenagers

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Update: Dec. 15: _________ Thank you to the nearly 3,000 students who participated. We have now published a post reflecting on what we observed, and calling out some individual students, and one school district, for especially excellent contributions. Welcome to an experiment.

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Attribution

Adapted by Jennifer Fischer-Mueller and Gene Thompson-Grove.

Description

The purpose of this protocol is to give each person in the group an opportunity to have their ideas, understandings, and perspective enhanced by hearing from others. With this protocol, the group can explore an article, clarify their thinking, and have their assumptions and beliefs questioned in order to gain a deeper understanding of the issue.

Last Updated

November 16, 2017

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Attribution Adapted by Jennifer Fischer-Mueller and Gene Thompson-Grove. Description The purpose of this protocol is to give each person in the group an opportunity to have their ideas, understandings, and perspective enhanced by hearing from others.

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Concentric Circles - As Used at NC State

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Concentric Circles - As Used at NC State

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Concentric Circles – Teaching about Identities, Diversity, and Equity

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Responsive Classroom - Inside Outside Circles

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Responsive Classroom - Inside Outside Circles

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Alyssa Park, a 4th grade teacher in Gardnerville, NV, conducts a multi-day mini unit on map-making, using an 1800s map of Nevada and the QFT to help students practice skills of observation, questioning, inference, and independent research.

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Alyssa Park, a 4th grade teacher in Gardnerville, NV, conducts a multi-day mini unit on map-making, using an 1800s map of Nevada and the QFT to help students practice skills of observation, questioning, inference, and independent research.

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Overview

This resource guide introduces the Question Formulation Technique (QFT). At the bottom of the page, you will find downloadable resources for outlining QFT implementation in your classroom. The QFT is premised on the idea that question formulation is a skill not widely taught, but vitally important for students in every discipline, particularly those from underserved communities.

The QFT originated in the early 1980s in a dropout prevention program in a small Massachusetts community. Social workers in the program noticed that parents were not engaged, even though it was clear they cared about their children's success in school. One parent explained that they did not attend school meetings because they did not even know "what questions to ask" about the program or their children's progress there. To address this problem, social workers began providing parents with common questions to ask in school meetings. However, this approach did not help parents address their unique situations. Once the social workers realized this problem, they started to approach that situation differently, coaching parents through the process of identifying their concerns and then developing questions to address them. In short order, teachers and social workers began to notice a dramatic change in parents' participation in the program. Parents who had not attended any school meetings now showed up with their own questions in hand. The QFT was then applied to students. Instead of operating on a traditional model where the teacher formulated questions and posed them to students, instructors taught students how to formulate questions that were meaningful to them. Again, teachers saw substantial improvements in students' engagement, learning, and retention. Students who had shown little interest in school were now excited and gaining confidence in their abilities. Many students commented that learning the QFT made them "feel smart" in school for the first time. This change may be the result of the self-guided nature of the QFT.

When students are in charge of coming up with questions, they have to engage more deeply in the course content, and they are allowed to think about this material in their own way. In many cases, they ask questions that the instructor did not expect, and instructors report that students using the GFT take lessons deeper or wider than expected. Thus, students advance through material more quickly and/or with greater understanding and retention. Importantly, the QFT also cultivates inclusivity by creating a student-centered classroom. This technique shifts the onus of posing questions away from teachers and, instead, invites all students to ask questions that are interesting and useful to them, regardless of their expertise or experience. The process requires that each question is equally valued. Students create questions without judgment and without considering possible answers until the question formulation process is complete (see steps below). This technique also encourages creativity, problem-solving, and reflection. Once students have learned has to use it, they can apply it to their work in other college courses, their careers, and even in public or political contexts.

Resource Goals:

The overarching goal of the QFT is to teach students to develop and ask questions that facilitate their learning and help them take ownership of their education.

To help students develop three different kinds of thinking:

Divergent Thinking - Activating their creativity

Convergent Thinking - Enabling their analytical abilities

Metacognition - Becoming aware of and reflective about their own thinking

Encourage "micro-democracy," or the practice of raising one's voice in small contexts like a college classroom, an academic conference, or a public meeting.

To improve debate skills and advance the understanding of the topics to which it is applied.

Question Formulation Technique Resource Guide:

Related Posts:

Additional Insights:

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This page introduces the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), including background, goals, challenges, and ways to implement it in college classes.

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Final Word - Center for Leadership and Educational Equity