# data[].attributes.body
Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a student-centered pedagogy where students learn about a subject through the experience of solving open-ended problems. This approach develops critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and self-directed learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Problem Based Learning: A Classroom Journey

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Photo Credit: Sean Nestor

There is no building in Toledo quite like Pythian Castle. A beautiful Romanesque structure at the intersection of Jefferson and Ontario, it is one of the only towers built in the late 19th century still standing in downtown Toledo. Its black steeple and spires, looming over 100 feet from the ground, symbolize our city's prosperous past- while simultaneously reminding us of our precarious present.

Its original owners, a secret society known as the Knights of Pythias, sold the building to Greyhound in 1951. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and has stood vacant since 1974, enduring decades of neglect and weather damage. With each passing year, the cost of renovation went up while the chances of its preservation went down.

Enter David Ball. A Toledo native and Bowsher graduate, Ball is a serial entrepreneur who runs STS Property & Facility Management with his brother Dean. An experienced developer, Ball has worked on over a dozen major buildings downtown since 1985, when he first fell in love with Pythian Castle. Following Greyhound's relocation to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza in 2016 and the Lucas County Land Bank's subsequent acquisition of the property, Ball finally got his chance - but it turned out to be more than he bargained for.

"People said it was impossible."
To begin with, the building's interior was in shambles. The roof had caved in long before, leaving it exposed to the elements. Years of rain and snow piling on gradually caused all five floors to collapse into the basement.

While clearing out the debris this left, it was discovered that the iconic steeple off the intersection of Jefferson and N. Ontario was unstable, causing work to be stopped for eight months while a 4000-pound support bridge could be constructed and installed.

With the steeple stabilized, work began on constructing new floors from the ground up so that a new roof could be safely built. However, it was discovered that the mortar in some of the brick walls had deteriorated over the years and couldn't carry the weight of the new floors. This added another seven month delay while the walls were replaced, brick by brick.

Undeterred by the outbreak of COVID-19, work has continued at a steady pace since then and is nearly complete. Modernizations and improvements to the original structure include an entirely new roof and new windows; a new, modern elevator replacing three broken units; a new stairwell replacing a series of unsightly fire escapes along the building's exterior wall; a series of internal downspouts for distributed rainwater, replacing a system of exterior gutters; and new fiberglass replacements for the building's exterior details.

"Nobody thought we could pull this off."
Shielded from the elements for the first time in decades, the castle's preservation is a testament to the vision and heart of David Ball and STS properties. "I fell in love with the building as a young guy coming to do real estate downtown," Ball said. "There is nothing like it in this city. To have it removed from our skyline would have been a real loss."

Pythian Castle is a comeback story for the ages, one that should inspire hope in every Toledoan. Once a somber symbol of decline and disinvestment, the building now stands tall and proud, ready for use again. It's character and personality- nearly condemned to live on only in photographs- are now preserved for Toledo's next era of prosperity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Historic Pythian Castle Saved: The last-minute rescue of an iconic downtown structure - Toledo City Paper

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Pythian Castle is a comeback story for the ages, one that should inspire hope in every Toledoan.

# data[].attributes.body
Rule of 3

Literal - What are the big ideas that the author is trying to convey?

Interpretation - What do I think that this means to me and the context in which I am working?

Application - How might I use this in the future?

# data[].attributes.headline
7th Grade Example Problem-Based Learning

# data[].attributes.subject
7th Grade Example Problem-Based Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
PBL Unit - Grade 7  Pythian Castle Restoration Project

# data[].attributes.body
Mastery Learning focuses on ensuring that students achieve a high level of understanding before moving on to the next topic. Key principles include clear learning objectives, formative assessments, and individualized support.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By: Rebecca Midles
The education of today is adapting in order to enable learners to meet the future of tomorrow. In recent years we've seen strides and attention placed on personalized and blended learning, but the question of scale persists. How might teachers and leaders apply personalization at scale? How can equity of learning pace, style, and preference be implemented in both large schools and small schools alike?

One solution could be mastery learning, a combination of student-centered learning objectives and thresholds supported with strategies that can create powerful, replicable results. With mastery, the focus should be on the application in order to create a larger body of knowledge. This data would emphasize the application of skills as well as conceptual knowledge. Ideally, mastery learning is defined in terms of application and retention, not checklists.

In our Mastery Learning series, we have been exploring what mastery is and how it is determined, recorded and managed. Scott Ellis and his team from MasteryTrack have outlined five key elements, listed below, and how these can be enabled with a technology information system. The mastery platform is Scott's effort to create "a world where students, teachers, principals, and parents can instantly see where students are in their learning. This data is the starting point that enables personalization of learning to actually happen effectively in the classroom."

Learning Objectives

Specific, clear, demonstrable objectives to clearly describe what we want students to know and be able to do.

Clear descriptions of what mastery means and how to determine if a student is ready to move to the next learning objective.

Students Demonstrate Mastery

Clear processes for students to demonstrate mastery.

Processes are scalable and provide equitable access to all students.

Teachers Assess Mastery

Clear processes for teachers to assess mastery.

Processes must be viable and scalable to support teachers to assess mastery for every student and every learning objective.

Protocols to support multiple attempts by students to demonstrate mastery depending on their level of readiness and the variety of assessments available.

A system to organize and display learning data that is efficient in time and easily available to students, teachers, parents, and school leaders.

Mastery-based student data shows progress and reflects a student's learning journey.

These key elements are essential for the implementation of Mastery Learning. Toward the end of this series, in the blog titled Pulling It All Together, Scott provides examples that take you through the five key elements within specific subjects and areas of growth, such as elementary math, world languages and social-emotional learning. The series also provided examples of thresholds, how to gather and use the 'right data,' and tips for designing a data dashboard.

These examples can begin to make this work tangible if a system or team is new to the work, and reaffirms steps a site or district may already be taking. Scott shares in Getting The Right Data that "with specific, clear, demonstrable learning objectives and well-defined mastery thresholds, we can clearly track student learning progress. We can make this information available to students, teachers, principals, and parents with a single mouse click. With this information at their fingertips, teachers can do true data-driven instruction."

Technology has enabled us to observe progress and impact over time like never before. Through a marriage of robust dashboards, a dedication to equity and an agile mindset, we can begin to scale personalized learning that works and inspires.

For more, see:

This blog is the final part of a series on mastery learning, sponsored by MasteryTrack. If you'd like to learn more about our policies and practices regarding sponsored content, please email Jessica Slusser . For other posts in the series see:

Stay in-the-know with innovations in learning by signing up for the weekly Smart Update .

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Moving Toward Mastery Learning: Practical Steps for Making Progress

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The education of today is adapting in order to enable learners to meet the future of tomorrow. Mastery learning is a combination of student-centered learning objectives and thresholds supported with strategies that can create powerful, replicable results and provides a plan to meet future education needs.

# data[].attributes.body
Welcome to our workshop on Mastery Learning in Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Environments. This workshop is designed specifically for STEM teachers at McKinley STEMM, Toledo, Ohio. We are excited to explore innovative teaching methods to enhance student learning and engagement.

# data[].attributes.body
Today's workshop will cover:
1. Exploration of Mastery Learning
2. Principles of Problem-Based Learning (PBL)
3. Integrating Mastery Learning into PBL
4. Group Activities and Discussions
5. Q & A

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mastery Workshop in PBL Environments for McKinley STEMM

# data[].attributes.body
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:
- Understand the key principles of Mastery Learning and PBL
- Integrate Mastery Learning strategies into your STEM curriculum
- Develop PBL activities that foster mastery in your students
- Collaborate with fellow educators to share best practices

# data[].attributes.body
Literal - SM - Mastery learning is an instructional approach where students exhibit mastery in a certain level or skill. It includes the Rigor/Relevance Framework that can be used to design and assess curriculum, instruction, and assessment which also provides a structure for differentiation and assessment based on student needs and levels.

Think - SM - I think that this instructional approach is beneficial to reach all students no matter what level they are starting at.

Do - SM - I will refer back to the rigor framework and attempt to address all levels to reach mastery.

# data[].attributes.body
Research has shown that Mastery Learning can significantly improve student outcomes, including higher achievement levels, better retention of knowledge, and increased student confidence. Here are some key benefits:
- Personalized learning pace
- Increased student engagement
- Better retention of information

# data[].attributes.body
Effective PBL environments include:
- Real-world problems that are relevant to the students
- Opportunities for student collaboration
- A facilitator role for the teacher, guiding rather than instructing
- Continuous assessment and feedback

# data[].attributes.body
Integrating Mastery Learning into PBL involves:
- Defining clear, measurable learning objectives
- Creating formative assessments to track progress
- Providing timely feedback and support
- Encouraging student reflection and self-assessment

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
CT.gov - Connecticut's Official State Website

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Overview

Project-based learning refers to any programmatic or instructional approach that utilizes multifaceted projects as a central organizing strategy for educating students. When engaged in project-based learning, students will typically be assigned a project or series of projects that require them to use diverse skills-such as researching, writing, interviewing, collaborating, or public speaking-to produce various work products, such as research papers, scientific studies, public-policy proposals, multimedia presentations, video documentaries, art installations, or musical and theatrical performances, for example. Unlike many tests, homework assignments, and other more traditional forms of academic coursework, the execution and completion of a project may take several weeks or months, or it may even unfold over the course of a semester or year.

Closely related to the concept of authentic learning, project-based-learning experiences are often designed to address real-world problems and issues, which requires students to investigate and analyze their complexities, interconnections, and ambiguities (i.e., there may be no "right" or "wrong" answers in a project-based-learning assignment). For this reason, project-based learning may be called inquiry-based learning or learning by doing, since the learning process is integral to the knowledge and skills students acquire. Students also typically learn about topics or produce work that integrates multiple academic subjects and skill areas. For example, students may be assigned to complete a project on a local natural ecosystem and produce work that investigates its history, species diversity, and social, economic, and environmental implications for the community. In this case, even if the project is assigned in a science course, students may be required to read and write extensively (English); research local history using texts, news stories, archival photos, and public records (history and social studies); conduct and record first-hand scientific observations, including the analysis and tabulation of data (science and math); and develop a public-policy proposal for the conservation of the ecosystem (civics and government) that will be presented to the city council utilizing multimedia technologies and software applications (technology). In project-based learning, students are usually given a general question to answer, a concrete problem to solve, or an in-depth issue to explore. Teachers may then encourage students to choose specific topics that interest or inspire them, such as projects related to their personal interests or career aspirations. For example, a typical project may begin with an open-ended question (often called an "essential question" by educators): How is the principle of buoyancy important in the design and construction of a boat? What type of public-service announcement will be most effective in encouraging our community to conserve water? How can our school serve healthier school lunches? In these cases, students may be given the opportunity to address the question by proposing a project that reflects their interests. For example, a student interested in farming may explore the creation of a school garden that produces food and doubles as a learning opportunity for students, while another student may choose to research health concerns related to specific food items served in the cafeteria, and then create posters or a video to raise awareness among students and staff in the school. In public schools, the projects, including the work products created by students and the assessments they complete, will be based on the same state learning standards that apply to other methods of instruction-i.e., the projects will be specifically designed to ensure that students meet expected learning standards. While students work on a project, teachers typically assess student learning progress-including the achievement of specific learning standards-using a variety of methods, such as portfolios, demonstrations of learning, or rubrics, for example. While the learning process may be more student-directed than some traditional learning experiences, such as lectures or quizzes, teachers still provide ongoing instruction, guidance, and academic support to students. In many cases, adult mentors, advisers, or experts from the local community-such as scientists, elected officials, or business leaders-may be involved in the design of project-based experiences, mentor students throughout the process, or participate on panels that review and evaluate the final projects in collaboration with teachers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Project-Based Learning - Mastery-Based Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Project-based learning refers to any programmatic or instructional approach that utilizes multifaceted projects as a central organizing strategy for educating students.

# data[].attributes.body
We've covered the fundamental principles of Mastery Learning and PBL, and explored strategies for integrating these approaches in your classrooms. Remember, the goal is to enhance student learning by allowing them to master concepts deeply and apply their knowledge in meaningful ways.

# data[].attributes.body
For more information on Mastery Learning and PBL, check out these resources:
1. [Mastery Learning Handbook](https://www.example.com)
2. [PBL Works](https://www.example.com)
3. [STEM Teaching Tools](https://www.example.com)

# data[].attributes.body
We value your feedback! Please take a moment to fill out our workshop survey [here](https://www.example.com). Also, join our online community for ongoing support and collaboration.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Giving effective feedback is an important skill for leaders and teams. Managers who learn how to give (and take) feedback effectively are better positioned to solve problems, improve team performance and create a happier, more productive workplace. Running a feedback workshop to help your team understand how to give and receive constructive feedback.

In this guide from Skye Suttie, a facilitator with over 10 years of experience in people management, you can see how to run a workshop that will give your team the skills to process and provide great feedback more effectively. Let's dive in!

This guide is designed to walk you through facilitating The Art of Effective Feedback workshop template. I will share facilitation tips and tricks as well as going into depth about the content and session design choices you'll find within the agenda.

This will not be a slide-by-slide breakdown but is instead intended to focus on specific elements of the workshop and to help you deliver the best possible feedback training to your participants.

Note that while this original workshop design is intended for managers, it is equally applicable to team members at any level who might wish to learn how to give more effective feedback.

Let's get started!

When should I run this effective feedback workshop?

Effective feedback is one of the cornerstones of a high-performing workplace. When teams don't know how to give feedback, it can result in resentment, miscommunication, and inefficient working processes. This workshop is helpful for teams that need a primer on effective feedback, have had problems with giving feedback in the past, or where problems haven't always surfaced.

Giving honest and helpful feedback doesn't come naturally for everyone, and workplace politics can also play in part in making groups less likely to give one another feedback. This workshop is designed to help teams see the value of feedback and understand how to give more effective feedback too.

It's also great to run with new teams who are just starting to work together. Creating a culture of feedback can help improve working relationships, and team trust and lead to better outcomes for everyone!

In my own experience, difficult working relationships or continuing problems were all resolved once we activated a culture of bilateral feedback. Often, this means encouraging team members to go beyond just receiving feedback from their managers and instead, empowering them to give feedback to one another too.

Preparing for the effective feedback workshop

All great workshops and training sessions start with thorough and methodical preparation. While the workshop template is a great place to start, you'll want to take some additional steps to prepare.

These might include adapting the session for your specific group and client, doing some feedback research as necessary, and becoming familiar with the agenda. Let's walk through these steps now!

Conduct Learning Needs Analysis with Your Client

Understanding the specific needs of your team or client is important when designing and delivering any workshop. Start the process by having a meeting with your client to assess their needs and establish the right working relationship.

In my experience, adopting a business advisor mentality during this first meeting will establish a connection between you and your client so that you move beyond being a facilitator and toward being a partner.

In this meeting, you will get context and insights which will enable you to ensure the feedback training is a value add and addresses a tangible business need. Here are some questions you might want to ask as part of this meeting.

What needs of the participants and team will this session address? What are the day-to-day problems looking to be solved?

Asking this question also helps you because it gives you parameters to tailor the content and any additional changes or updates you make.

Is there specific language or team jargon you should be aware of and that you should build into the training?

By customizing the training, it doesn't feel generic and it will help with participant buy-in. It also helps to build your credibility as the facilitator, especially if you're new to the group. Using familiar language will help you to come across as less of an outsider and will help to build trust.

Review the feedback practice scenarios together - how can those potentially be adjusted so that participants see what's in it for them explicitly by recognizing the scenarios and issues? Should they be adjusted or kept as is to give some distance/not hit too close to home?

This also is a direct tie-in to American educator Malcolm Knowles' work from the 1970s using the Andragogy theory (a term coined by German educator Alexander Kapp) where he explains, "Adults are driven by internal motives. They will learn if they want to learn...For instance, a compelling answer to the 'what's-in-it-for-me' question is a powerful internal motivation."

Is assigning pre-work an option?

Here's why you should REALLY ask this: If managers prepare to discuss a current feedback challenge they're navigating and it should be one they feel comfortable sharing and workshopping in a group space, this magnifies the impact of this training, not to mention, it taps into another principle of Experiential Learning Cycle (ELC with David A. Kolb we hit on earlier) called Active Experimentation (AE) which "through role-playing activities and other hands-on tasks let learners apply the learning and thus truly 'learn by doing.'"

What are your desired outcomes for this effective feedback workshop? What specific tools do you want participants to walk away with?

As you have this conversation (either over the phone, remotely, or in-person) other questions will organically come up, and you should walk away with a clear picture of the purpose behind this session plus how you can bring that purpose to light for participants.

Session Review and Facilitator Prework

After you review and implement the insights and feedback from your client, it's recommended you take a look at the SessionLab template for this session so you can familiarize yourself with the flow and make intentional adjustments based on your Learning Needs Analysis.

Remember that every group is different and while the effective feedback workshop is a great place to start, be sure to tailor the design to best fit the needs of the team.

To help give you a bigger picture of some of the guidelines, watch the following TED talk, The Secret to Giving Great Feedback with Leann Renninger which touches on some of the giving feedback techniques found within the workshop.

As with the delivery of any concept, it really pays to do your research and be familiar with the subject. Here are a few other great resources for giving effective feedback that can help strengthen your knowledge in this area.

Running the effective feedback workshop

After you've prepared for the session and made any adjustments to the template, you'll arrive ready to lead the workshop.

In this section, I'll share some tips for some key parts of the agenda and share some reflections on my own experience of leading the session. I'll also include some references to various learning theories and resources that have helped me shape this workshop so you can investigate further.

Opening the feedback workshop

Let me paint you a picture of how opening the effective feedback workshop might go.

You're about to start the session and have the first slide projected. One of your participants walks in and scoffs at the warm-up activity. What do you do? How do you handle it?

By showing them the door, obviously. Just kidding - definitely don't do that! Let's back up and talk about why this activity was included.

This is called an "unofficial start" which is a way to immediately and purposefully engage participants as explained by Chad Littlefield and Will Wise in their incredibly useful book, How to Make Virtual Engagement Easy: A Practical Guide for Remote Leaders and Educators. They stress the importance of connection before content (a phrase coined by Peter Block) throughout the training (regardless of whether it's virtual or in-person), more specifically, they encourage facilitators to:

1. Connect to the purpose. Make it clear why people are there.

2. Connect people to each other without obligatory small talk like, "How was your weekend?"

3. Create choice and space for authenticity and vulnerability

Sometimes, Littlefield and Wise contend, we sacrifice efficiency for connection, but with an unofficial start, we can be efficient with our time and connect right at the outset of the meeting. This workshop was designed for connection and not just consumption and this activity hopes to start things off on the right foot.

Another useful tool from Littlefield and Wise is the "We! Connect Cards: Create Conversations that Matter." You can find some free cards here or you can purchase the toolkit here. I've been using this kit for a couple of years and have found the content incredibly useful in designing engaging and impactful training, both virtually and in person.

Another way to think about this is discussed by Priya Parker in The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, where she encourages us to focus on meeting for purpose rather than time. Think about why you're meeting and how the tools you use will add value to the time everyone spends together.

In the case of this workshop on effective feedback, creating connections and developing a better understanding of one another is a key elements of giving and receiving feedback.

Setting intentions for the feedback workshop

We have another hat tip to Littlefield and Wise with our Session Intentions section on slide 4.

You're likely more familiar with using "Session Goals" or "Session Objectives," but by starting with intentions, you are asking what the participants want or need to get out of this feedback training. It's another concept that does double duty by both helping to introduce key elements of good feedback and also creating a good workshop environment.

It helps to start with a couple as you see in the presentation deck, and it's also an opportunity to engage the participants from the start by empowering them to self-reflect and identify what they are hoping to get out of the training.

This connects to another adult learning theory principle of Malcolm Knowles' called the "Need for Knowledge" which presents a great way of thinking about this stage of the process. Knowles states that "Adults need to know the 'why' they should learn" and this stage of knowing then leads to the "Willingness" to learn which "comes from perceiving the relevance of the knowledge."

Showing the importance of feedback

A significant portion of this workshop is designed to show the importance of giving feedback and help the group explore why they might not have given feedback in the past.

Slide 11 is part of how you'll guide the conversation around the importance of feedback. Leading up to showing the below word cloud, which you could also create in real-time with the participants using the tool Mentimeter, you might want to consider taking the training to a deeper level by asking the group " why do people shy away from giving or receiving feedback? " or a variation of this question.

Essentially, you're trying to get the participants to name and thereby diminish the power of any obstacles. If those obstacles are mentionable, they're manageable, and what they fear about giving or receiving feedback can be overcome together.

Now perhaps you're thinking, but what if they don't fear giving feedback? And you're right, perhaps they aren't fearful of it and view feedback as a data point to help them improve - that's great! But research, like in this Harvard Business Review article has shown time and time again that people DREAD (←that's not a typo) giving feedback. Let's dig in, shall we? And the following information is included as something you could share with the participants, too.

It helps to understand two specific parts of the brain when we hear negative feedback. We want the message to go to the neocortex part of the brain. The neocortex has many functions including our language skills, consciousness, our social/emotional processing, learning, and thinking about the future. But when we feel threatened, a different part of the brain - the amygdala, two almond-shaped clusters - takes over and prevents the information from getting to the neocortex.
What happens?
Instead of learning, we go into fight or flight mode and feel the need to protect ourselves. It's that fast, instinctive, reactive part of the brain that makes us duck when something is thrown at us. In psychology, we call this phenomenon amygdala hijacking, a term coined by American psychologist Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ.

When our amygdala gets hijacked, it's a quick, sudden outburst/response to a situation. You can't build trust or connection when this happens because our system gets flooded with adrenaline, and it can take up to 18 minutes for that adrenaline rush to level off.
What can we do?
Check-in with ourselves. We're the only ones who can self-regulate, although sometimes our amygdalas can get hijacked if our blood sugar drops (ever get 'hangry'?)

In his work, Goleman proposed "5 basic competencies that are essential for increasing emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills."

You can share these competencies with the participants, but be mindful of not derailing the training too far from the session intentions. For some groups, it can be especially useful to identify some of the physiological elements that can contribute to being unable to give feedback or feeling overwhelmed in feedback meetings.

Acknowledging that something is happening in our bodies and brains in those situations but that we can also do something about it can be impactful learning for many!

Guidelines for giving and receiving feedback

One of the most useful sections of the feedback workshop is learning some guidelines for giving and receiving better feedback. For this portion, you'll lead the group through a discussion of core feedback concepts they can begin to use with their team.

Start by introducing the general feedback guidelines and inviting the group to highlight what stands out and mention anything they might agree or disagree with. What's a feedback workshop without the opportunity for everyone to voice their opinion and explore it with the group?

These feedback techniques are practical examples that the group can take away with them and use immediately. Take the time to explore everything from a Micro-Yes to Align/Comment to help your group add to their feedback toolkit. Not every concept works for every manager or team, but by exploring these feedback guidelines, your group can find what works for them.

Remember to mention that these methods speak to a very real need. As an Interact survey showed, a majority (69%) of managers said they're often uncomfortable communicating with employees. Over a third (37%) of the managers said they're uncomfortable having to give direct feedback about their employees' performance if they think the employee might respond negatively to the feedback.

The benefit of having separate guidelines for giving and receiving feedback is two-fold. First, you help new managers use these techniques to make feedback interactions more pleasant and productive for both parties. Second, you can also encourage them to solicit feedback from their team too. Feedback should be a two-way street and these guidelines help make that happen!

During these discussions, It's also important to give the group chance to share what they've used before, including what has worked and what hasn't. This is a great time to underline that giving and receiving better feedback is a combination of theory, technique, and practice!

Giving feedback with group practice

Putting what the group has learned about effective feedback into practice with a practical feedback activity is a core part of this workshop. These group practice methods are designed to be run in groups of three and have people rotate roles between the giver, receiver, and observer of feedback.

This is an effective way of cementing the learnings so far and starting the process of practicing effective feedback. Giving feedback is not always easy or straightforward, and this is a great moment to remind participants that the best way to improve is to practice!

As mentioned earlier, the scenarios found within the template can also be adjusted to reflect current situations (anonymously, of course) that are being faced by the team. Additionally, this is also a chance for managers to bring current situations they're navigating and workshop out the scenarios leveraging peer-to-peer learning and support.

Note that we also take the time to practice in a large group and adjust some example feedback before moving into breakouts. Proper framing can really help people take on each of the three roles and get a better grasp of how to go beyond basic feedback and adhere to the feedback guidelines provided.

Closing the effective feedback workshop

By the end of your session, all your participants have learned about the principles of effective feedback and had a chance to both give and receive feedback. Now it's time to close the workshop and empower the group to take the learnings of the workshop back to their day-to-day work.

Remember that the way you close your session impacts how participants will take what they've learned and apply it after the session ends.

A couple of potential ways to close the session include:

1. Invite participants to share their key takeaways and impressions of the workshop.

2. Ask everyone in the group to think about one word that describes what they're thinking about at the end of the meeting.

3. Connect back to the intentions of the session and ask the group to reflect on whether they were met.

4. Ask for feedback on the session you just lead!

You'll also want to set the follow-up assignment for the feedback workshop, which involves each participant taking what they've learned and applying it to their team. It's worth noting that effective feedback goes both ways and so they need to both give and receive feedback for the assignment.

Depending on your arrangement, it's also a great idea to follow up with the group in some way to see how the assignment went. Learning how to give and receive great feedback can be the project of a lifetime. Continuing to reflect, learn, and practice over extended periods is often a valuable part of this journey!

In Conclusion

Learning how to give and receive effective feedback can be the solution to many of the problems that face teams. The way we communicate our needs, challenges, and grievances can fundamentally impact our working relationships.

By delivering a feedback workshop, you can help your group be more open, effective, and empowered to solve problems. We really hope this guide and the accompanying workshop template help you and your team

Want to share how you used the template or want to ask questions about the design? Get in touch in the comments below! We'd love to receive your feedback (ha!) and hear how you deliver effective feedback training and learn about your experiences!

About Skye Suttie

I've found that by tapping into people's existing knowledge and their experiences, it creates a layered learning environment guided by applicability and practicality.

I love to create facilitator content and training materials and for this particular template on feedback, I wanted to make a topic that many tend to shy away from, more approachable and user-friendly so we can all engage in more impactful conversations that contribute to our personal and professional evolution.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to run an effective feedback workshop | SessionLab

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Giving and receiving better feedback is a route to high-performing, happier teams. Learn how to lead a feedback workshop in this step-by-step guide!

# data[].attributes.headline
Sample PBL Activities with Mastery Learning

# data[].attributes.subject
Sample PBL Activities with Mastery Learning

# data[].attributes.body
Here are some example activities:
1. Robotics Challenge: Students build and program a robot to complete specific tasks, with mastery checks at each stage.
2. Environmental Science Project: Students investigate local environmental issues and propose innovative solutions, demonstrating mastery of key concepts.
3. Math Modeling Problems: Students solve complex math problems related to real-world situations, with continuous feedback and opportunities for revision.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
STEM and STEAM Designation Rubric 2024-2025

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Formerly called Out of Eden Learn, The Open Canopy is an approach to teaching and learning that encourages young people to slow down and observe the world closely, share stories and perspectives with one another, and make connections between their own lives and bigger human stories.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The term learning progression refers to the purposeful sequencing of teaching and learning expectations across multiple developmental stages, ages, or grade levels. The term is most commonly used in reference to learning standards -concise, clearly articulated descriptions of what students should know and be able to do at a specific stage of their education.

Learning progressions are typically categorized and organized by subject area, such as mathematics or science, and they map out a specific sequence of knowledge and skills that students are expected to learn as they progress through their education. There are two main characteristics of learning progressions: (1) the standards described at each level are intended to address the specific learning needs and abilities of students at a particular stage of their intellectual, emotional, social, and physical development, and (2) the standards reflect clearly articulated sequences-i.e., the learning expectations for each grade level build upon previous expectations while preparing students for more challenging concepts and more sophisticated coursework at the next level. The basic idea is to make sure that students are learning age-appropriate material (knowledge and skills that are neither too advanced nor too rudimentary), and that teachers are sequencing learning effectively and avoiding the inadvertent repetition of material that was taught in earlier grades.

It should also be noted that learning progressions may be more accelerated or less accelerated relative to one another. For example, in some European and Asian countries students learn algebra during their middle-school years, while it has been more common in the United States for students to begin taking algebra courses in high school. Depending on the sequencing of standards and progressions, students may be taught concepts sooner or later in their education. For a related discussion, see acceleration.

When learning progressions are organized by grade level or grade span, they may be called grade-level expectations or grade-level standards. It should be noted, however, that while learning progressions are typically organized by grade level in the United States, some educators advocate that students should be able to progress through their education at a faster or slower pace based on their ability to learn the required material and demonstrate proficiency-i.e., academic programming should not necessarily be organized into age-determined grade level, but should based on each student's distinct learning needs. For example, if a fourteen-year-old student, who would customarily be enrolled in ninth grade, is capable of doing eleventh-grade math, the student should be held to the appropriate learning standards and taught at an "eleventh-grade level" regardless of his or her age. For a related discussion, see proficiency-based learning.

The following reading standards-taken from the Common Core State Standards -provide an example of how learning progressions work and how each standard builds on the previous one, increasing in complexity as students advance from one level to the next:

Kindergarten: Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.

First Grade: Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate facts or information in a text.

Second Grade: Know and use various text features (e.g., captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries, indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently.

Third Grade: Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.

Fourth Grade: Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text.

Fifth Grade: Compare and contrast the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in two or more texts.

Grades 6-8: Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to an understanding of the topic.

Grades 9-10: Analyze the structure of the relationships among concepts in the text, including relationships among key terms (e.g., force, friction, reaction force, energy).

Grades 11-12: Analyze how the text structures information or ideas into categories or hierarchies, demonstrating understanding of the information or ideas.

Debate

Educators may debate whether learning progressions are actually learning progressions, or whether they are merely content progressions or teaching progressions. This somewhat technical debate occurs mostly among educators, researchers, and education experts. The basic idea is that standards, by necessity, are created by adults with only a limited understanding of how students actually learn and develop cognitively at specific ages. Consequently, grade-level standards and learning progressions reflect "best-guess" ideas about how content or teaching should be sequenced across grades, but they do not necessarily reflect the ways in which students actually learn new knowledge and acquire new skills. For this reason, they may not facilitate learning in the most effective ways, or they may inadvertently promote and reinforce less-effective teaching strategies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The term learning progression refers to the purposeful sequencing of teaching and learning expectations across multiple developmental stages, ages, or grade levels. The term is most commonly used in reference to learning standards-concise, clearly articulated descriptions of what students should know and be able to do at a specific stage of their education.

# data[].attributes.headline
Ohio Learner Standards with Progressions

# data[].attributes.subject
Ohio Learner Standards with Progressions

# data[].attributes.body
Look here to find the learning progressions for your content standards.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ohio's Learning Standards - Extended (OLS-E) also are commonly known as "the extended standards." These standards help to ensure that students with significant cognitive disabilities are provided with multiple ways to learn and demonstrate knowledge. At the same time, the extended standards are designed to maintain the rigor and high expectations of Ohio's Learning Standards.

The Offices for Curriculum, Assessment and Exceptional Children have worked collaboratively since July 2011 in the creation of extensions to Ohio's Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Math as well as the revised standards for Science and Social Studies. A committee comprised of special educators, regular educators, parents, administrators and other stakeholders in Ohio came together in the writing of these extensions to be used for students participating in the Alternate Assessment.

On September 18, 2018 the Ohio State Board of Education adopted the revised grade level Ohio Learning Standards-Extended (OLS-E) for students that are assessed on the Alternate Assessment for Student's with Significant Cognitive Disabilities (AASCD). The OLS-E are specific statements of knowledge and skills linked to the expectations in the Ohio Learning Standards. The purpose of the extensions is to build a bridge that provides grade level access for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities to the content of the Ohio Learning Standards.

Documents and Resources for Ohio's Learning Standards - Extended (OLS-E)

OHIO LEARNING STANDARDS-EXTENDED (revised September 2018)

Ohio Learning Standards - Extended (Revised September 2018) with Learning Progressions

Ohio English Language Proficiency Standards - Extended

Frequently Asked Questions

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) offers online instructional modules for Ohio's Learning Standards - Extended (OLS-E). Educators can earn contact hours for completing these modules, which can be accessed at ohextendedstandards.org.

Questions?

For more information on the extended standards, contact:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ohio's Learning Standards - Extended (OLS-E) also are commonly known as "the extended standards." These standards help to ensure that students with significant cognitive disabilities are provided with multiple ways to learn and demonstrate knowledge. At the same time, the extended standards are designed to maintain the rigor and high expectations of Ohio's Learning Standards.