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Roles for Discussing Student Work

There are four roles for discussing student work:• Presenting Teacher• Participant• Recorder• Facilitator

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Presenting Teacher’s Role

The Presenting Teacher:• Makes notes about questions and comments about

the student work.• Listens to the discussion.• Makes a choice about responding to questions and

comments from participants.

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Participant’s Role

The Participant: • Reads the work.• Recognizes and comments on what the student

knows.• Discusses implications for teaching and learning.• Reflects on the protocol.

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Recorder’s Role

The Recorder:• Collects notes for the presenting teacher.• Makes note of warm and cool feedback, focusing on

ideas that might be used in the classroom.

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Facilitator’s Role

The Facilitator:• Keeps the group focused.• Knows and follows the process.• Asks for clarification and specificity when

evaluations are being made and questions are being raised.

• Redirects questions during the discussion of implications to the speaker’s practice.

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Guidelines for Facilitators

1. Be assertive about keeping time.

2. Be protective of teacher‑presenters.

3. Provoke substantive discourse.

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Norms for Participants

• Be respectful of teacher‑presenters and desired outcomes.

• Contribute to substantive discourse by offering constructive, thoughtful feedback.

• Be appreciative of the facilitator's role, particularly in regard to following the norms and keeping time.

• Listen actively.• Maintain positive intentions.

Allen, D. The Tuning Protocol: A Process for Reflection. Horace. (1995, March).

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Sample Protocol

Looking at Student Work: A Tuning Protocol

• Welcome• Teacher presentation• Clarifying questions• Examination of student work• Warm and cool feedback• Plan of action• Debrief• Wrap up, next steps

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Welcome

• Introductions. • Review protocols. • Review norms for collective work.• Ask one person to serve as the teacher presenter.• Distribute the work that will be shared.

5 Minutes

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Teacher Presentation: Kinds of Questions

About the quality of student work• Is the work “good enough”?• What is “good enough”?• In what ways does this work meet or fail to meet

the standard?

About teaching practice• What do the students’ responses indicate about the

effectiveness of the prompt or the assignment? • How might the assignment be improved?

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Teacher Presentation: Kinds of Questions

About students’ understanding• What does this work tell us about how well the

student understands the topic/the assignment?• What initial understandings do we see beginning to

emerge in this work?

About students’ growth• How does this range of work from a single student

demonstrate growth over time? • How can I support student growth more effectively?

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Teacher Presentation: Kinds of Questions

About students’ intent• On what issues or questions is this student focused?• What aspects of the assignment intrigued this

student? • Into which parts of the assignment did the student

put the most effort?• To what extent is the student challenging

her/himself? In what ways?

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Teacher Presentation

• The Teacher Presenter describes the context for student work.

• The Teacher Presenter defines the "guiding question," the desired outcome for the group’s review of student work.

• The Teacher Presenter presents the assignment.• The Teacher Presenter presents the scoring rubric.• Others listen carefully.

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Clarifying Questions

• Participants ask clarifying questions. They ensure that they understand the assignment and the scoring rubric.

• If you run out of time for clarifying questions, the facilitator might save some questions for the warm/cool feedback (if a question needs more than a brief answer).

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Examination of Student Work

• Share and review samples of student work. (It might be original or copied pieces of work, clips of video presentations, lab reports, art or other work.)

• Participants reflect on what they would like to contribute to the feedback session.

• Use the following guiding questions as you look at the student’s work.

10 Minutes

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Warm and Cool Feedback

The Peer Review or Tuning Protocol deliberately cultivates and juxtaposes:

• Warm responses that are supportive and empathic, and that emphasize the promise of a learning experience.

• Cool responses that are questioning and comparative, and that emphasize the ways in which the learning experience might be enriched*. 

* Joseph P. McDonald, "Three Pictures of an Exhibition: Warm, Cool, and Hard," Phi Delta Kappan, February 1993, pp. 480-485.

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Warm and Cool Feedback

The deliberate effort to keep warm and cool feedback separate and in balance can seem needlessly artificial.

But this artifice is beneficial because it allows us to:• Seek out deeper levels of promise and shortcoming.• Give each kind of response its due.• Examine and discuss the actual work of students

and teachers in a safe environment.

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Warm Comments

Warm, positive feedback consists of supportive, encouraging, appreciative questions, statements and comments about the work, ideas, issues presented that begin dialogue.

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Warm Comments

• When giving "warm comments" you may want to try to use a two-part format:

1. Some introductory phrase that indicates that this is a “warm” comment.

2. Some reason or explanation about what the commentator valued about the work.

As a facilitator, emphasize the importance of giving reasons. 

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Warm Comments

• Comments like "Hey, nice lab!" or "Great homework assignment!" do not provide enough meaningful feedback for the teacher presenter.

• Be generous. Begin with a positive intention and positive presupposition.

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Examples of "Warm Comments"

• The strengths of this work are…

• The activity that triggered this assignment was very well aligned with the ________ standard.

• It was clear that the students understood the rubric that was being used because there was evidence…

• The interdisciplinary approach here is particularly effective. You incorporated… and… and…

• This is an innovation on a classical strategy... I appreciate how you started with… and then shifted to…

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Examples of "Warm Comments"

• With these clear and simple directions, everyone will be able to do what you have asked.

• This is exciting because it involves examples that are "real world" to kids. When you…it allowed…

• It is obvious that you allowed for higher level thinking when you…

• I was delighted to see the historical reference, because that's one of our standards we focus on the least with kids.

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Cool Comments

Cool feedback allows a person to constructively question and voice concerns about the work/issue.

When providing cool comments:• Focus on one suggestion at a time. • Be constructive.• Open up "possibilities" and options. • Analyze and make connections. • Avoid implying "You should…” or “You should not…"

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Cool Comments

"Cool" comments can run the gamut and may include:• Pointing out where a rule was not followed (as in

writing a multiple choice question based on state standards).

• Begging a philosophical discussion. • Prompting a decision by the group. 

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Examples of "Cool Comments"

Some examples of introductory phrases for "cool" comments might be:

• What are you considering with regard to…

• Have you thought about…

• I wonder...

• What if you...

• What connections have you made (to real world, other concepts, other disciplines, etc.)…?

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Examples of "Cool Comments"

• Here are some strategies that would address …

• What might add clarification to…

• To align more closely with the standards, what if…

• Might students interpret this as...

• What do you think would happen if…?

• Here are three possibilities . . .

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Cool Comments

Cool feedback:• Offers different ways to

think about the work or issues presented.

• Raises questions. • Challenges and extends

the person’s thinking.• Raises concerns.

Cool comments and questions follow "warm" feedback.

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Warm and Cool Feedback

• Remind Participants of the focusing question(s). • Participants share

feedback/ideas/options/possibilities. • Teacher-Presenter listens to the ideas generated.• Facilitator focuses and clarifies.

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Plan of Action

1. Consider all of the suggestions.

2. The teacher presenter shares his/her personal action plan. • What will the teacher do, try, change, reinforce, or

modify as a result of the dialogue? • Prepare a list of "things to do."

3. All participants consider whether the dialogue has implications for their work. • What ideas did the others in the group get

that might influence their work?

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Debrief

Facilitator leads an open discussion on the tuning experience…

• What went well? • What questions did the process raise?• What will we do differently next time?

7 Minutes