EduProtocols Review
My EduCrush
For quite some time, I have had an “EduCrush” on the concept and book Eduprotocols. I was first introduced to the idea via Matt Miller’s Ditchsummit back in late 2017. Jon Corippo, one of the book’s authors along with Marlena Hebern, was a guest presenter. If you have not heard Jon talk via video or a podcast, do so now! He is energetic and infectious with his passion for doing things in education that don’t suck! It was this energy and passion that pointed me towards Eduprotocols. But at the time, I just couldn’t quite see how they would work in a 3rd grade classroom.
And then came news that there would be a book. Any podcast or chat that mentioned Eduprotocols was now on my radar (I must have listened to Jon’s turn on “Tech Learn Coffee” – TLC Ninja a dozen times by now). But unfortunately, my PD book budget was about as low as a well digger… well let’s just leave it at that. Money was tight and the book would have to wait. In order to feed my Eduprotocols crush, I followed the #EDUprotocols hashtag on Twitter and then stealthily lurked the #OrEdchat as they did a book study.
This was all great. I was starting to see the protocols being fleshed out and could start to think of ways to use them in class. In fact, after hearing the folks at #OrEdchat talk about “Frayer a Friend”, I went ahead and implemented that towards the end of the school year. Why not jump in? But I still was at a loss for how it all might work. This was especially true in two areas I wanted the protocols most – 8*Parts for grammar/language and math (thanks to the TLC podcast for the little math tidbit). I heard about them over and over but just could not quite figure out how these worked.
Daddy’s ‘Petagoji’ Book
Finally, after it seemed like the whole Twitter world had read it, I had the book in my hands (although it didn’t last long… my two and a half year old daughter intercepted the package to read Daddy’s “petagoji” book). Stoically, I started reading the first chapter with intent to read straight through. But by the end of chapter 2 I was bouncing to those 8*Parts chapters. I had already shared with my team about the grammar possibilities (we’re looking at ways to give that more attention this coming year) and wanted to see the details on the math set (since I felt it was a perfect fit for what we needed to help with mastery). I was not disappointed. As I read, the protocols became more clear. So much so, in fact, that I sat down and started creating a potential math protocol in Google Sheets. But I’ll come back to that later when I detail some of the uses I’ve taken from my reading. First, a quick review of the book.
The book can be broken, it seems, into three sections.
Culture > Content
The first section was a surprise to me. I was expecting a functional list of content driven strategies. But the first section stresses the idea that culture is greater than content. I was struck by how invested both authors were not only in making sure their ideas were deployed appropriately but also their concern for the students who would encounter these protocols. Most of what you’ll see in the first set of chapters is more about preparing you to shift or to continue building culture and community with your students all in the first few weeks.
Pass the Gravy
Section two of course is the “meat and potatoes” of the book. Most of the content delivery protocols are detailed in the middle chapters. One key for this section is the inclusion of adaptations for “littles”. The authors have done a nice job attempting to scale down some of the more complex protocols to help younger students access them. While some of the protocols could be used with my third graders as is, others would need to be adapted. It is nice to see ideas for these already provided. Looking over the many different learning frames, it could be easy to get overwhelmed. It could be easy to think you had to use them all. Here again the authors are determined that the reader does this right. They suggest starting with one and moving on to a second once that one has been practiced and is well underway. In addition, it is important that the reader identify a small set (2-5) protocols that would work. Trying to introduce all (or even most) of these does not seem practical or necessary. The magic of these learning frames is that the teacher can find the few “recipes” that push learning forward and make his or her time more efficient (which leads to more time with students).
Craft > Course
I would characterize the last section of the book as being “craft greater than course”. By that I mean, both Jon and Marlena are intentional about putting student learning first and letting the pacing or scope of the content fall as it may. They stress how the protocols allow teachers to focus on providing the tools and abilities to master skills instead of worrying about “finishing the book”. This isn’t a “textbooks bad”, “pinterest good” sort of ranting either. In fact, they comment on how to mine the textbooks for the gold that is already there to use within the more engaging and more dynamic protocols. There is a way to follow along with the scope and tackle the content that is far greater than going page 1, 2, 3, etc…. The advice in this section is a gem in that it provides wisdom needed to navigate the two islands that sometime develop (content/standards/scope vs innovation/student choice/creativity). Where section one makes me a better teacher from the culture/relationship standpoint, this section makes me a better teacher from the planning/curriculum deployment side.
So how exactly do I see this making an impact in my classroom? Which Eduprotocols do I plan to put in place and use throughout the year?
Thank You for Frayering a Friend…
The Frayer a Friend will be used first day and continued throughout as a vocab tool. I love how the model is used with low content as a “get to know you” culture building activity and then when it comes to use it for more in-depth content vocabulary later, the students already have the framework in mind. They can focus 100% on the terms we’re working with instead of the method to learn them. As a collection point, I even plan to have a year long Google Slides set up for students to add certain vocab related Frayers as a collaborative way to access more terms than a typical student would on their own. Through commenting, students can even suggest updates or additions to submitted Frayers to strengthen the understanding of the terms for everyone.
The second frame I see being useful on a weekly basis is the Bookakucha protocol. Students can use this as a reading response option instead of just filling out a sticky note or a reading journal no one but them will see. And since we have a bit of weird time due to a condensed schedule one day a week to accommodate Art, this will provide a perfect day to do the Bookakucha presentations.
The third protocol (and the one that initially drew me in) is the 8 Parts. I still don’t know exactly how this will work for either grammar or math, but plan to implement them in the long run. With grammar, my team and I have discussed the need to be more intentional with instruction. So we are carving out some time and we have a book that we will look at for lessons. But I think 8 Parts may be able to meet the same goals and be more engaging… just have to figure out how it all works with timing and other curriculum demands. But I see the outstanding value in it!
For math, I have started working on a Google Sheet with 10 – 12 questions related to standards or strands we have to cover in first quarter. Using Sheets and the revision name feature, I can have students do this 2-3 times per week and give them a new set of numbers (all within the same framework) with just a few seconds clicking/typing. Students who don’t master can even stay on the same numbers and I can always go back and look at the history when I need/want evidence for mastery of the topics we’re grading out for first quarter. Due to the differing skills in later quarters, I’m not as certain how it will look, but hope to use this 8 parts Math inspired protocol to help me pinpoint who is moving along and who is struggling as we work on all the strands for 10 weeks instead of each strand for 1 week.
In addition to these go-to protocols, I can see the “as needed” usage of things like Cybersandwhich, Classbook, Internet Scavenger Hunt and/or Iron Chef as we navigate different portions of our science and social studies curriculums. I have already used (although not perfectly) Cybersandwhich this previous school year and found the more often it is practiced, the better the students get with the framework (as is true for all of them). So getting this (or the others in this list) in often enough will be the trick.
I am excited to see where my students can go and how much we can accomplish (both in building relationships and conquering learning targets) with the inclusion of these protocols. However, I am quite aware of the warning the authors give in the book to pick one (Frayer for me) and get good at it before setting a new one down for students. So while this is an outline of what I see, the natural progression of the year and the specific needs of my students will dictate how everything roles out.