SAM Facilitator Support Training

Three Anchorsof

Effective SAM Facilitation

The purpose of SAM is to systematically expand each school’s sphere of success

Every school has a sphere of success – groups of students for whom the current practices are working

Every school has groups of students for whom the current practices are NOT working

SAM is designed to build a school’s capacity to systematically increase the proportion of students for whom practices work, through data-based inquiry and leadership development

The Purpose

If we continue to do what we’re doing, we will continue to get the results we’re getting

In other words: What got us here won’t take us there

Working Assumptions

To get different results we need to do something different

To do something different we need to challenge our assumptions

Challenging our assumptions creates dis-comfort and results in learning

The work of SAM is therefore positioned at the edge of what we know

Focused on a small group of students outside the sphere of success who:

Are the SAME in some way – share a component of the curriculum they are struggling to master

And who are DIFFERENT in some way – struggling for different reasons

Framework

Focusing the work on a small group of students:

Makes the work manageableProvides an experience of what is

possible Illuminates the systemic issues that

need to be addressed to support and sustain continuous improvement in student outcomes

WHAT we focus on

TEAMS: groups of teachers who own both the problem and the solution

TARGETS: specific measurable objectives for discrete groups of students

TASKS: Activities intentionally designed to achieve identified targets

HOW we organize the work

It is the Job of the Facilitator

to design and anchor

the work of

the Teams

Facilitation

Provoke and Support Learning Keep the Focus on Results Ensure Timely, Honest and

Actionable Feedback

The Three Anchors of Facilitation

Anchor #1: Learning Zone

Danger Zone

Learning Zone

Comfort Zone

Provoke and contain the anxiety associated with learning

Operating outside the “comfort zone” produces anxiety. To keep participants in the “learning zone,” facilitators design activities that provoke enough anxiety to promote learning, then contain anxiety if participants begin to “turn off” or “shut down”

Make your moves transparent Facilitators model the behaviors they want participants to

master by clearly communicating what they are doing and why they are doing it

Facilitator Moves

Acquiescing to participants’ desire to remain in or return to their “comfort zone”

Facilitator Pitfall

Ensure that the targets participants select are manageable, clear, and specific

Ensure that participants identify valid and reliable methods for determining if and when their targets have been met

Anchor #2: Results

Hold the targets firmly and publicly

Let the work and the participants push against the targets

Help participants manage distractions – use each distraction as a teachable moment!

Facilitator Moves

Facilitator-owned, rather than participant-owned targets

Managing distractions FOR the participants, rather then teaching them how to manage themselves

Facilitator Pitfalls

Learning is adjusting our behavior in response to feedback from the environment

We learn to do the work, by doing it

We adjust our behavior based upon “feedback” and “data” about how effective our actions have been in getting us where we want to go

Anchor #3: Feedback

Timely – The more frequent the feedback, the more opportunities there are for learning. Facilitators design for frequent feedback

Honest – Feedback is only useful if it is accurate.

Facilitators provoke and support the speaking of truth. Actionable – Feedback is only useful if it identifies

specific behaviors that can be changed in particular ways. Facilitators insist on low-inference references and examples

Facilitator Moves

Designing so that the facilitator, rather than the participants and/or the student results, are the primary source of feedback

Softening impact (and muddling the learning) by using vague language or sandwiching feedback on what needs to change between expressions of praise for what doesn’t

Facilitator Pitfalls