ILMIAH

Facilitation in the Classroom!

By Michael Wilkinson
Managing Director, Leadership Strategies

As a professional facilitator, I often find myself in day-to-day situations in which I conclude, "Facilitation could be helpful here." I draw this conclusion most often when a group is ineffective due primarily to poor direction or engagement.

Sometimes, however, I experience great facilitation in situations I don't expect.

On this particular day, I went to a school to view special classroom management and reading techniques in action. As I walked through the school to the classroom, I noticed that posted outside the door of every classroom was a card labeled "Week 17, Day 4, Lesson XXX" along with a list of learning objectives for the particular lesson. It was clear that anyone visiting the class would know exactly what was being taught that Thursday.

When I walked into the classroom, the desks were grouped in teams of four to six young people. I noticed each child was reading out of a booklet and the teacher was standing in the front of the room with a manual and an open can of Popsicle sticks. I heard the teacher say, "Time for questions." She read the first question and then said "Pairs." The students immediately grab the hand of one of their neighbors. A buzz filled the air as each of these pairs began discussing answers. Quickly, pairs around the room began holding up their joined hands indicating they had an answer.

 At this point, the teacher pulled a Popsicle stick from the can and read the name that was on the stick. That child stood up and gave the answer. The teacher said, "That's right. Let's give Tony a handclap cheer." All the children immediately, and in unison, began a syncopated clap that lasted for five or six seconds. Tony was beaming. The teacher said, "Next question." After reading the question, the teacher said, "Teams." Every member at each table joined hands and begun talking about the answer. Once more, joined hands began popping up around the classroom. The teacher pulled a stick and read the name. The student responded, and the teacher said, "That's correct. Let's tell Catherine, 'Way to go.'" All the students stood, and gave each other high-fives saying, "Way to go, Catherine!" 

This activity continued for the full hour that I was present. I learned later that the young people had selected or made up their favorite cheers, and that the Popsicle sticks were used to ensure that every student had the opportunity to speak. The teacher cleverly had a can within a can. The Popsicle sticks in the inside can have not been used. The Popsicle sticks in the outside can had been. That way she would always know which children had not been given a chance to respond. 

I also learned that every day, for the same 90 minutes, in every class from kindergarten to twelfth grade, every teacher focused on reading based on a specific lesson for their reading level for that day. If the teacher didn't finish a lesson for the day, the teacher would still move to the next lesson to prevent the entire class from falling behind. I was also told that during that segment of the day, students moved into whichever class was appropriate for them. You could have a second-grade student in a fifth-grade teacher's class, and vice versa, depending upon reading level. 

Many would be surprised to learn that this school was in a public school system. Arkwright Elementary in Atlanta is one of the schools in a cluster of elementary, middle and high schools that use the Project GRAD model for instruction and classroom management. With the financial support of the business community, Project GRAD Atlanta has implemented an entire approach for school reform by having a dedicated focus on reading and mathematics, providing teacher training and support, establishing a classroom management methodology, providing a college scholarship incentive, and implementing an accountability process. 

As a facilitator, I was very impressed to see sophisticated information gathering techniques and energizing strategies used in the classroom by a truly facilitative teacher! And the fact that these same techniques were being used in every classroom in the school cluster was inspiring. There was no question that these students were being engaged and that real learning was happening. And indeed, significant improvements in test scores reflected the great strides being made. What difference facilitation can make!