The Power of Protocols: An Educator's Guide to Better Practice, Second Edition

By Alan Dichter, Nancy Mohr, Elizabeth C. McDonald, et al.

Book Overview

Since the publication of the first edition, the use of protocols has spread from conferences and workshops to everyday school and university settings. Responding to educators' ongoing needs, this new edition features seven totally new protocols. This teaching and professional development tool is essential for anyone working with collaborative groups of teachers on everything from school improvement to curriculum development to teacher education at all levels. Featuring a diverse selection of protocols, this book includes:

Step-by-step descriptions of how educators can use protocols to study together, work on problems of practice, teach well, and explore students' work.Explanations of the particular purpose for each protocol, discussions of the value that educators have found in using them, and helpful tips for facilitators. A free supplement on the Teachers College Press website with "Abbreviated Protocols" that can be downloaded and customized to suit each facilitator's needs.

PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITON

"The Power of Protocols embeds powerful, inquiry-oriented professional learning tools within a high-performance workplace to enable schools to successfully teach all students to high standards."

--Dennis Sparks, Executive Director, National Staff Development Council

"This book offers creative yet practical paths to professional growth that can improve the practice of teachers and the collaborative growth of a whole faculty."

-- Robert Evans, author of The Human Side of School Change

"I found the idea of protocols and their suggested application to be well conceived and articulated by the authors." -- NASSP Bulletin

"I deeply appreciate the way this guide helped to enlarge my understanding of protocols and deepen my sense of their efficiency in teaching practice."

--Horace, Quarterly Journal of CES

"I was persuaded by colleagues to give the protocols at least a chance. And what a revelation they proved to be "

-- Harris Sarney, High School Principal

"Using provocative texts and a variety of protocols is one way to hold ourselves accountable to each other and accountable for the success of our students."

-- Camilla Greene, Professional Developer

"Using a simple protocol, students speak in turn, first describing the work and then offering interpretive observations. The benefits of using the protocol are immediately evident."

--Eric Baylin, Teacher

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807747696
• ISBN13: 9780807747698
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Teachers College Press
• Length: 124 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.5" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

never think protocols is a bad word again

This book offers lots of protocol formats that can be used to analyze work and for classroom instructional purposes. Must have book.

Using the Power of Protocols

This is an excellent book for educators, whether classroom teachers or professors such as myself. I use it constantly as a reference and include it in online learning environments as well.

Very powerful practices

Using the protocols in this volume do lead to better practice.Several years ago, I attended a series of training sessions conducted by the authors on using protocols in professional development situations and experienced the "power of protocols" first-hand. Since then, I have used them or variations in several ways that have lead to powerful insights for all involved. Most recently, in a graduate education course in technology use, my students (prospective or practicing teachers earning a Master's degree) used a modified version of the Tuning Protocol to give and receive feedback on their final projects. All the students commented on the contrast to typical final presentation sessions, and how this experience made them better listeners as presenters and audience members. We also used the Provocative Prompts protocol as a final class activity. I've used these protocols in working with teachers and administrators in schools. These protocols give people structured opportunties to talk, and to listen -- especially useful in situations of inherently unequal power, such as in meetings with a principal or district-level administator and teachers.This is an excellent addition to your library if you are a facilitator of any kind (principal, teacher educator, lead teacher, etc.) and is a good companion book to David Allen, Tina Blythe, and Barbara Schieffelin Powell's book "Looking Together At Student Work."