So what makes for a great professional book or resource? 

I’m going to be addressing books mostly in this article, but most of what I talk about here applies to any professional resource. That could include a video, article, trifold guide, or blog post. There are a lot of different genres of professional books for teachers and school staff. Some are autobiographical, where we learn lessons or are inspired from reading about someone’s life. Others are more of a workbook that leads an individual or group through a process. Overall, I find that some of the easiest and most impactful professional development books have a good balance between academic research and practical application. Usually, these types of books are great for people who want to know the “why” behind a particular topic and those who are looking for the “what” on how to implement it. By finding a book that provides both of these needs for professional development, I find that it can be quite impactful in changing the educational pedagogy of staff and their practices.  

I also look for books that are clear with their message. When a book has a strong focus, it is much easier to see teachers put those ideas into action. Some authors approach their writing with a more formal tone, while others are more informal with their approach. I’m not sure if one is better than the other, but I am seeing a trend in more informal writers, and I think that does help engage readers when they feel like they get to know the author through the book. Sometimes this comes across in personal stories. In other books, authors might rely on vignettes from people they have worked with. Either way, including a narrative element has the benefit of giving a more personal touch to a topic. I’ve also found books with reflection questions, a leader guide, or an accompanying workbook can be helpful when leading a book study. 

What’s the best way to get staff to join a book study?

A few things can help get staff to join book studies. The first is the most difficult. It’s creating a culture of learning in the staff. This may take a while to develop, but having professional development as front and center to the work a school or district does is important to the continuous improvement cycle. Just picking one year to offer book studies is not going to be as impactful as creating a culture where staff members are regularly reading and discussing what they are learning about. Some districts have helped encourage this practice by building in professional development hours as part of their teacher contracts instead of the more traditional “professional development day.” This could allow a group to meet outside the school day to read and discuss what they are learning. 

Providing multiple professional book studies can also be helpful in getting staff members to join a group. This will allow teachers to pick topics and books that they feel have a direct impact on them and their students. Allowing this autonomy is very motivating and can help develop strong relationships between teachers who have similar interests. It can also allow schools and districts to try different times to meet. Some teachers may prefer an early morning meeting to avoid conflicts with clubs or sporting events. Others would rather do it after school. Others rather meet during lunch to talk. By giving multiple ways for staff to engage, that will help create a sense of ownership in their own learning. 

What activities can I do to make a book study more engaging?

I’ve got a few easy, go-to activities and protocols that I like to do with book studies. Not only does planning for different activities mix things up a bit when it comes to our discussion time, it also models good activities that teachers can use in their classrooms with students. Here are a few of my favorite activities that work for most books or professional resources.  

Save the Last Word for Me (examples from How the Hell Do We Motivate These Kids by Todd Stanley):

• Group sizes: Groups of 4 work best. Could also do groups of 3 or 5, but that will impact the time for the activity (longer for larger groups)
• Preparation: The text should be given and read in advance. The participants should identify (underline/highlight/notes) the most important ideas that they found, with the goal of having two or three selected. Have a copy of the process for each group to reference, if needed.
• Advantages: Everyone talks. Makes the person with the idea listen to others before speaking

• Disadvantages: More structured conversations. Longer time to complete, especially with larger groups

• Process:
  
  • Step 1 - Divide
    
    • Ideally divide into groups of 4. If you have groups of 3 or 5, these groups will likely take a shorter (group of 3) or longer (group of 5) time. 
    • Each group should have a timekeeper/facilitator to make sure people don’t go too much over their time limit.
    • Either pick or have group members select who will go first. 
    • You can print out a copy of the round directions for each group as a way to remind them of the process. 
  • Step 2 - Present (1 minute)
    
    • The first presenter picks a meaningful passage and reads it. 
    • Have the presenter to give the page/paragraph and wait for people to find the passage so they can read along
    • The presenter CAN NOT talk about the passage at all after reading it.
    • Example: “In order to do this, you must create a culture of motivation in your classroom that allows students to be intrinsically driven. The phases to creating this are: Caring, Visible Learning,  Student Choice,  Authentic Learning, Effective Management, Reflection” (p. 26-27)
  • Step 3 - Reflect (30-60 seconds)
    
    • Give group members a chance to reflect on the passage. 
    • Some members will likely reread the passage to themselves. 
    • Some members might look around that page/section to give them the context for the passage.  
  • Step 4 - Respond (3 minutes)
    
    • Each member has ONE MINUTE to respond individually.
    • There should be NO discussion from the other members or the presenter. This is that person’s chance to talk. 
    • This might be tough for some people who will want to respond verbally.   
    • The member can talk about: 
      
      • If they agree/disagree with the author
      • Questions they had about the passage
      • Connections they had
      • Insights into the passage
      • Example: “I thought this was an interesting passage as well. In particular, I liked how the author broke how to create a culture of motivation down into different phases and then gave really specific examples for each one. I found this approach to be really manageable. I also like how he said that these were phases, not steps, because I could see jumping in and out of the different phases based on the needs of the classroom.” 
  • Step 5 - Last Word (3 minutes)
    
    • Finally, the presenter has their chance to have the “last word.” 
    • During this time, they can talk about: 
      
      • Why they picked the passage
      • Respond to what other group members talked about
      • New ideas they got from listening to the group
      • New wonderings or questions they had
      • Example: “I picked this passage because each one of these phases all made a ton of sense to me based on what he said earlier in the book about the three essential components of what motivates students. The only one I wasn’t sure about was the Effective Management phase, but listening to Monique reflect how she changed her classroom set up and that impacted student motivation, it makes sense to me now …”
  • Step 6 - Repeat (8 minutes per round)
    
    • Repeat steps 2-5 until everyone has had a chance to be a presenter
    • Because each round lasts about 8 minutes, groups of 3 will likely finish much earlier than groups of 4, and groups of 5 may take longer to finish. 
  • Step 7 - Group Discussion (10 minutes)
    
    • If there is time, have the different groups of four join together as a full group to share some of the passages they talked about and their reflection. 
    • To speed up the process, you can have each group decided on the passage/round they found most interesting, and then each group reports back to the full group on just that round.
  • Step 8 - Debrief (5 minutes)
    
    • As a whole group discuss: 
      
      • How was this a useful way to explore the ideas in the text and to expand your own thinking?
      • Did your perspective on “the most important” idea shift during or after this protocol?

      • How did you feel about the requirement to use the text to support your specific idea?

3-2-1 (Examples from Think Differently by Jennifer Townsend)

• Group sizes: This can work either as a large group activity, small group activity, or as an individual exit ticket. 
• Preparation: Participants can write their responses on a sheet of paper to turn in or on a preprinted exit ticket.
• Advantages: It is very flexible. It works for lots of different group sizes. It is a quick activity.
• Disadvantages: It doesn’t facilitate deep understanding of a text. It doesn’t generate a lot of dialogue. 
• Process:
  • Participants either take out a piece of paper or can fill out a premade template. 
  • Participants are asked to answer three questions/prompts with the first requiring three items/responses, the second requiring two items/response, and the last requiring one item/response. 
  • After participants write their responses, they can either share as a large or small group, or they can turn in their responses as an exit ticket. 
  • Example 3-2-1 Prompts (added some ideas for content-based classrooms as examples to provide to teachers):
    
    • 3 things you learned, 2 things that you want to learn more about, 1 question you had
    • 3 comparisons, 2 contrasts, 1 evaluation
    • 3 details, 2 interesting ideas, 1 topic sentence
    • 3 examples, 2 non-examples, 1 metaphor
    • 3 connections to yourself, 2 connections to another text, 1 connection to the world
    • 3 options, 2 facts, 1 assumption
    • 3 character traits, 2 quotes, 1 relationship
    • 3 properties of an element, 2 uses, 1 compound
  • Example (From Chapter 6 of Think Differently “Value Yourself”) 
    • 3 things I learned 
      • How to focus on what is right to improve 
      • Imagine what might be to dream bigger 
      • “I wonder if” as a coaching sentence stem
    • 2 surprising ideas 
      • Appreciative inquiry for PLCs 
      • Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver
    • 1 question
      
      • How can we use the 4 D’s to be more positive and effective in our collaboration time?

4 A’s (example from What’s Our Response? by Julie Wright)

• Group sizes: This works well in pairs, small groups, or a large group. 
• Preparation: A copy of the text and the 4 A’s protocol.
• Advantages: Focused prompts helps start the discussion. Digs deeply into the text. Asks the participants to apply the reading to their lives
• Disadvantages: Groups might end at different times. It might be a good idea to have a certain amount of time for each prompt
• 4 A’s Prompts
  
  • What Assumptions does the author of the text hold?
  • What do you Agree about within the text?
  • What do you want to Argue within the text?
  • What parts of the text do you want to Aspire to? (Act upon)
• Process
  
  • Get into groups of 4. 
  • Start with the first prompt: What assumptions does the author of the text hold?
  • Each person identifies one assumption, citing the text when appropriate
  • Allow time for the group to dialogue over the different assumptions. 
  • Repeat for the next three prompts 
• Example from What’s Our Response? 
  
  • Assumption:  RtI processes are not getting the results we are looking for. 
  • Agree:  We’ve become too rigid with how we treat students in the RtI/eMLSS process. 
  • Argue:  Good Tier 1 instruction is a type of intervention. 
  • Aspire:  Use Student Study Teams to focus on assets

Affinity Mapping (example from Moving Beyond Classroom Management by Katie Budrow and Garnet Hillman)

• • Group sizes: This works well in groups of 4 to 8.
  • Preparation: Sticky notes, pens, chart paper, markers
  • Advantages: Gets participants moving. Promotes creative thinking. Provides multiple points of entry for discussion.
  • Disadvantages: Works best when defining something or where there are many different entry points of discussion.
  • Process:
  • • Get into groups of 4 -8
    • Each group gets sticky notes, chart paper, and a marker
    • Provide the prompt or question for the group
    • Silently, have each individual come up with ideas and put them on the sticky note, one per note
    • Have the team place the notes on the chart paper.
    • Either silently or through conversation, have the team organize the notes into categories and label the groups with the marker
    • Large Group Discussion
    • After the groups are finished, have them present out to the larger group. Some questions to ask include:
    • What themes emerged?
    • What surprised you?
    • What ideas didn’t fit into a category? What category had the most ideas?
    • How did this activity expand your understanding of the concept?
    • Affinity Mapping Prompts/Questions
    • What goes into successful classroom management?
    • What would happen in the worst _________ you can imagine?
    • What words to you associate with _______________?
    • How do you balance the demands of teaching with your personal life and self-care?
    • What teaching methods or strategies do you find most effective in engaging students?
    • How do you adapt your teaching style to meet the needs of diverse learners in your classroom?

What other activities can I do to supplement a book study?

Of course there are a lot of supplemental activities you can do with book studies. One of the easiest and more impactful things you can do is reach out to the authors to see if they could arrange for a short webinar or talk with your group. You’d be surprised how many are very willing and excited to talk to people about their books. They may also point you to articles or videos that they’ve created/seen that relates to the work you are doing. They may even know some other schools or districts that are participating in the same book study and could provide some ideas of how they are doing things in their schools and districts. 

Conclusion

Professional book studies are by far one of the quickest, cost-effective ways that schools and districts can provide flexible, teacher-directed professional development to staff. It not only equips teachers with the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in their classroom, but it also builds a learning culture that will build momentum for the future.