Guidelines for Professional Development Event (PDE) Facilitators
Overview: This worksheet is to help Facilitators (previously known as presenters) determine the strands and major and minor sub-topics your presentation will address. For practitioners to accurately follow their district, building, and/or personal Professional Development (PD) plan(s), the summary of your presentation should reflect the major and minor sub-topics to be covered.
Process: On the Professional Development Event Matrix there are four strands for PD. For your presentation, identify the sub-topics that will be addressed. For some presentations you may identify only a few sub-topics and for other presentations there may be as many as a dozen or more. After identifying the sub-topics, rank them from most important to least important. Based on your intimate knowledge of the subject, identify the major sub-topics (major topics address both the theoretical underpinnings of the methodology, school/district implications and the classroom methods of pedagogy). One way to gauge the importance of a sub-topic is to ask the question, "Would my presentation be altered or weakened without this sub-topic?"
Example: You are presenting qualitative data concerning your third-grade students collected as they authored a multimedia storybook. The project was designed to support literacy, collaboration within student groups, and the use of technology in the classroom. While reviewing the "Professional Development Event Matrix" you decide the following sub-topics are all relevant to the presentation.
1.2.C. 1.3.A. 2.1.B. 2.2.B. 2.3.D. 2.3.E. 2.5.C. 3.1.A. 3.1.C. 3.2.B.
3.2.C. 3.3.A. 3.4.A. 3.4.B. 4.1.D 4.2.C. 2.3.B. 3.1.B. 3.3.B.
While ranking the selections, your reflection focuses on the two main goals of the project 1) to engage students with technology (technology standards) and 2) to write and edit in a collaborative fashion (communication arts standards). With this in mind, you determine the most important major sub-topics are: 3.1.A. 3.1.B. 1.2.C. 3.2.C.
Upon review of the remaining sub-topics, you determine the parental involvement was important as it created a learning group among the parents as they helped complete the final multimedia CD. You determine this was a minor role overall, but significant in engaging families. You select 4.2.C as a minor sub-topic.
Process: After determining the major and minor sub-topics, complete the "Sub-Topics to be Addressed" portion of the registration form. Enter the major and minor sub-topics you selected from the PDE Matrix.
Major and Minor Sub-Topics to be Addressed in the Presentation
Major Sub-Topic(s) (rank most to least important):
3.1.A. 3.1. Assessing Student Learning A. Congruence with instructional goals
3.1.B. 3.1. Assessing Student Learning B. Criteria and standards
1.2.C. 1.2. Selecting Instructional Goals C. Suitability for diverse students
3.2.C. 3.2. Maintaining Accurate Records C. Non-instructional records
Minor Sub-Topic(s) (rank most to least important):
4.2.C. 4.2. Communicating with Families C. Engagement of families in the instructional program
NOTE: The Practitioners can now read the description of the PD presentation to determine if it is relevant to their teaching practice. After determining the presentation may support their practice, they can then decide if the major and/or minor sub-topics meet their district, building, and/or personal PD goal(s).