The Excavating Teaching Protocol v 3.

0
FRAMING
Framing the Conversation Set up the purpose & mindsets needed for the
Excavating Conversation:

● (Host teacher), you have learned some things

through experience about how to _______________.
● There are some key ingredients in your practice that
are generalizable to other teachers’ classrooms.
● I’m going to ask some questions to unpack your
teaching decisions: what you know, how and why you
do what you do, and why it works for your students
learning
● …so I can learn what I might be able to try and adapt
in my own teaching.

THE EXCAVATING QUESTIONS

MICRO-ANALYSIS Zoom In: WHAT & WHY

● What exactly are you doing when you… ?

● What do you look or listen for when you… ?
● What do you ask yourself?
● What are you thinking about when you…? What’s going
on in your head?

● Why do you do that?

● Why does it matter?
● How did you come to do it this way?
● How else have you done this in the past? What made
you change your approach?

PERSPECTIVE TAKING Zoom Out a Little: CONSIDER OTHER CONTEXTS

● What about this [strategy, practice, etc.] would be

helpful for _(a novice teacher)_______ getting started?

● What might look different for ____________ ? (a

novice/early career teacher)

● My context is a little different… (school, grade level,

content, etc)... what should I look (out) for with my
students? What might I need to adapt?
THEORY GENERATING Zoom Out a Little More: WHY DOES IT WORK?

● Why does that work?

● Why is this more effective than other ways you’ve
tried?
● What are the key ingredients that make this
effective?
● What does this do for your teaching?
● What does this do for students’ learning?

CONSOLIDATING LEARNING
AS A GROUP Synthesize and List: (suggestion - make a T chart)

● What are the key ingredients that make this

practice effective?

● What impact do these choices have on students’

learning, independence, joy, or problem solving?

INDIVIDUALLY Synthesize for yourself:

● \When working on X (focus area) I need to think

about ___, ___, ____ because______.
● If teachers… then students …
● If students …., then ….