By Daniel R. Venables
Protocols can enable teachers to have meaningful, sustained conversations about teaching and learning without getting derailed by peripheral issues like the angry parent in the office, the crying child in Mrs. Lucy’s room, the assembly on Friday, and so on. There are protocols for looking at student work, looking at teacher work, having discussions centered on an article or piece of text, reviewing student data, analyzing a dilemma a teacher might be having, and many other purposes. Daniel Venables’s Notice and Wonder protocol is useful for examining teacher or student work in a nonthreatening way.
