Focus Group Protocol: PoG Exploration

Use this protocol to familiarize people with the Portrait of a Graduate (PoG) process. It provides a variety of examples to help get people thinking about their own community’s hopes and dreams.

The protocol, adapted from the CLEE Wagon Wheel Protocol, works best with groups of 14 or bigger, but can be modified for varying group sizes.

Goal

To explore various examples of Portraits of a Graduate.

Materials and Setup
Agenda

This procedure will take approximately 60 minutes to complete.

TIME DESCRIPTION
5 minutes Directions and Introduction: 

Wagon Wheel conversations are short conversations with a variety of people looking at different documents. Every round a participant will have a new partner, new document, and new question to consider.
5 minutes Round One:

Question to consider: What is interesting and/or compelling about this PoG?

•Assign partners to each chart paper station with a PoG example and marker. NOTE: Depending on the room setup this could be on tables in a circle around the room or on the walls of the room.  

•Partners will have 5 minutes to look at the document and record their thoughts to the prompt on the chart paper. 

•After the 5 minutes is up, have the partners thank one another for their conversations. One partner will rotate clockwise and the other will rotate counter clockwise. Once everyone has shifted, they will have a new partner, a new prompt, and a new PoG example.
5 minutes Round Two:

Question to consider: What are the hopes and dreams for young people evident/communicated in this document? What values does this document communicate?

•Repeat the process in Round 1. Have partners look at the new PoG document and record their thoughts to the prompt on the chart paper. 

•After the 5 minutes is up, have the partners thank one another for their conversations and rotate one more spot in the same direction as before.
5 minutes Round Three:

Question to consider: How might this document inform teaching and learning in this school/district?

•Repeat the process in the previous rounds. Have partners look at the new PoG document and record their thoughts to the prompt on the chart paper. 

•After the 5 minutes is up, have the partners thank one another for their conversations and rotate one spot in the same directions before.
5 minutes Round Four:

Question to consider: What resonates with you most about this document? Why?

•Repeat the process in the previous rounds. Have partners look at the new PoG document and record their thoughts to the prompt on the chart paper. 

•After the 5 minutes is up, have the partners thank one another for their conversations. For their final rotation have participants RETURN TO THEIR ORIGINAL CHART PAPER.
5 minutes Round Five:

Question to consider: What questions does this bring up about the PoG journey?

•Participants return to their original partner, chart paper, and PoG example. Take time to read what others have written. 

•Discuss responses to the prompt. 

•After the 5 minutes is up, have the partners thank one another for their conversations. They can then return to their seats.
15 minutes Debrief

•Content: Have participants share big takeaway ideas from their discussions.

•Process: How did the Wagon Wheels process work or not work for you?

•Transfer: How could you use the Wagon Wheels protocol in your PoG process?

Creative Commons License This resource was produced by the Great Schools Partnership and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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