Focus Group Protocol: Chalk Talk

This protocol is designed to familiarize people with the Portrait of a Graduate (PoG) process and provides a variety of examples to get people thinking about their community’s hopes and dreams.

This strategy is ideal for gathering feedback in focus group discussions from large groups of people (community members, students, and/or staff) to generate ideas and prioritize themes for developing a Portrait of a Graduate (PoG).

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 facilitate focus group conversations and collect responses from a community partner group.

Materials and Setup

Sticky dots
Markers
Chart paper

Agenda

This procedure will take approximately 60 minutes to complete.

TIME	DESCRIPTION
5 minutes	Directions and Introduction: •Divide the people into groups of ~4 people. •The groups will move through 4 stations and will work collaboratively to brainstorm responses to the prompts. •Post each prompt on a separate chart paper around the room. There may need to be more than one set of stations depending on the overall group size of the session. •Groups spend 10 minutes at each station and then rotate to a new chart paper and question. •Groups record their ideas directly onto the chart paper.
40 minutes (10 minutes per station)	Station Rotations Each group begins at a different station. Each rotation is timed for 10 minutes. Groups rotate at the same time. At each station, groups read the previous comments recorded and add their own ideas. Station One: As you think about the PoG attributes, what does “success for all” mean? What parts of the vision/mission strike you as particularly important to focus on? Why? Is there anything you feel is missing? Station Two: Educating for the unknown: React to the quote. As you consider the quote, what ideas/actions should we focus on as we plan for improvement over the next five years? “The world we are educating learners for is something of a moving target…Wagering that tomorrow will be pretty much like yesterday does not seem to be a very good bet today. Perhaps we need a different vision of education, a vision that foregrounds educating for the unknown as much as for the known.” — Hough, L. (2015). What's Worth Learning in School. Station Three: As you think about fostering student success, what are some things our schools do particularly well and need to keep doing? On the other hand, what areas require improvement and focused energy and resources? Station Four: As you think about our students’ lives in and out of school, what is important to keep in mind? How can we best respond to the needs of our students, families, and community?
15 minutes	Gallery Walk: Individually, participants walk around and read completed stations. Participants use sticky dots to highlight statements that resonate with them.
5 minutes	Wrap Up •Thank participants for participating. •Provide an overview of next steps.

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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