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Design Your Own: Defining Constructs

Guiding Questions:

  • What is our vision of student success?
  • What are we trying to measure?

Activity Duration: 1-1.5 hours

Note: This activity requires participants to do some prep work before participating. See the Before You Begin section for details.

Many educators are drawn to making as a pedagogy because it allows students to develop many of the skills necessary to thrive in our rapidly changing world. You might already have a list of skills and mindsets you want to foster as part of a written set of makerspace values, your district’s portrait of a graduate, or in another set of competencies. If you haven’t already, you can explore some of the resources linked to in the first section of this guide to help you articulate your maker program or classroom’s values and goals.

In this workshop, you’ll think more deeply about just one of the constructs you care about supporting students to develop. The clearer your understanding of a skill or construct, the better you’ll be able to identify growth in students and provide support to students towards those goals. This activity will introduce you to a process using one of the provided constructs, but you will want to make the time to complete a similar process for each of the constructs you care about. You should also consider skills that your students would like to develop and find ways to include them in this process.

Before Gathering

  • Choose which constructs (maker skill or disposition) your group will focus on. We recommend using Collaboration or Problem Solving for this exercise.

  • Select an External Framework. Each participant should select a different external framework. Participants should review the framework and write down notes on how the framework addresses the selected construct before the gathering.
  • Choose a Facilitator. This protocol has more steps than other activities in the guide. It will be helpful for the facilitator to familiarize themself with the steps before the gathering.

Before You Begin

  • Collect the following materials:
    • Pen and paper
    • White board, flipchart, or shared virtual collaboration space (such as Google Slides virtual collaboration template)
    • Printed versions of outside frameworks (optional)
    • Your maker program values (optional)
    • Your school/district’s Graduate Profile or Profile of a Learner (optional). If your school doesn’t have a Graduate profile and you would like to include one, you can use this example from the Mendon-Upton Regional School District.
  • Assign roles:
    • Facilitator: will guide participants through the steps in the protocol, should review entire protocol before group meets.
    • Time-keeper: will keep time during Brainstorm and help Facilitator stay on track during Cluster, Name, and Resolve portions. Time estimates are given, but time will vary from group to group, and it may take longer to reach consensus.
    • Note-taker: Will write on whiteboard or virtual collaboration space during Brainstorm share out, Cluster, and Naming.
  • On the top of your white board, the scribe should write the following Focus Question: What does it look like to demonstrate [CONSTRUCT]?

Facilitation Guide

Warm-up (5 min)

  1. Check in with your group: Go around the circle and share a time that you have used the construct. What were you working on? What did it look like to use the construct?

Brainstorm (25 min) You will now individually brainstorm answers to the Focus Question. You will draw ideas from three different sources: [1] Your own values as an educator and vision of student success, [2] Your school or district’s values and competencies, and [3] Outside frameworks and research.

  1. Individual Brainstorming Part 1 (5 min): Return to the external framework you reviewed before the session and your district or school’s values and competencies. Brainstorm a list of answers to the focus question based on these frameworks. Each answer should be a single short sentence. If the chosen construct was Agency, one of your answers might be “Setting your own goals,” or “Seeking out relevant resources to solve a problem.” Try to write at least five ideas.
  2. Individual Brainstorming Part 2 (5 min): Now add answers to your list based on your own values and vision of student success. Each idea should still be a single short sentence that answers the focus question. Try to come up with at least 5 more ideas.
  3. Select your best ideas (5 min): Individually, review all of the answers on your list. Select the ones that are the clearest and most connect to your values, district values, or outside frameworks. If they are not already, rephrase these ideas into clear, 3-10 word sentences or phrases. (The number of ideas selected by each person may vary, but aim to have no more than 20 items to share across your entire group. For example, if you have 4 people, aim for around 4-6 ideas per person.)
  4. Share the ideas (10 min): Go around the circle, with each person sharing one of their ideas. Record each idea in a list on your whiteboard. Number each item for easy identification. Continue until all ideas have been shared and recorded.

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Cluster (10-15 min) Find the overlaps and similarities between the different ideas generated.

  1. Give the first item a symbol write it next to its number. (✩, △, ≡, ♯, ○, etc.)
  2. Ask if the second item is the same or similar to the first. If it is, draw the same symbol. If not, write a different symbol beside it.
  3. Continue through the list, categorizing each item with a symbol. Some items may have more than one symbol.
  4. Continue until all items have a symbol. Each idea with a specific symbol now represent a cluster.

Name the clusters (10-15 min) The names for each cluster should provide different answers to the focus question, and provide different ways a student might demonstrate the selected construct, or indicators of the construct. They should be specific, observable, and represent the ideas from your brainstormed list.

  1. Draw all of your symbols in a column next to your list.
  2. Read through all of the list items with the first symbol. What should that group be named? To come up with a name, the facilitator might ask the following questions:
    • What one sentence or phrase will be most descriptive of all ideas in this cluster?
    • What title will be inclusive of all insights represented by the ideas?
    • What is our insight or answer to the focus question being pointed to by the ideas in the cluster?

After you have come up with a name, be sure you have consensus or agreement from the group. If not, continue to rework the name of the cluster. If you have consensus, write the name next to the symbol. Continue until all clusters have a name.

Resolve (5-10 min) Review and reflect on your work.

  1. Read through all of the named groups out loud. Together, it should represent a shared understanding of the construct, with individual actions you might see a student do to demonstrate the selected construct.
  2. Discuss the results:
    • What on the list are you most excited about or intrigued by? Are you uneasy or uncomfortable about anything on the list?
    • What new insights do you have about the selected construct? Has anything been left out?
  3. Determine next steps. See suggestions below.

Here is an example of what your whiteboard will look like after this step: Whiteboard Example

This protocol was adapted from the ToP Consensus Workshop Process from ICA International.

Next Steps

There are a number of next steps you might take to continue to build your team’s shared understanding of the construct and the individual indicators.

  • Draw snapshots or frames from a comic strip of what it would look like if a student was demonstrating one of the items on your list. Compare the drawings with your colleagues to see similarities and differences in your understanding.
  • Share your results with students. Ask them to draw a picture of what it might look like if they were doing one of the things on your final list. Ask them what on the list excites them or makes them uneasy. Ask them if anything is missing.
  • Share your results with other stakeholders (your principal, parents, or others) to get feedback. You’ll also want to set aside time to come to consensus, like you did today, on each of the skills or mindsets you want to assess with your team. You can use this protocol, but you may need to extend some of the times for Clustering & Naming. We recommend starting with a small set (2-3) to begin, and add more as you get more comfortable with noticing and assessing skills in your makerspace or classroom.
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