Developing A Rationale: A Plan to Establish Desired

Results In Order To Develop Future Leaders

Gia Isabel Pak Dec 19, 2019 (Edited Jan 5)

As a Pontiac Speaks Coach, one of our primary goals is to help storytellers develop, and deepen their stories. To do so, we
must plan our sessions in a way which will allow storytellers to first form meaningful connections with their own stories,
and then provide storytellers with the ability to deliver their stories in an impactful manner to a wider audience.
Thus, in this portion of the module, we will first go over the importance of providing a safe space for storytellers. Next, we
will be going over the importance of formulating a rationale after we have established a trusting relationship with the
storytellers.

SAFE SPACE
As Pontiac Speaks coaches, it is important to approach a storyteller's personal story with respect, patience, and empathy.
While storytellers are telling you their stories, it is important to remember that storytellers are entering into a vulnerable
position, and possibly sharing information which they have not disclosed to others. Given that sharing their stories may give
rise to psychological, or societal risks for the storytellers, it is important for coaches to provide storytellers the proper safe
space so that they will feel secure, and most importantly, heard.
The most important step to providing a safe space is to listen. As motivational coaches, we are constantly filled with the
need to share, or to express our emotions, with the belief that it could benefit the storyteller. It is possible that Pontiac
Speaks coaches will use this strategy more frequently with the younger Pontiac storytellers in order to demonstrate
commonality, and to deter any potential barriers due to age differences. Pontiac Speaks coaches may want to comfort the
storytellers by sharing with them how they had experienced similar hardships, and this strategy--as many past revolutionary
leaders had also utilized--is a great way to unify a group.
However, it is also important to consider the amount of time you are talking during your sessions. In order for Pontiac
storytellers to feel heard, Pontiac Speaks coaches must be conscious of the time they are using, as two hour sessions per
week are not a lot of time. In addition, it is important consider that your storyteller has insecurities for a wide-range of
reasons, and so talking over the student with your own experiences or advice may shut them down from sharing any further
information about themselves.

DEVELOPING A RATIONALE BASED ON UNDERSTANDING, APPLICATION, AND DRILLS

Once you get to know the storytellers, it is your job to help them develop their stories so that it will be impactful for a wider
audience. How can this be done? To begin, we must craft a rationale which follows the understanding-based approach to
instruction. This means that when coaches provide storytellers multiple opportunities to apply their stories in meaningful
(authentic) contexts, storytellers will produce more impactful stories.
What do we mean by multiple opportunities? This means that coaches should not expect storytellers to master their own
stories exclusively through "drill practices" or repetitive cycles of retelling a story until they "get it right." Instead, we require
Pontiac Speaks coaches to offer storytellers a balanced focus on understanding their stories, applying their stories to
different situations, and then orally practicing their stories.
For example, when we think about sports, have we witnessed good coaches make players exclusively practice drills, then
expect them to play well during official games? No, but instead, good coaches require their players to learn different game
strategies by alternating their positions in the field, along with practicing their daily drills.

In sum, It is important for Pontiac Speaks coaches to emphasize to their assigned storytellers: Although my story is
important, how can my story help others? To help Pontiac Speaks coaches reach this point with their storytellers, we must
discuss the importance of first, developing a rationale based on understanding, application, and drills.

Before we continue, what exactly is a rationale? A rationale is a set of reasons, or a logical basis for a course of action of a
particular belief. In this case, our belief/mission is to help develop students into future leaders, and also spread mental
Storytelling Coach Modules
health awareness.
To establish the logical basis or course of actions towards the mission of this program, we intend to have Pontiac Speaks
candidates engage in storytelling.
Thus, to adequately cover all of these important components, the rationale should answer the following questions:
What long-term transfer goals are targeted?
What meanings should storytellers make to arrive at important understandings?
What essential questions will storytellers keep considering?
What knowledge and skill will storytellers acquire?
What established mission-related goals are targeted?
*Note: These questions, in this context, appears confusing. However, it will make more sense once you are working on the
actual template attached to this module!*

Why is it important to think about our rationale before we begin sessions with storytellers?
Just like how in life we do not engage in circumstances without formulating a plan, likewise before we think about the
outline of our coaching sessions, it is crucial for us to craft an official rationale in order to better prepare themselves, as
well as the storytellers in the most effective manner.
In the attachment of this module is a template for formulating a rationale. Please save this template as it will be relevant to
the next part of this module, and also the Capstone Portfolio Assignment for this module.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS:
1. What are some ways I could create a safe space for my assigned storyteller? What strategies could I put in place in order
to do so?

2. After reviewing the Pontiac Speaks Rationale Template, please fill in the blanks:

In order to to create an equitable opportunity for future leaders and scholars of Pontiac High School, while at the same time,
demonstrate the need for mental health awareness in the community, I will ______________________________(Strategies for
Transfer), ______________________________(Strategies for Meaning), and finally, ______________________________(Strategies for
Acquisition).

Source: Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units, Association
for Supervision & Curriculum
Development, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-
com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/lib/umichigan/detail.action?
docID=698904.

Pontiac Speaks Rational…

PDF

Class comments

Add class comment…

 What long-term transfer What knowledge and skill
Rationale: goals are targeted?
What meanings should
will storytellers acquire?
What established mission-

The Desired storytellers make to arrive

at important
related goals are
targeted?
understandings?
Results What essential questions
will storytellers keep
considering?

Established Goals Transfer: The ability for storytellers to What thought-provoking

What mission-related goals truly understand what it means to tell a questions will foster transfer?
story, and excel by taking what they have
will be addressed in this learned about themselves, and use that
coaching session? information to impact others.

Goal: to create an equitable ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

opportunity for future leaders Storytellers will be considering…
and scholars of Pontiac High
School, while at the same
time, demonstrate the need for
mental health awareness in
the community.

Meaning: The ability for storytellers to What specifically do you want

form meaning from their own students to understand?
understanding.

UNDERSTANDINGS
Storytellers will understand
that…

Acquisition: The knowledge and What discrete skills and

skills which storytellers are expected to processes should storytellers
acquire. What you want storytellers to
learn by the end of the program. be able to use?

Storytellers will know… Storytellers will be skilled at…

Source:
Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units,
Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central,
https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/lib/umichigan/detail.action?docID=698904.
 Storytelling Coach Modules

Principles of Backwards Design: An Innovative Way

of Creating an Impac ul Coaching Session
Gia Isabel Pak Dec 19, 2019 (Edited Jan 5)

INTRODUCTION TO BACKWARDS DESIGN

As Pontiac Speaks Coaches, we need to think critically about how we are going to organize the coaching sessions with the
storytellers. In this module, we are going to inform you about a coaching framework called Backwards Design, which was
designed to develop, and deepen student understanding. In other words, this framework is intended for coaches to help
storytellers make meanings out of the "big ideas" from their own stories, then be able to have the storytellers "transfer"
these "big ideas" towards a grand audience. Of course, this framework is not a rigid, prescriptive recipe for coaching.
Instead, it is a template for coaches to think purposefully about their session plans. If you refer to Bloom’s Taxonomy under
the materials attached to this module, you can see traces of the principles of Backward design. Like Backwards design,
Bloom’s taxonomy is also a template to visualize how learners reach complete understanding through a series of steps in a
triangular form: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and finally creating. All of these steps require
subsets of knowledge acquisition such as: factual, conceptual, procedural, and finally meta cognitive. Just like how Bloom’s
triangle itself doesn’t illustrate a strict, prescriptive way for helping learners reach complete understanding, likewise
Backwards design merely allows coaches to first think critically about the rationale of their sessions, and then proceed to
designing a session which will be meaningful, purposeful, and effective.

GOOD DESIGN=BACKWARD DESIGN

Coaching is a means to an end, and so planning precedes coaching. The most successful coaching begins, therefore, with
clarity about the desired learning outcomes (or the mission) and the evidence which will show that learning has occurred.
As it is shown in the image labeled "UbD Stages of Backward Design Planning", this three-stage Backwards Design is used
to plan sessions which includes:

1. the desired results, or the mission of the session;

2. The evidence which will help coaches determine the storytellers' understanding of the mission;
3.The performance tasks (learning experiences or instruction) which coaches will require the storytellers to participate in so
that the desired results are accomplished.

Having these three steps in mind, specific coaching sessions can be developed in the context of a more comprehensive
design. In other words, the key to Backwards design is to understand that as coaches, we don't want to just throw content
and activities at the storytellers, and hope that something sticks. Instead, we need to think of session designs that work
equivalent to a GPS device in our car: by identifying a specific learning destination first, we are able to see the instructional
path more likely to get us there.

PROBLEMS DURING COACHING SESSIONS

We have found that while following this three-stage planning process, some coaches may fall in to the trap of labeled
activity-oriented coaching. Here, coaches plan and conduct various activities, worrying only about whether the activities are
engaging, and kid-friendly. Unfortunately, this approach often confuses hands-on work with minds-on work. In other words,
a collection of activities do not add up to coherent, focused, and generative sessions. Such activities in these sessions are
like cotton candy-- pleasant enough in the moment, but lacking long-term substance.
Another trap goes by the name of content coverage. In this case, coaching consists of marching through a resource, be it a
textbook or literature. With all due respect, a coach's job is not to simply mention everything in a book or on a topic; our job
is to prioritize, make interesting and useful, and "uncover" the stories of the storytellers. Any resources such as books
should only serve as a resource, not a syllabus within a focused and effective coaching session.
A final trap which may occur is called the endless lecturer. In order for storytellers to achieve the desired results (the
mission of Pontiac Speaks), it would NOT be effective if coaching sessions consist of over 50% of the coach's own lecture.
In other words, a Pontiac Speaks Coach's own "lecture" will not scaffold students to achieving the desired results. It is
important to consider how all of the backwards design steps will be incorporated into the Coaching sessions. For instance,
since we already know our desired results, what evidence will you be looking for to see the student's gradual conformation
to our mission? Finally, what performance tasks will you have the storytellers engage in order to have them achieve the
Storytelling Coach Modules
desired results?

A REFLECTION ON BACKWARD DESIGN

To further consider the qualities of a good coaching session and its effect on learning, we suggest that you reflect upon a
few of the best-designed learning experiences you were ever involved in, and generalize from them. What was the best-
designed learning you have ever experienced? What is in general true of good design, regardless of the course content or
the style of the teacher? The answers we've heard most are captured in the list that follows. How does your list match up
with these ideas? We bet there are quite a few matches, since effective designs for learning have common characteristics.
We ask you to keep these qualities in mind as you begin your own coaching session designs.

1. Expectations: The best learning designs

*Provide clear learning goals and transparent expectations
*Cast learning goals in terms of specific and meaningful performance
*Frame the work around genuine issues/questions/problems
*Show models or exemplars of expected performance and thinking

2.Instruction: In the best learning designs

*The coach serves as a facilitator to support and guide learner inquiry
*Targeted instruction and relevant resources are provided to equip storytellers for expected performance
*The textbook serves as one resource among many (Is a resource, not a syllabus)
The coach uncovers important ideas and processes by exploring essential questions and genuine applications of
knowledge and skills

3. Learning Activities: In the best learning designs

*Individual differences (learning styles, skill levels, interests) are accommodated through a variety of activities and methods
*There is variety of activities and methods; and students have some choice
*Learning is active/experiential to help students make sense of complex content
*Cycles of model-try-feedback-refine anchor the learning

4. Assessment: In the best learning designs

*There is no mystery as to performance goals or standards
*Diagnostic assessments check for prior knowledge, skill level, and misconceptions
*Storytellers demonstrate their understanding through real-world applications (Genuine use of knowledge and skills,
tangible product, target audience)
*Assessment methods are matched to achievement targets
*Ongoing, timely, and descriptive feedback is provided
*Learners have opportunities for trial and error, reflection, and revision
*Self-assessment is expected and encouraged

5. Sequence and Coherence: The best learning design

*Start with a hook and immerse the learner in a genuine problem/issue/challenge
*Move back and forth from whole to part, with increasing complexity
*Scaffold learning in doable increments
*Teach as needed: don't over-teach all the "basics" first
*Revisit ideas--have learners rethink and revise earlier ideas or work
*Are flexible (responds to student needs; are revised to achieve goals)

Finally, attached to this module is a handout called “The Logic of Backwards Design.” Please take this time to read the
prompt, and fill out the table accordingly.

Source: Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units, Association
for Supervision & Curriculum
Development, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-
com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/lib/umichigan/detail.action?
docID=698904.

UbD Stages of Backwar Bloom’s Taxonomy pdf

 UbD Stages of Backwar… Bloom’s-Taxonomy.pdf
StorytellingImage
Coach Modules PDF

The Logic of Backwards…

PDF

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 Pontiac Storyteller Sample

Name: Carlos Mendoza

Age: 16

Sex: Male; He him, his

Story: Has family members affiliated with the gang NWO (New World Order), single
mother family, father is incarcerated, has an abusive uncle, is failing school, doesn’t feel
in control of his own life, feels “damaged.”

The Logic of Backwards Design

Purpose: To illustrate and practice backward-design planning and thinking

Directions: Let’s pretend that Carlos Mendoza (an interested applicant) has been
assigned to you. Using the table below, sketch a coaching session using the three
stages of backward design.

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

If the desired end result is for Then you need evidence of the Then the steps for the story
storytellers to… storytellers’ ability to… tellers need to take in order to
acquire these skills are to….

source:
Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units, Association for Supervision & Curriculum
Development, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/lib/umichigan/detail.action?
docID=698904.
Bloom’s Taxonomy

by Patricia Armstrong, former Assistant Director, Center for Teaching

Background Information
In 1956, Benjamin Bloom with collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl
published a framework for categorizing educational goals: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Familiarly known as
Bloom’s Taxonomy, this framework has been applied by generations of K-12 teachers and college instructors in their
teaching.
The framework elaborated by Bloom and his collaborators consisted of six major categories: Knowledge,
Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. The categories after Knowledge were presented as
“skills and abilities,” with the understanding that knowledge was the necessary precondition for putting these skills
and abilities into practice.
While each category contained subcategories, all lying along a continuum from simple to complex and concrete to
abstract, the taxonomy is popularly remembered according to the six main categories.

The Original Taxonomy (1956)

Here are the authors’ brief explanations of these main categories in from the appendix of Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives (Handbook One, pp. 201-207):
• Knowledge “involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and processes, or the
recall of a pattern, structure, or setting.”
• Comprehension “refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such that the individual knows what is
being communicated and can make use of the material or idea being communicated without necessarily
relating it to other material or seeing its fullest implications.”
• Application refers to the “use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations.”
• Analysis represents the “breakdown of a communication into its constituent elements or parts such that the
relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or the relations between ideas expressed are made explicit.”
• Synthesis involves the “putting together of elements and parts so as to form a whole.”
• Evaluation engenders “judgments about the value of material and methods for given purposes.”
The 1984 edition of Handbook One is available in the CFT Library in Calhoun 116. See itsACORN record for call
number and availability.
While many explanations of Bloom’s Taxonomy and examples of its applications are readily available on the Internet,
this guide to Bloom’s Taxonomy is particularly useful because it contains links to dozens of other web sites.
Barbara Gross Davis, in the “Asking Questions” chapter of Tools for Teaching, also provides examples of questions
corresponding to the six categories. This chapter is not available in the online version of the book, but Tools for
Teaching is available in the CFT Library. See itsACORN record for call number and availability.

The Revised Taxonomy (2001)

A group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists and instructional researchers, and testing and assessment
specialists published in 2001 a revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy with the title A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and
Assessment. This title draws attention away from the somewhat static notion of “educational objectives” (in Bloom’s
original title) and points to a more dynamic conception of classification.
The authors of the revised taxonomy underscore this dynamism, using verbs and gerunds to label their categories and
subcategories (rather than the nouns of the original taxonomy). These “action words” describe the cognitive processes
by which thinkers encounter and work with knowledge:
• Remember
o Recognizing
o Recalling
• Understand
o Interpreting
o Exemplifying
o Classifying
o Summarizing
o Inferring
o Comparing
o Explaining
• Apply
o Executing
o Implementing
• Analyze
o Differentiating
o Organizing
o Attributing
• Evaluate
o Checking
o Critiquing
• Create
o Generating
o Planning
 o Producing
In the revised taxonomy, knowledge is at the basis of these six cognitive processes, but its authors created a separate
taxonomy of the types of knowledge used in cognition:
• Factual Knowledge
o Knowledge of terminology
o Knowledge of specific details and elements
• Conceptual Knowledge
o Knowledge of classifications and categories
o Knowledge of principles and generalizations
o Knowledge of theories, models, and structures
• Procedural Knowledge
o Knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms
o Knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods
o Knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures
• Metacognitive Knowledge
o Strategic Knowledge
o Knowledge about cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual and conditional knowledge
o Self-knowledge
Mary Forehand from the University of Georgia provides a guide to the revised version giving a brief summary of the
revised taxonomy and a helpful table of the six cognitive processes and four types of knowledge.

Why Use Bloom’s Taxonomy?

The authors of the revised taxonomy suggest a multi-layered answer to this question, to which the author of this
teaching guide has added some clarifying points:
1. Objectives (learning goals) are important to establish in a pedagogical interchange so that teachers and
students alike understand the purpose of that interchange.
2. Teachers can benefit from using frameworks to organize objectives because
3. Organizing objectives helps to clarify objectives for themselves and for students.
4. Having an organized set of objectives helps teachers to:
o “plan and deliver appropriate instruction”;
o “design valid assessment tasks and strategies”;and
o “ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with the objectives.”
Citations are from A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives.

Further Information
Section III of A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives, entitled “The Taxonomy in Use,” provides over 150 pages of examples of applications of the taxonomy.
Although these examples are from the K-12 setting, they are easily adaptable to the university setting.
Section IV, “The Taxonomy in Perspective,” provides information about 19 alternative frameworks to Bloom’s
Taxonomy, and discusses the relationship of these alternative frameworks to the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy.