Tools

media type="custom" key="11762536" These tools were introduced to us by the Reinventing Schools Coalition. Many of these tools are found in //Tool Time Handbook for Education// by David P. Langford. The purpose of these tools is to facilitate student learning, speed processing of information in a group, clarify objectives, and engage all parties in a process. No one tool is essential, but the use of these types of tools engages stakeholders and improves communication. Each building in the district has a copy of Tool Time for Education. If it is absent from your professional library and your building administrator doesn't have it, contact info@sad15.org for resource support.
 * QUICK PROCESS TOOLS**


 * [|Affinity Diagram]-**A tool to help gather and sort information in an organized manner and aid in the decision-making process, thereby shortening the time it takes to come to consensus.


 * Bone Diagram**-A planning tool that used to identify current state of an organization, the desired state, and the path to transition from one to the other.


 * Capacity Matrix** –A tool for students to self-monitor their progress to reach goals, standards, or benchmarks. [|Capacity Matrix Explained.]


 * Clock Activity**- A tool to quickly form partners to facilitate group discussion.


 * Consensogram**-A tool to quickly and anonymously determine a group's level of knowledge or commitment.


 * CRIS**-Clarify the task, Reflect individually, Impact on your system, Share with your partner: A tool to assess strengths and identify opportunities for improvement individually, within a group, and/or as an organization.


 * Critical Friends**-A protocol for analyzing, with colleagues, a unit or lesson plan and its instructional effectiveness.

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 * Fist-To-Five**-A tool for quickly ascertaining students' understanding.


 * Five Whys**-A tool to find the moral purpose and bring a deeper understanding of why something is or is not important.


 * Flow Chart-**A tool that shows the work path or sequence of activities that comprise a process. It is used to obtain clarity concerning process flow and to communicate the process to others.


 * Force Field Analysis**-A tool to analyze the forces that are driving or preventing progress.


 * Gantt Chart**-A tool used to plan schedules and track a project. The chart is especially useful for projects where one phase of the work depends on another phase.


 * Hot Dot**-A tool that is used to select the item that is of most importance to the members of the group.

**Imagineering**-A brainstorming technique that you can use, with your class, to find the optimal process or outcome.  **Interrelationship Digraph**-A simple tool that you can use to identify the factors that are most impacting your classroom or team. 
 * [|Parking Lot]**-A tool for feedback that includes four sections:+ plus, ∆ delta, ? Questions, and Ideas.


 * Peaks and Valleys**- A tool to help groups realize the change process has highs and lows


 * PDCA**-Plan, Do, Check, Adjust: A goal setting tool that uses a four-step cycle for continuous improvement of a system.


 * PIER/Smart Process**- A process to help set goals, establish steps to achieve goals, assess the success of the steps, and reflect on how the plan could be made more effective.


 * Plus/Delta**-A simple strategy enabling everyone to consider what went well and what needs to be changed.

For a more in-depth breakdown of these Learner Centered tools please view the following file.
 * Power vote**-A quick way to identify priorities by giving everyone a dot with which to vote for the category, on an affinity diagram, that they think is most important.


 * Unpacking a standard**. [[file:Unpacking Standards.pdf]]