6. The
authors give examples of a railroad made profitable,
a town reborn, and child abusers reformed by
being as
clear as possible about how people should act.
(Remember
the “1% milk” campaign.) They point out: What
looks like
resistance is often a lack of clarity.
What
actions can you script to achieve a personal or professional goal?
If
your change involves others, how can you “script the critical moves”
for them?
I love this concept! Seems like some of the time people do not do what we as educators think they need to do. It may very well be a fact of them not knowing how or what to do differently. We often get cranky with students, general education teachers, or parents because they appear to be doing things that are contradicting to what we know makes sense! Its likely not that they want to be difficult or that they don’t want great outcomes for children! They just don’t know what to do or have the skills to get it done! Yet! I have seen Mike Burnett completely script what paras and teachers should say to students with behavior issues and kids have gotten better! Sometimes we just need it in black and white and simplified! Love this!
ReplyDeleteMy professional goals involve making my students more aware of 21st century skills needed for life. My actions will need to be to directly teach awareness of communication they will need by using activities in my lesson plans. I will need to provide specific examples to the students and use role modeling to have them practice the skills. For myself, I need to make a list of skills and activities I can incorporate during therapy.
ReplyDeleteThat concept completely made sense to me. I think that too often we make assumptions about what people know and just expect them to do something without the proper guidance and direction. I look at one of my students right now who had a HORRIBLE year last year. I think that one of the biggest reasons was because there was no direction for his plan...people were doing what they thought was right but lacked the clarity to see what really should have been done. It has been a remarkable turn around for him this year because his classroom teachers, his paras, and myself are all on the same page. I have given them all proper guidance and it has been amazing to watch! I think that personally I sometimes need to see it in black and white...see things for what they are so that I can move forward with clarity. Professionally, I need the same thing. I often feel empowered to make a change in both my personal and professional life when I have all of the necessary information and I know that when I make the change it will work and everything will be ok.
ReplyDeleteI have found that most people want to improve and please those around them. I often feel that if we would spend as much time helping or coaching the coworker we are struggling with as we do complaining about them the situation would improve greatly. Yet is seems so much easier to complain than to help a coworker "write a script" for improvement.
ReplyDeleteOn the last question, I commented how effective I have found some of the solution-focused techniques to be, but I tend to use them for a while and then forget about them. My script is to use at least one solution-focused technique each time a teacher visits with me about a student issue.
I think when we script things out life just makes better sense. When I am working with parents or other peers and we are working on problem solving I try and say back to them “let me see, but this is what I am hearing you say….” I feel by saying things back to them that I heard them say helps me to clarify did I really just hear that thought right and it lets the other people I am working with know I was listening. I think communication is a big part of scripting. When working with young children they are so literal at the age of 5 & 6 so spelling things out in step by step instructions or scripts is very important to them and for me. If I want them to learn a concept and use proper vocabulary like in math than I need to make sure I teach the concept to their level.
ReplyDeleteI like the fact that the people in the examples did not have long lists of things to change. Their scripts were short and precise, consisting of 1-4 things. The students asked the town to do one thing. The railroad (ALL) had 4 rules. The scripts were user friendly and gave people a feeling of control (we can do this!) but not so overwhelming that they gave up. Also the changes took time. There were no easy fixes. People had hope that the tasks were just challenging enough to inspire change. It only takes a little change at first for people to see positive effects and then them and others wanted to do more. The stories were really inspiring! My favorite was the railroad (ALL). They used what they had to make improvements. Teachers are often asked to accomplish great things with little resources. We are asked to keep sped goals (items on the rubric/checklist) under a certain number. This keeps the goal obtainable and students are more likely to see progress if you are focusing on a few things rather than a long list of things. It all makes sense!
ReplyDeleteI agree that generating a script can help personally or professionally to achieve a goal. I am thinking right now in my personal life that my husband and I are using the "Dave Ramsey" steps for debt. It has clear steps to follow with an end in sight, which is nice. It also helps that my husband and I are on the same page. We are not assuming or guessing. I think professionally when we leave too much room for interpretation, this is where we struggle with all people on an IEP team to be strategic with programming. This book is very interesting with the different examples and how clear the steps are to accomplishing a goal.
ReplyDeleteI love this concept of making small changes to produce a large result! I think sometimes as educators we become too concerned with making huge changes for an end result. Our staff becomes overwhelmed quickly and either stops working toward the goal or becomes too involved that they can't see an end result.
ReplyDeleteI am currently working on a personal goal of becoming more fit and losing weight. I always look at where I want to go and become overwhelmed. I started looking at exercising and eating right on a day-to-day basis and I feel better! I am following a step-by-step program from an app on my iPhone. It makes exercising more fun and not so daunting!
Scripting can make your goals more attainable by piecing them out into smaller steps. It's easy to be overwhelmed by a big goal and not know quite how to reach it. One of my professional goals is to collaborate more with special education and regular education teachers. One way to do this is through monthly meetings. I could program it into my calendar to set these meetings or arrange for a set time (ex. the first friday of each month) to help me achieve my goal. When I plan things out, my goal seems much more easy to attain and more likely to be completed.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I eat better if I have a plan rather than coming home exhausted and grabbing a snack and then snacking my way through the evening. That means thinking and planning ahead to have the ingredients for a meal “ready to go” without having to thaw something, etc. It may mean spending some time on the weekend doing some preparation. The other plus to this is that I usually have left-overs for lunches.
ReplyDeleteIf your change involves others, how can you “script the critical moves” for them?
At school, I try to help students focus on a goal (assignment due date, project) and then script the steps to accomplish that goal often getting a calendar and writing in the “pieces” needing accomplished. Recently it has come to my attention that one of my students is failing to write their name on papers they turn in, making it difficult for them to get credit for completed work. I’m trying to focus on having this student simply WRITE HIS NAME on each and every paper (instead of his lack of taking notes, being organized, etc.)
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ReplyDeleteIn my professional life scripting means making lists, keeping a calendar, self-talk along the line of "I'm doing the best I can in a tough situation." I have made small changes in the time I spend during the week on lesson planning, writing and updating IEPs etc. and that has allowed me to get more things done during the week and have a life on the weekend.
ReplyDeleteAt school, social stories are the way I script change in students I work with. One little story at a time.
I think that clarity is essential to moving forward with change and progress. And like children, we as adults often need to hear things more than once, in a different way, from a different person, read it, touch it and see it happen in order to achieve that "clarity". All too often I find myself demonstrating or coaching the same techniques or saying the same things over and over again but I have to remember that what might seem "simple" to me took me several years of a college education to learn. Parents that we work with are the elephants -they are emotionally tied to their children beyond any one else so we have to know they want whats best for them. We have to continue to be the riders and provide that clarity using simple, concrete steps for them!
ReplyDeleteI think I need to do a better job of "scripting" for my parents. I always right up a home visit note with my plan/recommendations from each session but if I could give them 2-3 specific skills to focus on that week then I might see more feedback and participation from them.
"What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity" This statement really struck me and it is so true if you stop and think about it. As teachers we give what we think are simple instructions and often have students looking at us like we have grown 2 heads, this was especially true in my kindergarten classroom last year. Many times we need to break down instructions even further into simple step by step tasks to complete or a script. Our students are still learning and are not at our level so what is simple to us may be very complex for them. I think about my change from the general education classroom to special education this year....wow have I needed things scripted! I am barely muddling my way through IEP's which may seem so simple to many of you. Hopefully someday I will get there but right now I definitely need a script of what I have to do and in what order.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I hate cleaning house so in order to get it done I have to have a script of what I am going to do on what day and things I need to do everyday. Sometimes we need even the most general simple things scripted out to keep focused on the task at hand.
I really love this concept. It has held true in various situations in my life. I will continue to thoroughly investigate concepts that I am resisting to try and avoid resisting due to a lack of clarity. I think that this concept is especially true for children. As adults, it is easy for some to say, "because I am the adult" when children really would like to know why.
ReplyDeleteUsing clarity to set goals sounds so simple yet people find it so hard to actually do. For me, I am overwhelmed with different goals I would like to achieve. Thus, my first step is to identify the goals that are obtainable now and which ones will need to be addressed later. I usually create "to do" lists… I may begin creating "how to" lists!
Crystalizing is a hard concept for many people. However, being able to find the end result and back plan to the first step is something I have been taught to do in school.. Backward by Design! The hard part of crystallization is the decision paralysis that comes along with it. There may be several ways and approaches to achieve goals… scripting will eliminate the decision paralysis and help us to focus on around specific actions. Having clear and focused goals will enable those involved to see the clear and focused expectations they have. The idea of small changes making huge differences sounds too easy, but working harder doesn't always mean more success.
(Mary S.) "Scripting" is something we as special educators do on a daily for our students by helping them break down assignments, processes, etc. into smaller steps to get to an end product. On a personal basis, I, too, break down things I have to do by prioritizing, or concentrating on a specific item I want to get done. I even do that with my housework by just trying to work on one room at a time (focus). "Scripting the critical moves for others, such as parents, usually works best by coming together as a team and deciding what steps to take and who will do what and when. Gotta have a plan.
ReplyDeleteI like to solve problems and sometimes I do feel others might take it as me complaining but I am that person that likes to think out loud. I guess we need to see if the person is going to take action and help the person out before assuming they are complaining. I do feel we sometimes take the easy way out by passing problems onto some else and not do it ourselves. I know I have felt indiffent when it comes to being in charge of others. Not only am I learning my job but I am also training and responsible for two paras. This is a new role and I am learning as I go. I do ask for help and advice before I go and discuss things with them when it is something that needs to be fixed. I can fix anyone's else's problem but when it comes to my paras I don't want them mad at me. I know that sounds funny but what I mean by that is I don't want things to be awkward with us. We work so close but we also have so many responsibilities that finding the time to demonstrate the way things need to be done.
ReplyDeleteI want to work on this during the school year because when everyone is on the same page everything runs smoother.
I love when things are scripted. I like things to be in black and white with no guess work. It keeps me on track and focused. I try to do the same for my students - keep the goals in black and white - simple and straight forward - so that they know what is expected of them and what their job is for the day, week, month, or year. When things are scripted for us it takes the guesswork and wiggle room out and lets us get to work and hopefully make some progress. I need to get better at scripting for my para's - what it is exactly that I want them to do or how to help certain students. At times I just assume they know what they are doing, when in fact they do not.
ReplyDeleteI have to have things "scripted" at home. I have to have meals planned out for at least 1, if not 2 weeks in a row so I know what I'm doing each evening. We have set rules or expectations at our house that dishes have to be done once a day, one load of laundry once a day - no excuses. It's what helps me keep my sanity.
I script on a daily basis with my kids. I have a set of things I keep in mind when working with some of more difficult students. I have a script that doesn't always work with students, but a least it is a starting point. At home things are scripted to the extent of balancing homework, work and daily chores.
ReplyDelete