Quotes, Questions and connections about the

book The power of Protocols

By Manisha Sodha
The feelInitially I started reading the book with
great enthusiasm, but I could not connect much. I had
to re-read to bring the connections, but re-reading was
consuming more time and still connections were very
few. That drooped down my interest. Anyhow, I kept
trying my best, and finally found the strategy to get
connected. I had a glance over all the protocols in
random order. The title that seemed interesting, I first
read the purpose mentioned, then the role of a
facilitator. If it sounded interesting to me I re-read and
made connections. Although I have not finished with
all the protocols, but now I know I will be able to not
finish but learn them soon. Here are some of the
quotes and my connections.
1) Clearing- This is very essential protocol for any
learner, because if ones mind is occupied with the
prior thoughts, the next learning cant take place. I
could connect more with my students in a

different way. As the age group of my children is

very young, they have a very short span of
attention. Even they need more of kinaesthetic
sessions then those of passive sessions. I plan my
sessions keeping this factor in mind but still there
are times when there are 2 to 3 subsequent
sessions which are passive or discussion based. In
this situation I take up a short session of dance or
rhymes or just some physical activity like jumping,
crawling etc. This helps me to CLEAR out their
energy (restlessness) and thus result into the
success of the following session.
2) Pair- share- One more protocol that I could
connect with my practices. Students are given
opportunity to share their experiences or learning.
The purpose of this protocol is to widen the
learning and the ones perspective, but this goal is
not much achieved at my grade level. It serves as
platform to students to enhance their expressive
language and to some extent listening skills.
Exchanging of ideas and learning doesnt happen
much at initial level, but over the period of time
its overcome to some extent.

3) Marvins model: This protocol is something that I

can mellow down to the age group of my students.
It will really facilitate my students to communicate
rapidly on a given topic and that too by following
the rules of turn taking (which is really very
difficult to establish at young age). The
modification that I need to make is that instead of
saying the time 30 seconds Ill have to use
strategy like showing fingers to count the time or
some other that will suit to my learners. It will
even help me to be better in my questioning skills.
4) Jig saw protocol- This protocol will actually help me
to tap upon various abilities of my students, as
they get chance to work in such a situation where
their listening and speaking skills are practiced
along with the exposure to their presentation and
convincing skills. But how to design the session to
begin with a question to be yet answered.
5) Learning from speakers- It actually gave me the
sight that there is nothing wrong in saying with
clear expectation about the purpose of his/her
input as an expert. This must actually followed
because otherwise the purpose of the speaking for
my students learning is only half or partially

served. The speaker can be given a format to

follow. The speaker must follow the key points
such as keep a focus, fostering the listening,
providing the opportunity constructing the
knowledge.
6) Some more protocols that I referred are
Issaquah coaching, constructive learning groups,
Success analysis, new design protocol. As I still
need one more go through so not mentioning over
here .
Some Quotes:1) Competent facilitators are in short supply- So
true.
2) Facilitating the protocols involves macro and micro
planning. Macro planning says what protocol to
use in which situation, how to open and close the
meeting where as micro planning talks lot about
the spontaneity on the facilitators side. Once
facilitator can manage to do micro planning s/he
can be considered as Competent facilitator
Question:

A) I can see the chances of using the protocol of

Final word with my students, but how to mellow
it down to the level of my students?