National School Reform Faculty

Profile of a Student
Date: October 15-29, 2002
Listserv: Coaches
Resources: Profile of a Student Activity

Tuesday, October 15, 2002 12:14 PM
Next week I want to use Profile of A Student activity with a large group of teachers and administrators (total of about 120 divided into groups of 8 or so.) Is there anyone who has used Profile with a large group? Should I combine 2-3 groups of 8 to ensure an array of profiles? Are there changes in the process or timing that I should consider? Thanks for you help.
Frances, Georgia

Tuesday, October 15, 2002 1:39 PM
We did it with a sizeable group at a coaches training. We broke into two small groups at first and then combined. We found that more time was needed for the sharing and presenting than was called for in the protocol. The presenting led to a lot of productive sharing and insights that I hated to cut off. Good luck!
JoAnne, Maine

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 5:55 AM
I have used "Profile" in a group of about 25 participants, but have always thought it would make for an interesting data study, if a large group pooled their findings. Charting the number of type of #1 students, who are also male etc. The possibility of lenses that allowed focus around issues of race, gender, age, socioeconomics etc. could make room for interesting learning. I've also had folks consider the student they were as a K-8, high school and or college student. The profile often changes and patterns can be found in this data as well...patterns that might influence our understanding of our students... It would of course mean more time, but perhaps it could be revisited at various points of the seminar.
Debbie, Pennsylvania

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 9:24 AM
Here in Miami we used "Profile" with a group of about 50, and in Tampa last summer with 3 home groups combined, so that would have been about 60 people. It worked really well. What becomes crucial, though, is the time to do the reflecting and writing individually, so people have thought about their input before having to discuss and share.

I think this is an activity that benefits from having more participants.
Linda, Florida

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 12:15 PM
I used the profile of a student activity with about 60 people and it was one of the most rewarding, bonding, positive experiences our staff has ever participated in. It would naturally take more time for more people but the rewards and insight that it provides is invaluable.
Go for it!
Valerie, Tennessee

Thursday, October 17, 2002 6:27 AM
We used this activity with our whole staff (about 100) at our before school retreat. Some groups were very large, so we split them into two to do the activity. We then presented back to the whole staff. It worked very well and nearly everyone reported that it was a powerful activity to begin the school year
Ted, New Hampshire

Thursday, October 17, 2002 12:32 PM
I have done this activity a number of times. While I find it attaches people deeply to the lives of young people - as it should, sometimes it borders on stereotyping people as if those nine profiles covered it all and every student fits in those few descriptors. I think very few humans are so neatly classified. It seems like any other activity that tends to be a limited description (4-Corners, the 4 directions, Myers-Briggs...) care has to be taken to remind people we are paying attention to tendencies, or an aspect of the human condition so as not to pigeonhole or stereotype. Most of the time I find it useful.

However, I have begun to use another approach (with my fellow facilitators) that I think I like better. In groups of 4, participants write a story telling what school is like for them (in the shoes of a student) academically, personally, socially and physically. They choose a student they know is not doing well in their own school or in their past experience and write as if they were that student. Each person in the group divides a piece of chart paper in 4 sections and labels them "academic, personal, social, physical." The story is attached in the center. The small groups read one another's stories, ask clarifying questions of the writer, and write ideas that might change/improve the students life in school. As part of the conversation they talk about assumptions that get made about the students in the stories and what can be done to overcome such assumptions.

I like this one better as it does not require fitting anyone to a particular profile.
Marylyn, Maine

Thursday, October 17, 2002 1:21 PM
I really like the approach you've described, but I worry that we cannot get away from our own assumptions and the distortions they create without directly engaging our students in this process. I'm wondering if we might share these "profiles" with some students and ask them to join us in some rewriting...

I still think that both activities are worthwhile in that they place students at the center of our conversations, but I do worry about authenticity when we realize that "we all see what's behind our eyes"...
Debbie, Pennsylvania

Thursday, October 17, 2002 6:47 PM
I like Marylyn's idea a lot. In the past nine months I have been conducting in-depth interviews with 40 high school students of color in three cities (New York, Providence, and the Bay Area) to solicit their ideas about what helps them learn. I have been astonished and moved at what they said, and impressed above all with how little they seem to fit any category I might have come up with beforehand. I collected their words, by the way, in a book called "Fires in the Bathroom," which New Press will publish in April. If you want to take a look, it might prove an interesting alternative as a discussion-starter. (For information and excerpts, go to www.whatkidscando.org, and click on the description.) In the meantime, I'd be happy to talk more to any of you about the questions I asked them to elicit their ideas. It's so great that you are asking this kind of question, too.
Kathleen

Tuesday, October 29, 2002 12:37 AM
Teri Schrader and I did this exercise on the first morning of a CFG coaches seminar in San Antonio last week. We found that it connected us immediately, on day one, to students and to the notion of adapting practice to meet the needs of all students. We are quite clear that these profiles are NOT meant to be composites of learning styles - they are simply profiles. We encourage people to find themselves as best they can - and to write a new profile or adapt one if they don't find themselves in any of them as written.

The point, of course, is not the profile and who I was, but the conversation afterwards. We found that these debriefing questions were quite powerful (thanks to Teri and the faculty at the Parker School). We were lucky enough in San Antonio to then be able to participate in an impromptu graduation of a high school senior who had just completed all of the course work he needed to graduate. It was quite a moment, as he (and many of us) cried as one of the AP's who knew him well spoke about him and his journey through high school.
Finally, a little history. This was originally developed by JoAnn Groh and the CFG members at Catalina Foothills HS in Tucson, AZ (and brought to me by her colleague, Carrie Brennan). Four or so "profiles" have been added to the original five, and much of this has been adapted and revised since then, but I wanted to acknowledge its origins. We are an organization with a rich and deep history...

Debriefing Profile of A Student - after hearing back from each group:
What strikes you as you listen to the needs of these students?
Listen for the silences. Where are they, and what do you make of them?
Journal: What are the implications for my practice? What might be the implications for collaborative work?
Gene, Massachusetts