 Welcome to this online module pathways for effective school family partnerships. My name is Naomi Campbell and I am the legal empowerment program director at the right question Institute, and I'm joined today by loose on Tana. Hi, I'm excited to join you in this session today and I'm one of the co founders of the right question Institute. I'm also one of the co authors of partnering with parents to ask the right questions. Great. So let's get started. So in this online module of brief overview will be learning a method to help families ask their own questions and participate effectively in decisions. We'll be looking at applications with a focus on conversations about healthy health and safety in schools, but we'll be looking at a wide range of context in which you can use this method as well. A more detailed outline of the online module will be giving you a brief background on the right question Institute and then parts one through three are the actual training experience. So part one is an experience in the method for formulating questions. Part two is unpacking the method looking at different applications and family engagement. And part three will be giving you some tips on facilitation and integration into your work. And then finally we'll wrap up with some references to further resources and next steps. So this is an interactive training an interactive online module, meaning you'll be working and following along with the steps of the training. So you could be going through this individually or in groups and I'll give you instructions in a little bit about what to do if you're walking through individually or if you're working with a group. And first I'll turn it over to loose to give you a little background on the right question is to. Okay. So let me share with you a bit about the work of the right question Institute or RQI. We have been working for many years in developing methods to foster the development of two skills. First, the skill of asking better questions. And second, the skill of being able to participate more effectively in decisions. These two are foundational skills for thinking for learning and for taking action. And you might be wondering why questions. So again, asking questions is foundational. It is a foundational skill. And also the ability to focus on decisions help people become more effective as they participate and also helps them become more strategic. And when people learn these two skills, learning to ask their own questions and learning to focus on decisions they become more engaged. They understand more and they discover their own power, the power that they have within themselves. And it happens and this is why we focus on these two skills that even that they are so important. These two skills and especially the skill of asking questions is rarely thought. And that is basically what we are going to do today in this webinar. So a little bit of background on RQI's methods. The methods actually grew out of the insights of parents who were in a community where RQI's co-founders were working. They were working in a dropout prevention program. And the parents in the program said that they didn't go to the schools to advocate for their children, because they didn't even know what questions to ask. And so those parents were naming a previously overlooked barrier to their participation and advocacy. So RQI said about looking for ways to build a skill that the parents could use no matter the sitting or situation. So instead of giving the parents a list of questions to take to the schools, they looked for ways to build that skill. So that original insight from parents led to our work in many fields in legal empowerment, healthcare, social services, voter engagement, and more. And it led to the publication in 2016 of partnering with parents to ask the right questions. Luz Santana is a co-author of partnering with parents. And the book gives case studies and examples of how to apply these methods in the field of family engagement. Okay, so let's get started. So this is part one. We're going to walk you through the steps of the question formulation technique. We find that the easiest way to learn the method is to experience it for yourselves. So be sure to follow along with the steps. And what you'll need before you get started, you'll need a pen and paper or a computer document. If you're working in a group, make sure that everyone can look on on the same document so that could be flip chart paper and markers or it could be a Google Doc, whatever you prefer. You'll need also some way to keep track of the time, so phone or watch and for this part one, you'll need about 20 minutes of uninterrupted time. And then if you're working through this in a group, you'll need to split into teams of three to four people. You'll need to identify somebody to be the scribe who's going to be writing down the group's questions, and make sure that the scribe is also contributing questions to the list. And if you're going through this individually, make sure to follow along with each step. Pause the video now if you need to split up into groups, choose the person to be the scribe or gather materials so press pause if you need some time to do that, otherwise we'll move on to the first step. Okay, so we're going to give you a topic that you're asking questions about in a minute, but first we're going to give you some rules for producing those questions. So the rules are ask as many questions as you can, do not stop to answer, judge or discuss the questions, write down every question exactly as it stated, or as it comes to mind, and change any statements into questions. So think for a second about what might be difficult about following these rules. So lots of people say rule number two, especially if you're working in groups, people want to stop to talk about the questions that everyone's asking. But just make sure that you're following all four of these rules as you're producing the questions. So we're going to give you a topic for asking questions today or your question focus. The topic today is creating a safe school environment. So creating a safe school environment is your topic for asking questions. So remember you're asking as many questions as you can, writing them down, do not stop to answer judge or discuss, write down every question exactly as it stated or comes to mind, change any statements into questions. So you're going to pause the video now, give yourselves four to five minutes if you're working in a group and give yourself three minutes about three minutes if you're working on your own. So, pause the video now. Okay, moving on to the next step. So you probably have two types of questions on your list. Close ended questions and those are the questions that can be answered with a yes or no, or with a one word answer. You also have open ended questions and those are the questions that require more explanation. So what we need you to do now is to identify your questions as close ended or open ended. So mark your close ended questions with a C and the open ended with an O. So give yourselves about three minutes if you are working in a group, give yourself one minute if you are working on your own. So pause the video now and work on identifying questions as close or open ended. Okay, so let's now look at some advantages and disadvantages of the close ended questions and let's think about those advantages what would be good about asking those questions that can be answered with a yes or a no. Just think about it. So people often talk about advantages of the close ended and they say that they provide a very clear answer and that they save time. Now let's look at some disadvantages of the close ended questions. Just think about it. Very often we hear that the close ended do not provide enough information and that they don't encourage a dialogue or conversation. So as you can see the advantages and disadvantages. Now let's think about the open ended questions and let's think about what will be some advantages of asking those questions that cannot be answered with yes no and that require more information. So people often say that one advantage is that the open ended can provide a more in depth explanation and that they provide much more information as well. Now let's think about some disadvantages. So there might be too much information to handle. The answers can get off track and the question might not be answered. So as you can see there are advantages and disadvantages of asking the close ended questions advantages and disadvantages of asking the open ended questions. So the point here is that both types of questions are useful and important depending on what you want to know. And this is contrary to a belief that the open ended questions might be better than the close ended. And the close ended if you think about it, they are strategic sometimes you want to get that yes no answer to get to your next question. All right, so let's now continue working with the close and open ended questions and what we are going to do is to improve them. And in improving them what you are going to do is to take one of your close ended questions and change it so it becomes open ended as soon as you finish that take an open ended. So, and change it so it becomes close ended. So, post the video now and give yourselves two minutes if you are working in a group. If you are working individually give yourself one minute. Okay, so moving on to the next step. We're going to go through a step of prioritizing your questions so review your whole list of questions and choose the three questions you consider most important from your list. We're going to focus questions with an X. While prioritizing think about the question focus, which is creating a safe school environment. So again, pause the video now, give yourselves three minutes if you're working in a group and give yourself about one minute if you're working on your own. Okay, and the final step, we're going to reflect on two questions. What did you learn. What did you notice about your thinking as you went through the process of asking questions. So again, pause the video, discuss in your groups for about four minutes. If you're working on your own you can jot down some notes for a couple of minutes. So we hear a very wide range of responses here. Some people say that their priority questions were further down their list of questions, further down on their list of questions others say that they may have had a very emotional reaction to the topic but that they feel like they're thinking becomes clear as they go along. Others say that the questions of other people helps them think in new ways about a problem or that coming up with questions can help them identify their goals. So talk a little bit about applications and what other people have said when they go through this process, but just think about what you learned or what you noticed about your thinking as you went through the process. Okay, so we're going to move to part two now so we're going to look at the method in a little bit more detail we're going to unpack some of the applications as well. And part three will be on how to actually use the method or facilitate the method yourself. So this is the process that you just went through the question formulation technique. We gave you a question focus or a topic for asking questions. You produced your own questions using a set of four rules, you improved questions by looking at the difference between closed and open ended questions categorizing them. And the advantages disadvantages and then changing questions from one type to another, you prioritize your questions, and then you reflected at the end. So this is the method on on one slide. And what we see what that happens when people go through this process is three types of changes. Those are cognitive changes or changes in what people know affective changes or changes in what people feel and behavioral changes changes in what people are able to do. And so just to give you some examples of what those changes look like an example of a cognitive change. You are better prepared, you know what you want. And when you know what you want, you can look for a way to get it. This is Nellie and Sacramento, California, and she's identifying that when you go through the process, something changes in what you know you know what you want, and you're able to identify your goals. An example of an affective change. It helps you advocate for yourself without feeling overwhelmed or inferior to what someone might have. If it wasn't intimidated anymore, it makes you feel like I can do this. So this is from Alicia and Boston, who's describing an active affective change when she's learning how to use this process to advocate for her son. And then finally an example of a behavioral change. I could ask questions at the school, but by doing that I was able to get my son the services he needs. And this is from a participant who was living in a homeless shelter who was learning to advocate for her son with a hearing impairment in schools. So an example of a behavioral change. There's quite a bit of medical literature on the use of this method in medical context and how it improves health care outcomes when patients are able to ask questions in a very step by step process before meeting with their doctors. There's a variety of studies that you can look at more in depth if you're interested. There are some outcomes for families and educators in this field. When families and communities learn this method for asking their own questions, they can improve communication between families and educators. There's increased family participation and engagement and there are stronger partnerships between families and schools. I would go through a very brief case study about a school shooting that where people use the question formulation technique to engage families. So a background to the case study, a 12 year old had brought a gun to school and had shot another student. And this was in a primarily immigrant community primarily Spanish speaking and many families had never set foot school set foot in their children's school before. This was a very scary situation, a very emotional situation. And a parent educator and organizer had convened a meeting of parents at his house. So he used to question focus in that situation, a shooting at our kids school. And the parents began to come up with questions. So first they said they have to do something about this. And the parent educator help them reframe that into a question. What are they going to do about it. What are they going to do to make sure it doesn't happen again. Are the police involved. Are our kids in danger. Will more kids start bringing guns. Where are the parents of this kid. When our kid was bringing a gun to school. Is the school going to tell us what they plan to do. Is there something we can do to make sure they tell us, and they changed that question that closed in in question to what can we do to make sure that they tell us. So first list of questions the parents actually moved from talking about what are they the school going to do about it to action steps that they could take as parents, and what they what role they could play in advocating for their children. So the three priority questions that they chose were, what are they going to do to make sure it doesn't happen again, are our kids in danger, and what can we do to make sure that they tell us. So the initial meeting at this parent organizers house. What happened next was an emergency community meeting where they led the parents more groups of parents through the qft through the question formulation technique. They then organized a meeting with leadership at the school not included the principal and the superintendent. So the first priority questions of those leadership leadership figures at the school and uncovered that a lot of the decisions that were being made were actually being made either by the school board, or by the city council. And so this actually led to them advocating for more after school programs, violence prevention measures, and actually one of the parents ended up running for city council after this experience. So this is just one example of how to use the qft in a context where you're engaging families around health and safety issue or a very emotional issue for in a community. There are many other examples of integration, and just to give you a brief sample of those. So people have used this process to help tackle homework problems when a when a student is having a homework problem, having a conversation with a family member about it. And then open house to address bullying issues at the school. And of course development and implementation of individualized education programs or IEPs. And so in each of those cases, there was a different question focus. So for tackling homework problems, the, the educator use the question focus as the student seems to be having trouble doing his homework. And so the parent was coming up with questions about that focus. In an open house addressing bullying of the question focus was creating a caring environment. And one question focus that you could use in the development of IEPs is that is the question focus, the school recommends an IEP to help your child. So you're getting a family member a parent a guardian to think differently, think in questions and in questions that they can bring to an IEP meeting for example. For example, health and safety examples this can be used to address. For example, lead or mold problems in schools indoor air quality infectious disease policy, essentially any contentious issue or issue that you want to engage families and communities around so that you can have a more productive dialogue. You can turn that into a question focus. So in this presentation, we're going to pause now and answer these two questions. How do you think the families and communities you work with could benefit from this process. And what are some specific situations in which you can use this method for helping parents and families ask their own questions. In the video now discussing your groups for about four minutes four or five minutes. If you're working on your own you can jot down some notes for a couple of minutes. Coming back together. So so just some I'll put some other integration opportunities up on this slide. Those include open houses title one meetings family fun activities parent universities. There are many many different contexts in which this could be used either in a one on one context or facilitating with groups. I'm going to turn it back to loose for part three of the training on facilitation tips. All right. Okay, so let's look at some tips on how to use this process for asking questions. So one of the things to do is to introduce the process as quickly as possible. So don't spend much time because probably the time that you have is critical, and you don't want to confuse people about what to do during this process allow them to have the experience with very clear instructions. And also do not explain the topic. Or what we call the question focus. If you do explain the topic, you will be setting direction for the questions, and they will be following your suggestions. So allow them allow them your participants to think from different angles and perspective and to think about what they are interested in learning about. Okay, so do not stop to answer the questions as they are being produced. That is not your role. If you stop to answer the questions, then it will be very difficult to get back to that discipline of just asking questions. And then make sure to leave time for reflection, allowing time for reflection allows participants allow parents whoever is in your group to think about what they got from the session and how they can use it. And in using this process, it is an easy process to use, and there is only one shift in practice, a change on how you work and operate. And that is that, rather than you being the one asking questions of participants, the participant is the one asking their own questions. And in order to use the process, you will need to find a question focus or topic for asking questions. And there is only one requirement for the question focus that you will use for participants to ask their own questions. And that would not be a question. If you give them a question, their tendency would be to try to answer that question, rather than coming up with questions. And some principles for identify the question focus, it should be simple, personal or relevant, and it should encourage question formulation quickly. So what what's next, what to do with the questions. So you can use the questions to set an agenda and give information to participants, you can use the questions for problem solving. You can use the questions to gather information that parents need or the school needs. You will be able to identify what parents want to know what is important to them. So there are many ways for using the questions, and you can use them in any interaction you have with parents, you can also use it in meetings that you have with parents or with the community. You can use them when you are problem solving when we are trying to communicate more clearly with parents and the same thing will happens to with the parents who learned the process that will be able to figure out what they want to know. The coming to the school or going to the meeting with questions that will be more prepared to interact to communicate to participate. Alright, so you have gone through the process. So now let's think about what did you learn from this session. And we need you to post a video now discussing your groups or jot down some notes. Great. So that was the end of the third part of the training and the end of the part where we'll be asking you to pause your video. So now I'm just going to wrap up with a little bit of an overview of resources and next steps. So the resources that accompany this online module. We have an overview of the resources. We have a teaching template, which is mostly designed for use when you're working one on one with a family member or with a small group of family members, a guide to using or facilitating with the teaching template, and then a PowerPoint which includes in the notes group facilitation instructions. So we're using tools for you to both use in an individual environment in a one on one teaching environment and when you're working with groups or with a community. So those those will accompany this online module they'll be on the page to download when you complete the module. We also have other resources available on our website right question.org. You can see there's a drop down menu from resources and you can click on schools and families, and there'll be an overview of those resources and a number of resources that you can download download when you sign up for free on the network. Those include step by step videos for it for for facilitation, including a video on three roles parents can play in their children's education, a teaching method that we didn't cover in this online module. You can look on the left hand menu and scroll down to watch and listen and click on instructional videos and see the videos there. And I would also recommend two videos one is using the question formulation technique in groups about group facilitation and another teaching video using the question formulation technique with individuals and that video features a one on one setting where an instructor is working with a family member who is preparing to advocate for her son in the schools. All of these resources are available for free they're under a creative commons license meaning that you can use them and adapt them for your needs, as long as you reference the right question Institute as the source. And finally we just like to thank you for joining us today thank you for joining us for the online module. Feel free to reach out with any questions or comments at contact at right question.org. And again you can register to access free resources at www.rightquestion.org. Thanks and have a great day. Thank you.