ARTICLES FOR FACILITATORS

FACILITATION TIPS2

The tips below are useful reminders when working with groups and planning for a workshop or professional development opportunity such as AWAL.

Tip 1: Cover all the bases when planning for a workshop

Key questions to ask yourself when preparing for a workshop

• What is the purpose of the workshop?
• What are the objectives for participants?
• Who will be attending the workshop?
• When and where will the workshop be held?
• How long will the workshop be?
• What will be the next steps once the workshop is completed?

Tip 2: Getting the session started: inform, excite, involve, engage

The opening of a workshop is critical. It sets the tone, pace, and expectation for the rest of the day. Three key points to cover in your opening are:

• Inform the participants about what is going to happen in the workshop
• Get them excited about the process by giving them a clear vision of the overall objectives to be achieved and the benefits to them
• Engage them by having them speak as early as possible

Tip 3: Focusing the group

Checkpoints at the beginning of each activity or facilitated process can help to ensure that the participants are with you. There are three parts to a checkpoint.

• Review quickly what has been done (Review)
• Discuss briefly what the group is about to do (Preview)
• Explain how what the group is about to do fits into the overall objectives of the workshop (Big View)

2 Adapted from Michigan Professional Development Facilitators’ Institute, Copyright © 2002 Literacy Research Centers: National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL), International Literacy Institute (ILI), and the Penn Technology and Education Learning Laboratory (PennTELL), University of Pennsylvania/Graduate School of Education, LITERACY.org. http://www.literacy.org/michigan/resources/