Appendix D
Worksheet for Breakout Sessions
The two breakout sessions are opportunities for:
- Practitioners to reflect on how the workshop presentations and discussions may be relevant to their own work. The focus of the first breakout session is program objectives and approaches. The second breakout session focuses on how programs implement and evaluate the strategies they use.
- All participants—whether practitioners, researchers, policy makers, funders, or others—to track what you are learning from the presentations and discussions about the four primary themes of the workshop:
- What is Character?
- What Works in Developing Character?
- Investing in Implementation and Evaluation
- Measuring Character
Please feel free to use these worksheets for note-taking during the workshop and as a guide for discussion during the breakout sessions.
We invite each group to identify a spokesperson to reflect on its findings about the four topics during the panel discussion at the end of the workshop. Each group will have 10 minutes.
Breakout Session 1—Self-Assessment of Program Boundaries
- What ideas about character discussed this morning could be helpful in your work?
How does Larry Nucci’s presentation about what character is and the discussion that followed influence your thinking about your program’s objectives, or the role of programs like yours in developing specific attributes?
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What practices and activities are you using?
Think about the full range of activities and practices used in your program that may play a role in developing character, and how they may do that. Begin by writing a list of the major activities of your program. Next, make a list of the key outcomes your program hopes to address. Draw an arrow connecting each of the activities to specific outcomes. What research can you associate with those arrows? Which connections are supported by research? Which are not?
[Use the table on the next page.]
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How does Marvin Berkowitz’s presentation about research on practices and features and the discussion that followed influence your thinking about the practices in your program and how programs like yours may develop character?
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What ideas about effective features and practices could help you meet your objectives?
Key Ideas from Workshop Sessions I and II to Share in Final Panel Discussion
Breakout Session 2—Self-Assessment of Investments in Implementation and Evaluation
- Are there ways to strengthen the implementation of the practices and strategies used in your program?
How does Joe Durlak’s presentation about effective program implementation and the discussion that followed influence your thinking about the operation of your program and programs like yours?
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How does/has your organization/program approached evaluation?
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What evaluation work, if any, is being done currently?
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How has evaluation historically been approached?
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How have evaluation results (if any) been used?
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What strategies might you use to strengthen a culture of continuous improvement and constructive evaluation?
How does Bill Trochim and Jen Urban’s presentation about advancing evaluation of character building programs and the discussion that followed influence your thinking about the role of your program and how programs like yours can engage in evaluation practice and develop a culture of evaluation?
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What is the evaluation capacity of your current staff?
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How would evaluation look for your program in an ideal world?
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What strategies might you use to strengthen staff and leadership?
How does Deb Moroney’s presentation about developing a high-quality staff and the discussion that followed influence your thinking about your program and how programs like yours can recruit and retain top staff?
Key Ideas from Session III to Share in Final Panel Discussion
Notes from Session IV to Use in Final Discussion
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