Professional learning · Leaders, Coaches · 60 minutes
The Five-Question Rollout Check
Leadership teams role-play the planning meeting for a campus-wide platform rollout and discover that the questions that matter most come after "should we buy it?"
A principal wants every department on a new learning platform with a built-in AI writing-feedback feature, starting in six weeks. In this tabletop, each participant takes a stakeholder role, including an eighth grader who reports that the feedback panel does not work with her screen reader, and the table must reach a rollout decision while timed injects keep arriving. The debrief turns the conversation into the five-question check from the updated ELEs: What is the vision? What evidence will guide us? What changes in instruction? Who might be left out? How will families understand the change? Technology purchases are easy to announce. Rollouts that improve learning start with those five questions.
In this packet
- Handout A: The Rollout Memo (reading)
- Handout B: Role and Inject Cards (cut-apart cards)
- Handout C: Five-Question Check Organizer (organizer)
- Facilitator key (last page)
TCEA ELE indicators
- L1.1 I know how to create and communicate a compelling vision for technology integration in the school.
- L1.2 I can develop strategic technology plans that align with educational trends and community needs.
- L2.2 I can guide the implementation of digital curriculum and instructional technology initiatives.
- AI2.2 I can identify potential ethical issues in AI applications and propose solutions.
Full facilitator guide: mglearn.github.io/eles/activities/five-question-rollout-check.html
Handout A for The Five-Question Rollout Check
The Rollout Memo
This memo and everyone in it are fictional. Read it as though it arrived in your inbox this morning.
1To: All Cedar Ridge Middle School staff · From: Principal Marcus Delgado · Re: LumaLearn Studio: campus-wide launch
2Team, I'm excited to share that Pecan Creek ISD has approved Cedar Ridge as the first campus to adopt LumaLearn Studio, an all-in-one platform for assignments, discussion, and quizzes. Beginning the Monday after fall break (six weeks from today), every department will post all assignments in LumaLearn, and paper packets will be phased out by the end of the semester.
3The feature I'm most excited about is LumaCoach, a built-in generative AI assistant that gives students instant feedback on their writing in every subject. Students paste in a draft and LumaCoach suggests revisions for organization, evidence, and grammar. The vendor says it saves teachers hours of grading each week.
4Training will be a two-hour session during the October staff development day. Every student already has a district device, so access is covered. Students will log in with their district accounts; the vendor has told us the platform is secure.
5Department chairs: please have each teacher build at least three assignments in LumaLearn before launch. I'll check usage reports weekly so we can celebrate our early adopters.
6Families will receive an announcement in the November newsletter. Let's show the district what Cedar Ridge can do!
Handout B for The Five-Question Rollout Check
Role and Inject Cards
Cut apart. Deal Cards 1–9 to participants. The facilitator keeps Cards 10–12 (injects) and reads them aloud on schedule. Backs are facilitator notes; print them separately.
Sheet 1 of 2
Role 1 · Principal
Marcus Delgado, Principal. You wrote the memo and you believe in it. The district is watching. You want a smooth, fast launch, but you also want to be the kind of leader who listens. You run this meeting and must leave it with a decision.
Role 2 · Assistant Principal for Curriculum
Joy Nakamura, AP. You support the platform, but you notice the memo never says what instructional problem it solves. Your walkthroughs show students already complete plenty of digital assignments. What you don't see is students revising their thinking.
Role 3 · 8th Grade ELA Teacher
Tomás Rivera, ELA. You've tried AI writing feedback tools. Sometimes the suggestions are useful; sometimes they flatten students' voices or confidently fix things that weren't wrong. You want students to evaluate AI feedback, not just accept it.
Role 4 · Math Department Chair
Priya Shah, Math Chair. Your department does a lot of handwritten problem solving and whiteboard work. Three assignments per teacher in six weeks feels like busywork. You worry the usage reports will be used to judge teachers.
Role 5 · Campus Technology Specialist
Andre Wallace, Tech Specialist. You're the one who'll field every login problem. About one in five student devices is in the repair queue at any given time, and loaners are limited. You haven't seen an accessibility review of LumaLearn.
Role 6 · Special Education Coordinator
Dr. Lena Brooks, SPED Coordinator. Several students on your caseload use screen readers, speech-to-text, or extended time. Accommodations in students' plans must be honored in any required platform. Nobody has asked you to test LumaLearn.
Role 7 · District Privacy Officer
Sam Okonkwo, Data Privacy. You have not seen a signed data privacy agreement for LumaCoach. You want to know what happens to student writing pasted into it: is it stored, for how long, and is it used to train the vendor's AI? FERPA and COPPA obligations apply to student data.
Role 8 · Student
Dani Morales, 8th grader. You're blind and use a screen reader. You were in the small student test group last week. Most of LumaLearn worked, but the LumaCoach feedback panel pops up in a way your screen reader skips entirely, so you never hear the feedback. You're not sure anyone will care.
Handout B for The Five-Question Rollout Check
Role and Inject Cards
Cut apart. Deal Cards 1–9 to participants. The facilitator keeps Cards 10–12 (injects) and reads them aloud on schedule. Backs are facilitator notes; print them separately.
Sheet 2 of 2
Role 9 · Family Representative
Graciela Herrera, parent of a 7th grader. Spanish is your family's first language. Your home internet is a phone hotspot shared by three kids. You learn about school changes from the newsletter, which arrives in English, or from other parents online.
Inject 1 · Minute 5
Email from Dani Morales to the Principal: "Hi Mr. Delgado. I tested LumaLearn last week. Most of it works with my screen reader but the LumaCoach feedback box doesn't read at all, so I can't use it. If everyone has to use it I won't get the feedback other kids get. Is someone going to fix that? — Dani"
Inject 2 · Minute 10
Post in the Cedar Ridge Parents community group (412 members): "Heard from my kid that the school is making ALL students use AI to write their essays starting next month?? Nobody asked parents. Is my kid's writing going to some tech company?" (37 comments and counting)
Inject 3 · Minute 15
Reply from the LumaLearn account manager: "Thanks for flagging! Accessibility improvements for LumaCoach are on our roadmap for next year. In the meantime, students can ask a teacher to read the feedback aloud. Also, to clarify, student submissions may be used in de-identified form to improve our models, per our standard terms."
Handout C for The Five-Question Rollout Check
Five-Question Check Organizer
Step out of role. For each question, record what the memo already answers, what evidence is missing, and one next step with an owner. Write your decision in the last row.
| Question | What the memo already answers | Evidence still missing | Next step + owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. What is the vision? (What instructional problem does this solve?) | |||
| 2. What evidence will guide us? (Evidence of learning, not just usage) | |||
| 3. What changes in instruction? (What will students and teachers do differently?) | |||
| 4. Who might be left out? (Access, accessibility, language, devices, data privacy) | |||
| 5. How will families understand the change? (When, how, in what languages, with what chance to ask questions?) | |||
| Our decision: Go · Go with conditions · Pause. Conditions: |
Facilitator only for The Five-Question Rollout Check
Answer key and notes
Handout B: Role and Inject Cards
- Role 1 · Principal
- Coach the Principal to ask each role, "What would make this work for you?" A strong Principal changes the timeline without losing face by naming the new evidence.
- Role 2 · Assistant Principal for Curriculum
- This role carries question 1 (vision) and question 3 (instruction). Prompt: "What would students do differently in LumaLearn than they do now?"
- Role 3 · 8th Grade ELA Teacher
- This role brings AI literacy. Prompt: "How would you know whether LumaCoach improved student writing, and not just grammar?"
- Role 4 · Math Department Chair
- This role surfaces the difference between usage and learning. Prompt: "What would evidence of learning in math look like on this platform, if any?"
- Role 5 · Campus Technology Specialist
- Surfaces the gap between "every student has a device" and "every student has a working device." Prompt: "What happens on a day a student's device is in repair?"
- Role 6 · Special Education Coordinator
- Pair this role with Dani's email when it arrives. Prompt: "Who should test a platform before it becomes required?"
- Role 7 · District Privacy Officer
- This role carries the digital citizenship and genai privacy thread. Prompt: "What would you tell a parent who asks where their child's essay goes?"
- Role 8 · Student
- The central role. If the table rushes past Dani, pause the table and ask the Principal to respond to Dani directly, in character.
- Role 9 · Family Representative
- Carries question 5 (families). Prompt: "When and how would you want to hear about this, and in what language?"
- Inject 1 · Minute 5
- Look-for: does the table treat this as implementation evidence (a reason to pause, test, or require a fix) or as a one-off? Does anyone suggest replying to Dani?
- Inject 2 · Minute 10
- A small media literacy moment: the post is partly wrong (it's feedback, not writing) and partly a fair question (data use). Look for tables that correct the misinformation and answer the real concern.
- Inject 3 · Minute 15
- Two new facts: no fix this year, and student writing may train the vendor's models. Look for tables that connect this to the Privacy Officer's concerns and to whether the workaround is an equal experience for Dani.