Professional learning · Coaches, Librarians, Leaders · 90 minutes
Journal Club by Design
Coaches experience a research journal club as learners, reading a practice article with a skeptic's eye, then design their own PD series around real teacher needs and adult learning principles.
A journal club is one of the simplest ways to keep a staff connected to research, and one of the easiest to run badly: an article nobody chose, a summary nobody needed, and no change on Monday. Coaches first take part in a journal club on a fictional practice article about teaching students to pause before sharing online, practicing the same claim-checking they want teachers to teach. Then they step back, name the adult learning principles that made it work or fail, read a set of teacher needs profiles, and design a journal club series built on what their teachers actually need.
In this packet
- Handout A: Practice Article: "Pause Before You Post" (reading)
- Handout B: Principle and Teacher Profile Cards (cut-apart cards)
- Handout C: Journal Club Series Planner (worksheet)
- Facilitator key (last page)
TCEA ELE indicators
- C4.1 I know how to design and deliver effective professional development sessions.
- C4.2 I can identify and address teachers' individual learning needs.
- C4.3 I am aware of adult learning principles and how to apply them.
- C1.3 I am aware of the latest educational research and best practices.
Full facilitator guide: mglearn.github.io/eles/activities/journal-club-by-design.html
Handout A for Journal Club by Design
Practice Article: "Pause Before You Post"
This article is fictional and was written for this activity. The school, the author, the company, and all numbers are invented. Read it the way you'd want teachers to read any education article.
1Pause Before You Post: How Our Middle School Cut Misinformation Sharing in Half. By a fictional instructional coach at Juniper Ridge Middle School, Alder Springs ISD. Published in The Riverbend Educator, a fictional regional newsletter. Sponsored sidebar: "Stop misinformation before it spreads with VeriCheck AI."
2Last fall, our 7th grade team noticed students forwarding rumors in class group chats: a fake snow day, a made-up celebrity visit, a doctored photo of the cafeteria. We decided to teach one routine for six weeks: Pause, Ask, Check. Before sharing anything, students pause, ask "Who made this and why?", and check whether a reliable source reports the same thing.
3Every Monday, teachers modeled the routine for ten minutes using a real post from the week, with names removed. Students practiced in pairs and kept a small card in their planners with the three steps. Teachers reported that students began saying "pause" to each other in class, which was our favorite moment of the whole project.
4At the start and end of the six weeks, we asked students one survey question: "In the last week, how many times did you share something online before checking whether it was true?" The average answer fell from about 4 times to about 2 times. We are confident that Pause, Ask, Check cut misinformation sharing in half.
5During the same six weeks, our campus also adopted VeriCheck AI, which lets students paste a claim and receive an instant "true" or "false" rating. Many students told us they used it as their Check step. As one student put it, "If VeriCheck says it's true, I know I can share it."
6We recommend that every middle school adopt Pause, Ask, Check, ideally alongside VeriCheck AI. Our results speak for themselves.
7Questions for your journal club. What does the article claim? How do the authors know? What would you check outside the article? What's one thing worth trying, and what would you need to see to believe it worked in your classroom?
Handout B for Journal Club by Design
Principle and Teacher Profile Cards
Cut apart. The six Principle cards summarize Malcolm Knowles's assumptions about adult learners. The six Teacher Profile cards are fictional teachers at one campus.
Sheet 1 of 2
Principle · Need to know
Adults want to know why they are learning something before they invest in it.
Principle · Self-concept
Adults see themselves as responsible for their own decisions and resist being told what to do.
Principle · Experience
Adults bring rich experience that is a resource for learning and part of their identity.
Principle · Readiness
Adults are ready to learn what helps them handle real situations they face now.
Principle · Problem-centered
Adults learn best when learning is organized around problems rather than subjects.
Principle · Internal motivation
Adults respond most to internal motivators: satisfaction, growth, and seeing students succeed.
Teacher Profile · Ms. Albright, 8th grade science, 20 years
Says: "I don't need another AI session. I need time." Evidence: her students' lab reports cite sources carefully, but none of them question a source's funding or purpose.
Teacher Profile · Mr. Ngata, 6th grade ELA, first year
Says: "I want to learn every AI tool." Evidence: walkthrough notes show students copying chatbot answers into reading responses with no revision.
Handout B for Journal Club by Design
Principle and Teacher Profile Cards
Cut apart. The six Principle cards summarize Malcolm Knowles's assumptions about adult learners. The six Teacher Profile cards are fictional teachers at one campus.
Sheet 2 of 2
Teacher Profile · Ms. Ferreira, 7th grade social studies, 8 years
Says: "Our kids believe anything they see on video." Evidence: she has already built a lesson on doctored photos and wants to share it.
Teacher Profile · Coach Dunn, PE and health, 12 years
Says: "This doesn't really apply to me." Evidence: students in health class research nutrition claims from influencer videos for a project.
Teacher Profile · Mrs. Okoye, 6th grade math, 4 years
Says: "I'd love to talk about student privacy." Evidence: her class uses three apps with separate logins, and she isn't sure what data any of them collect.
Teacher Profile · Mr. Ibarra, 8th grade ELA, 15 years
Says: "Just tell me the AI policy." Evidence: his students' essays show no disclosure of AI use, and he has no way to ask about process.
Handout C for Journal Club by Design
Journal Club Series Planner
Plan three sessions for your own teachers on media literacy, digital citizenship, or AI.
Needs evidence: what teachers said they need, and what you've seen in classrooms or student work:
Tracks or groupings, and how teachers will help choose the articles:
Session 1 article, and how you vetted it (claim, evidence, sponsor, limits):
Roles and discussion protocol you'll use:
The classroom try-it between sessions, and what teachers will bring back:
Which adult learning principles each design choice honors:
By session 3, what teacher practice or student evidence will show the series changed something?
Facilitator only for Journal Club by Design
Answer key and notes
Handout B: Principle and Teacher Profile Cards
- Principle · Need to know
- Design move: open with the classroom problem the session solves, not the agenda.
- Principle · Self-concept
- Design move: let teachers choose articles, roles, or tracks.
- Principle · Experience
- Design move: ask what teachers already do before introducing anything new.
- Principle · Readiness
- Design move: time sessions to when the problem shows up (for example, before a research unit).
- Principle · Problem-centered
- Design move: frame each session as a problem of practice with a classroom try-it.
- Principle · Internal motivation
- Design move: bring student work back to the group so teachers see the impact.
- Teacher Profile · Ms. Albright, 8th grade science, 20 years
- Possible track: lateral reading about who funds science claims. Honor experience; make it short.
- Teacher Profile · Mr. Ngata, 6th grade ELA, first year
- Need differs from request: verification routines, not more tools.
- Teacher Profile · Ms. Ferreira, 7th grade social studies, 8 years
- Possible co-facilitator for a synthetic media track. Her experience is the resource.
- Teacher Profile · Coach Dunn, PE and health, 12 years
- Readiness hook: health misinformation is his problem of practice.
- Teacher Profile · Mrs. Okoye, 6th grade math, 4 years
- Possible digital citizenship track: app privacy, with a Family App Privacy Audit follow-up.
- Teacher Profile · Mr. Ibarra, 8th grade ELA, 15 years
- Need: disclosure and process evidence routines. Self-concept matters: invite him to help write the classroom norm.