Verb-Based Agendas

Agendas that accomplish this goal, will have the following things in common.

Fundamentally, they will provide the following:

1. Clearly defined goals and/or outcomes, both long-term and for each individual study session (i.e. - "learning objectives")
2. Opportunities for knowledge sharing (aka - Collaborative study; i.e., taking turns explaining, telling, or answering)
3. Opportunities for direct and guided practice (swimming; not watching someone else swim)
4. Opportunities for feedback from yourself and others (ie- working through problems, trading/comparing solutions, looking up answers as a group, taking turns being "the judge," etc.) 
   *accountability = motivation and improvement of skills, better to start practiing this accounability now than on Test Day

Technically, they must also always contain the following: (see AGENDA REVIEW CHECKLIST)

• The date of the study group using the agenda
• The course and Professor the agenda was designed for
• The name of the SP or Preceptor who created the Agenda
• Specific and clear descriptions to Preceptors about how to facilitate each activity
• Room for preceptors to comment on how each activity went during the group
• Time allocated for questions at the beginning or end of the study group
• Kelsey: should we estimate times for activities? or a percentage split, like marking "after half the study group time has elapsed, you should be here" ? **KATE: we can include timing cues but we should all be sure not to worry about them too much. When designing agendas it is definitely a good idea to think about timing, especially since Time Management is one of the things we focus on during Preceptor observations, but everyone should be clear that those are general guidelines to help pace the group and it's totally okay if they take longer/shorter than expected. It could be really helpful for SPs to get feedback from their Preceptors about how accurate those timing expectations are but there are a lot of other things to talk about too so it would just depend on each group of preceptors.

Beyond these basics, there are a few other things that will help make your VBA most effective.

• We are going to Incorporate a variety of both Methods & Topics (SEE .... effective questioning? things to try? etc)
• Rely on clear "verb phrases" for Agenda to be written on board
• Include relevant information for preceptors (ie- test reminders, questions for feedback, tips and reminders, etc)
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Now that we know what we want each agenda to accomplish, let's get to business!

Now, what skills and materials do you need to carry out your wonderful plan?