Advisory Program Practices: Debriefing and Closings

Blogger: Denise Wolk

As I’ve mentioned before, when you are creating sessions for your advisory program, it is important to have a gathering activity of some sort, a debrief, and a closing.  This blog post will focus on debriefing and closings.

Debriefing questions, reflections, or observations deepen the experience that advisees just had in an activity or discussion. Having an experience opens up opportunities to learn; it’s during the debriefing that the learning really takes shape. Advisors can focus on certain aspects to deepen advisees’ skill development.

Debriefings also help to process feelings that may have arisen. Group exercises, role-plays, or discussions sometimes leave an advisee feeling left out, overruled, unheard, or raw. Debriefing offers a chance to articulate what happened, sort out and name feelings, and therefore be more ready to move on to other parts of the school day.

Some debriefings may double as closings. Remember, the most effective debriefings are tailored to the recent activity.

A few samples for debriefing a collaborative activity
Include questions about how each individual contributed and pulled their own weight, such as:

How did each group member participate?

Can everyone explain the group’s answer?

What role did you play in the group? What role do you want to play next time?

Include questions about the group dynamics, such as:

Did anyone have ideas that were ignored? How did that affect the group?

Did anyone opt out? How did that affect the group?

Who showed leadership? If multiple people vied for leadership, how did that affect the group?

Minimally, a collaborative activity can be followed by a pair of questions:  

What were two ways that we worked together that helped us do the exercise (solve the problem, complete the task …)?  

What are two ways we could improve how we operate next time?

A few sample closings:
Intentionally closing the advisory session is another important ritual for marking the transition for advisors to leave the group and go out into the rest of their school day/week. Closings can range from a simple ritual for saying good-bye (examples: a group shout-out, high-five, or popcorn-style vocal reflection on the day’s activity.  Closing reflections can also be more formal such as completing the phrase ”I used to think but now I know…”, or passing out slips of paper to serve as a Ticket Out that advisees fill out and pass in before leaving.