How to Run a Virtual Book Study for Teacher Professional Development

One of the many hats instructional coaches wear is planning professional development. We all know that teachers don’t exactly LOVE to participate in PD, but if you create an engaging way to do things, teachers will love to be a part of the sessions. In the fall of 2020, many of us turned to the computer for all of our coaching, including presenting professional development. So, how do you keep it relevant while you are on a screen?

In my district, we were all virtual for the first quarter. Because of this, I was searching for ways to use the professional development we did during virtual learning and continue with it when we came back to school. Teachers were more than overwhelmed with all of the changes, new models needing to be implemented, and more! That’s why I was working to create teacher toolkits around the topics of blended learning, flipped classroom, and technology tools.

The answer was sitting in front of me. Our district already ran a book study every year, so adapting it for PD made sense. A book study is easy to move online with Google Classroom and Google Meet or Zoom, and hosting one gave me a way to teach teachers the tech tools while we worked through the book together. While this is what I was dealing with, your situation might be completely different. Here is how you can implement your own virtual book study. A virtual book study can only be effective if it is set up and facilitated in a way that conveys strong meaning and purpose for the participants and well… You know me! I love the planning process!

What is a virtual book study?

A virtual book study is a group of teachers reading one professional book together over several weeks, meeting online to discuss it, and trying what they read in their classrooms between meetings. The reading is the content. The weekly meeting is the PD. The classroom try-out is where it turns into instruction. For a virtual book study to work, it needs a clear purpose and meaning for the teachers in it, and the pre-planning is what builds that meaning and the buy-in before the first meeting.

The interactive pieces are what separate a book study from a reading assignment. Teachers today are juggling content, student engagement, and new technology at the same time, and an interactive study can help with all three. These are the pieces I build in:

• Weekly video discussions. Host them on Zoom or Google Meet, and send the agenda and the discussion questions ahead of time so nobody is put on the spot. That also models good virtual teaching for the teachers in the room.
• A weekly game. I use a PD bingo board that follows the book. Teachers answer the questions on the board in our PD classroom, post their boards, and respond to colleagues’ posts. A prize at the end does for adults what it does for students.
• Short videos. A video discussion tool keeps the conversation going when everyone can’t meet. A teacher who misses a session records a video answering the discussion questions, colleagues respond by video, and everyone records a two- to three-minute reflection after each meeting on what they learned.

A note on the book itself: the study is for the teachers, so get their input. A quick SurveyMonkey or Google Form gathers preferences, or ask teachers what they need help with right now and choose a book that answers it.

Why a virtual book study changes what happens in classrooms

The weakness of any virtual PD is that nobody is physically present to follow up, so it’s easy for participants to skip the work. A book study fixes that when the goals are tied to classroom action. Each week teachers implement one strategy from the book and record a short video reflection on how it went, or write in a reflective journal they bring back to the group. Regular assignments like these create accountability that runs the whole study, and they mean the book gets practiced, never only discussed.

Fun does the rest. We all loved reading in elementary because if we read enough, we got a free personal pizza. That was always the best! Having teachers complete various tasks and if they do, maybe they can get a virtual $5 gift card to a coffee shop or Instructional Coaching Coupons. You can ask your principal or school board for donations. If you have supportive parents, you can ask them for little virtual prizes as well. Small rewards keep attention on the work in weeks when attention is the scarcest thing in the building.

How do you plan a virtual book study?

Meet weekly. Monthly book studies get pushed aside, and a weekly schedule keeps participants on track and keeps the content relevant to what they’re teaching right now. Involve as many teachers as you can, because some will sit on the sidelines if you let them, and give each person a role with a written job description so a reluctant participant is less likely to skip their part. Write the goals down, because goals keep the coach and the teachers focused, and goal writing is a hallmark of good coaching. Then build a content outline that shows the discussion topics and activities for every meeting. Like a lesson plan, it will flex, and like a lesson plan, it needs to exist before the first week. The steps below are my planning process, and the download walks through each one with the planning questions and a sample outline.

Keep it relevant, keep it light

Relevance has never been more important, because teachers have very little time. A virtual book study should help them with the problem in front of them this week, and it should never add to their load. Plan it well, keep it interactive, and the book will show up in classrooms.