Facilitation Strategies for an Effective Maker Practice

Kathy Malone coaches 1st graders as they use a stop-motion animation app to shoot their first short film.

In a Maker project, your role will shift from instructor to facilitator. Teaching through Making can present new challenges, even for an experienced teacher:

• difficulty tracking students’ progress
• more classroom materials and technologies to manage
• students' widely varying comfort levels using new technologies

This shift can also be hard on students who are used to direct instruction:

• Students are stuck and do not know how to proceed
• Students are coming back to teachers for help instead of using available resources
• Students groups are having trouble working together
• Students are reluctant to engage

Essential Maker facilitation practices
​Click to view and download a list of the facilitation strategies that support these practices

For a Maker project to be a rewarding experience for all, both the teacher and students will likely need to develop new practices.  We recognize 8 essential practices for effective project facilitation, and we've compiled a variety of facilitation moves to support these practices:

​1. Include joy, fun, and non-traditional experiences in the project!

2. Hear all voices

3. Have your resources ready

4. Foster collaboration

5. Foster self-direction

6. Keep the project work flowing smoothly in the classroom

7. Keep all students involved, on-task, and on-track
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8. Model an iterative learning process: Try, Test, Reflect, Improve, Try again

Our Maker Methodology
Click each step for information and downloadable planning tools.

1. Define your learning goals for the project
2. Discover other projects that can inspire your own
3. Design and Choose your own Maker project ideas
4. Plan the day-to-day details of your project 
5. Deliver your plan - roll out the project and facilitate your students' work 
6. Share your students' work with a larger community
7. Reflect and refine improve your project plans