How to Use This Guide

SWIFT-in-60

If you are new to the SWIFT framework, SWIFT-in-60 is a great place to start. This resource provides an overview that explains what a feature is all about. Each short video is jam-packed with content that both defines a feature and shows examples of it in action.

In-Depth

If you want to dig a little deeper, then head over to the In-Depth resource section of the feature page. Here you will find three valuable sections for both learning and teaching others about the SWIFT features. Each feature's In-Depth section includes:

SWIFT-IN-60 DISCUSSION GUIDES

If your team is exploring SWIFT, the SWIFT-in-60 Discussion Guides can help facilitate conversations among school stakeholders about how each feature might be applied at your own school. Discussion Guides are designed to be paired with the corresponding feature video. They have three parts:

Before You Watch
While You Watch
After You Watch

Before You Watch questions are intended to launch conversation among school stakeholders about their own beliefs, experiences, and insights in order to determine whether the feature is aligned with your school’s vision and priorities.

While You Watch questions draw attention to specific moments within the SWIFT-in-60 video to compare with your school’s current practices. You may need to watch the video more than once or pause it during key parts to discuss questions.

After You Watch questions are all about application and help provoke conversations about how you can apply a SWIFT feature in your own school.

When using these Discussion Guides, we suggest you identify one person to facilitate the conversation. That person may read the questions in advance and select questions relevant to your group, purpose, and allotted time. You may choose to discuss just one or two questions—the decision is up to you. In fact, we encourage you to customize use of the Discussion Guides for your own needs. For example, each Discussion Guides includes an optional small group activity. Whether or not you break your team into small groups to work on an activity will depend on your priorities, group, and time available.

The suggested audience for Discussion Guides is any school stakeholder group—perhaps used during a leadership team meeting, a staff meeting, or a professional development day when you can invite family and community members to join the conversation. Feel free to modify the questions to meet the needs of your specific group.

INTRODUCTORY POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS

Introductory PowerPoint Presentations are a tool for teaching key stakeholders about each of the SWIFT features. Each presentation includes research support for the feature, implementation practices associated with each feature, and strategies for how to apply the feature. As you share each application strategy, you can discuss implications of initially implementing or sustaining that practice at your school. The suggested audience for the Introductory PowerPoint Presentation is school leadership teams and school faculty and staff members.

STEPS TO GET YOU STARTED

If you are feeling overwhelmed about how to implement a feature and you want guidance, Steps to Get You Started is the section for you. It presents the SWIFT feature in small actionable steps. Each action step includes examples and resources to help you during your implementation journey. Keep in mind; the steps in this section are not linear. The steps you choose to implement will depend on your school’s priorities and needs. We suggest using the Steps to Get You Started with a school leadership team.

Resources

This section is full of tools and resources that you can use to better understand or implement a feature. If you are already implementing a feature or ready to get started, this is where you can go to find helpful links to websites, publications, implementation tools, videos, and presentations. Depending on the specific link, the suggested audience could include teachers, family and community members, school leadership teams, school and district administrators, or policy makers. Click on a resource link to learn more about what it is and why it may be valuable to you. After using a resource, help us consider its usefulness by giving it a rating on its individual resource page. With your help we will make better-informed decisions about future resources we provide in this guide.

The SWIFT Center produced this document under U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs Grant No. H326Y120005. OSEP Project Officers Grace Zamora Durán and Tina Diamond served as the project officers. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the positions or policies of the Department of Education. No official endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any product, commodity, service or enterprise mentioned in this publication is intended or should be inferred. This product is public domain.

SWIFT Field Guides contains links to other websites. The SWIFT Center is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.