What’s
your most natural coaching move? Your
go-to move that happens almost without thinking when you start talking with a
teacher? If you said, “Making
recommendations,” you’re in good company.
You were probably hired as a
coach for your school because of your expertise and experience, so you have a
big bag of tricks to choose from when making recommendations. The challenge is to consider that repertoire
thoughtfully and provide the right recommendation at the right time,
acknowledging both what the students need and what the teacher is able and
willing to do. When planning a coaching
conversation, if you’ve determined that recommending is the right coaching
move, you may want to consider these four categories of recommendations:
Making recommendations about
instructional strategies. As a coach, you may want to
recommend a specific teaching strategy that addresses student needs. For example, you might decide to suggest that
students spend less time with word work and more time reading connected text. This recommendation encourages the teacher to
move from isolated skills instruction to contextualized practice. An instructional strategy I find myself
regularly recommending is “Turn & Talk.”
Because this strategy is helpful for learners of all ages, no matter
what the content, it’s one of the more useful strategies in my bag of
tricks. Don’t forget the trick of gathering
formative assessment data – another ubiquitously-appropriate instructional
strategy that is often overlooked.
Making recommendations about content
or skills. Making recommendation about
skills or content for upcoming lessons supports teachers in the instructional design
process. For example, this
recommendation reminds the teacher of a need that has been thus far neglected:
Your
insights about Caleb’s comprehension will be helpful as you plan
instruction. We do see evidence that
vocabulary instruction would be helpful to Caleb, so it is appropriate to
include it. Before too long, you’ll also
want to address his word recognition needs, so let’s think together about that
a bit.
The coach first acknowledges relevant insights the teacher has shared, building the teacher’s confidence and strengthening feelings of trust in their relationship. She then nudges the teacher to consider additional skills the student needs to develop.
Making recommendations about
the developmental processes of learning.
Learning
is a complex process! Understanding the
ages and stages of learning can help teachers make wise instructional
decisions. It’s also helpful to see how
developmental processes from different academic areas interact; for example, a
student’s growth as a reader supports his growth as a writer, and vise
versa. Students who can reason
abstractly when doing algebra are ready to think more abstractly about literary
themes. As students’ skills develop,
they do not focus on one discrete skill at a time - learning is a complex
conceptual mix! Having an understanding
of learning development is essential for planning effective instruction. This understanding becomes especially
critical when designing intervention that accelerates a student’s growth along
the learning continuum.
Because
of the complexity of the learning process, teachers may benefit when coaches
make specific recommendations about how instruction should change over time to
support students’ movement through the developmental process. In addition to making recommendations about
instructional design that align with students’ development, you may want to recommend
professional reading to increase the teacher’s understanding of these
processes.
Making recommendations about
the standards, curriculum, or resources being used. During
this time of change, teachers are looking to their coaches about how to
implement the Common Core State Standards.
Take this as an opportunity to emphasize the importance of having clear
learning objectives when designing instruction.
Learning objectives may be crafted using knowledge of developmental
learning processes, or they may be lifted from the standards. In either case, coaches might make
recommendations about specific objectives that would enhance student
learning.
The
coach might also make recommendations about resources that align with the
abilities and interests of the learners. Because the coach may have greater
familiarity with resources that are available, such a recommendation could be
helpful. You can combine your recommendation of a resource to use with
suggestions about how to use it.
By
making recommendations about instructional strategies, content or skills being
taught, the developmental processes of learning, or the standards or resources
being used, coaches can encourage teachers to attend to important instructional
goals. Making recommendations can be a
very helpful coaching move, especially when you are thoughtful about what the
teacher knows and is able to do. Rather
than making recommendations spontaneously, you might think about these four categories
as you plan a coaching conversation.
You’ll likely end up making just the right choice from your large bag of
tricks!
(Or
Listen to) A podcast from Diane Sweeney
about coaching using student work:
Are students into Tweeting? Look here for suggestions about having students summarize important content in 15 words or less!
http://dogtrax.edublogs.org/2012/10/21/student-research-projects-in-a-tweet/
Or
chart out another blog for some great ideas about student self-assessment:
And
speaking of self-assessment, it never hurts to take a good look at ourselves and
find room for improvement. Look here
for some food for thought:
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