As
the group posed and considered these questions, I reflected on questions of my
own: Do coaches use questions
differently when working with groups of teachers than when working with just
one teacher? What roles do questions
play? I realized that, although most of
the functions of questions are the same in individual or group coaching
conversations, asking questions can play an additional important role when
working with a PLC: Asking questions can
be a tool for consensus building. The
exchange below, which was part of an animated discussion the PLC had about
adjectives and adverbs, points out this feature:
Coach: In the rubric, it’s talking about using adjectives,
adverbs, and complex sentences. To me, that could be an “and/or”. Do you want me to
add an “or”? What do we expect kids to do?
Teacher 1: I think we can try it this week with and. Right now they are just adding them
(adjectives and adverbs) in there, they don’t really add to the story. A lot of times they’re just using colors….
Teacher 2: Some are sticking them in there because we
talked about it. At least they are
experimenting.
The
coach’s questions: “Do you want me to
add an “or”? and “What do we expect kids to do?” drew teachers’ attention to the
effects of the rubric. Teachers’ responses built agreement that leaving the
rubric with the “and” requirement
served an important purpose.
This
example illustrates a role for questioning (building consensus) that is unique
to working with groups. Questions serve
additional roles that are useful in both group and individual coaching
conversations. For example, coaches ask
questions that enhance reflection and support teachers’ understandings. Depending on need and where the conversation
is in the coaching process, coaches may ask questions that inquire (to broaden
thinking) or probe (to deepen thinking).
For example, the question, “How much pictorial support are students in
this group needing?” inquires about an important cueing system for early
readers; the question supports teachers’ thinking about the continuum of
literacy learning. The probing question,
“Is Jason reading at his instructional level, based on results of his
diagnostic testing?” sends the teacher to specific assessment data and may
implicate intervention strategies.
Whether
in a small group or with an individual, different types of questions serve
different purposes. Building consensus, inquiring,
and probing are a few of the valuable roles that questioning can take.
Last, week, I included among
the links some information about vocabulary instruction. This week, I’ve brought together a variety of
resources about vocabulary instruction.
Because building word knowledge is important for students across all
academic areas, you might want to take a look at and share some of the links
below:
A
thought-provoking article about the correlation between economic poverty and
word poverty:
Check
out the engaging, short word learning videos at:
Download
this PDF and consider having students use the 5-column note format or the
graphic organizer for learning new words:
Here’s
a podcast about using the Internet for vocabulary learning:
And
scroll down on this site for a video discussion on a similar topic:
There’s
more on this site! Check out chapter one
of the book Word Travelers. Use the menu at the right navigate through
the online chapter, which includes video clips:
And,
if you want to read a whole book about vocabulary instruction, the full text of
Word Nerds is available online at:
(Note: You do
not have to register)
I’m
sure that’s more than enough for this week!
Happy
Coaching!
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