The Logic of Respect

If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them become better than they are.

                                                                                                         John W. Gardner

Trust and respect are intertwined.  Where there is mutual trust, colleagues develop an understanding of each other’s views, strengths, and needs.  This understanding leads to respect.  We can usually understand another’s actions better when we take the time to find out about what that person values and has experienced and when we respect their individual attributes.  Inquiring about teachers’ past experiences gives you a window into their instructional actions.  If you respect the individual, things will eventually make sense. 

One of the teachers I’m working with provides a good example.  Erica is a quiet beauty.  Somehow, I’ve come to associate beautiful young women with outgoing personalities, but this is not the case for Erica.  She is serene and thoughtful.  Her lesson plans are detailed and well-envisioned.  I’ve watched her in the classroom, moving from student to student with quiet comments that elevate students’ thinking.  She will never be the sage on the stage, the entertainer-type of teacher.  I wouldn’t want her to be. 

When coaching Erica, I started by acknowledging the powerful conversations she was having with individual students, labeling them for her as “conferences.”  We initially talked about structuring those conferences for increased impact.  I tried to build from where she was and the unique assets she brought as a teacher before making suggestions that might have been a bit more outside of her comfort zone.  We were well into our coaching work before we talked about bringing more exuberance to her read alouds.  A buoyant read-aloud, with lilt in her voice, dynamic volume, and pregnant pauses did not come naturally to her.  But she recognized the need and was willing to work on it because of the mutual respect we had developed.  Unprompted, she even began adding different voices for each character, and admitted to practicing in front of her mirror (after shutting the door to keep her roommates on the other side!). 

Instruction is most likely to improve when we respect the teachers we are working with and have earned their respect.  Don’t be in a rush to recommend; work on building respect and understanding first.  The simple equation for those in a rush is:  no respect = no change.* 

*Powers, B. (2011).  Choice Literacy Newsletter, September 27, 2011.  Downloaded from choiceliteracy.com. 

This week, you might want to take a look at these ideas for using technology in coaching and in the classroom:

A video about using technology to coach:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-coaching-models

A site with reviews of educational websites and apps that is searchable by subject area, grade, and cost (including plenty that are free!):

http://www.graphite.org/

This Pinterest Board on using technology in the classroom:

http://pinterest.com/nctedotorg/integrating-technology-in-the-classroom/

An NPR podcast about how social media boosts literacy:

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=213500923&m=213500920

Online reading & writing tools:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1566

That’s all for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Models, Demonstrations, and Explanations

“If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.”

W.B. Bateman

When teachers want their students to try something new, they often demonstrate the method that they are expecting; they engage in the processes they want their students to use.  Students observe and then it’s their turn to try.  Reading aloud to students, for example, provides a model of what fluent reading sounds like.  Demonstrating how to mix chemicals safely is another example of the important role modeling can play in the classroom.

Coaches can also provide models, and these models don’t have to occur in the classroom.  For example, during a coaching conversation, a coach can model a questioning technique like providing sufficient wait time.  If the objective is to model this questioning strategy and encourage the teacher to apply it in her own classroom, the coach should be explicit about the purpose at the onset, draw attention to the wait time during the conversation, support reflection about the impact of this strategy, and then guide the teacher in planning for sufficient wait time during her own instruction.  Modeling during a coaching conversation has the benefit of allowing you to hit the “pause” button in your demonstration and provide an explanation.    

In addition to providing models of instructional processes, coaches can also provide models of completed products:  a graphic organizer that might be useful in the classroom, a lesson or unit plan, or an analysis of student assessments.  The purpose here is not for the coach to do the work for the teacher, but for the coach to provide a model that will guide the teacher in future work.  It’s important to talk about the process used in creating the product.  For example, if you share a graphic organizer that can be used in a science notebook, what guided you in creating the organizer?  How did you determine the information that should be included?  What did you think about in terms of format?  Demonstrating such thinking and how thinking shifts based on context builds a teacher’s repertoire of strategies and fosters cognitive flexibility.   

All teachers benefit from coaching.  Some teachers need significant modeling, including clear and repeated demonstrations of effective processes and products.  Left without adequate demonstrations, these teachers may continue using less-effective teaching techniques.  Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  You can’t do it the same way and expect a different outcome.  If our job as coaches is to improve the effectiveness of instruction, then models, explanations, and demonstrations will be essential elements of our coaching. 

This week, you might want to take a look at resources about teachers modeling for their students:

A Teaching Channel video about modeling use of digital resources: 

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/classroom-modeling

Richard Allington & Patricia Cunningham talk about how children benefit from modeling, demonstration, and explanation during literacy instruction in this article:

http://www.education.com/reference/article/children-benefit-modeling-demonstration/

Modeling for great classroom management:

http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2012/02/18/how-to-be-a-great-teacher/

Video of a teacher modeling the addition process:

http://fcit.usf.edu/mathvids/videos/strategies/em/concrete/etmc_clip3_med.mov

Or this video where a teacher models the division process:

http://fcit.usf.edu/mathvids/videos/strategies/em/representational/etmr_clip5_med.mov

Read more about modeling during instruction at:

http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/StateArt/Read/idea4.html

Who's in the Center

A few years ago, I was working as a district literacy coordinator when the time came to buy new materials.  Before we could begin to know what we wanted, it was important for us to define our instructional philosophy.  That way, materials would match the way we wanted to teach.  I love all of the philosophy statements we created together; they speak to who I am as a teacher.  The one at the top of the list that we all easily agreed upon was, “The learner must be at the center of literacy instruction.”  Like the hub of a wheel, the center point determines the action.  If the child is at the center (rather than the test, the teacher, the Unit Plan, etc.), then instruction will look different.  Similarly, if the child is at the center of our coaching, our coaching will look different.

This important idea was brought home to me yesterday as I worked with a group of wonderful coaches. We had watched a video clip of a coach who was making recommendations to a middle-school math teacher.  Here’s a snippet of their conversation:

           

Coach:  Something else I want you to think about, too, is your questions.  Try purposely not to make them convergent.  When I come next time, I want to see evidence of them thinking in alternate ways.  I want you to, between now and then, start to ask questions that are divergent questions.  They follow more of Bloom’s higher-order thinking questions.  I want to see the atmosphere shift of, okay, I’m asking a question.  Can you get the answer?  The answer’s black. Now are you going to say black? to: Oh, good, you’re thinking.  You’ve thought of something I didn’t think of.  I’d like you to feel comfortable with them telling you something you’re not prepared to hear.  I also want to see some sort of engagement, whether it’s, whatever you can feel comfortable with.  Whether it’s groups, games, competition, group think.  I want to see something where they feel more responsible as a group, not as an individual, to apply their time to that task.  And care about the task.  And then the last thing I want to see is I want to make sure they have a feeling, and if you choose the questions carefully, that they understand there’s a reason to do this.  Why do I care?  You don’t want to be the sage on the stage.

           Teacher:  Right.

Coach:  You want to be that guide on the side.  So you want to be in there asking questions.  You want to be a magician that’s not going to tell them the answer, but you’re going to ask questions.  And I say to teachers: When you’re about to tell, because time is clicking, you’re frustrated, change your telling into a question. 

Teacher:  Yah, I’m going to sit back and reflect on these and start building these into my lessons.  You know, piece by piece.*

When I showed this clip to the coaches during our professional development, they were aghast.  That coach must have been an outside consultant, they said.  We would never talk to our teachers like that, they said.  One coach hit the nail on the head:  If she had just phrased her recommendations in terms of what students needed, rather than what she wanted to see, the coach could have made the same recommendations, but it would have worked much better.

How much more palatable do these recommendations seem (and how much more likely to be implemented)?

·       Get your students thinking in alternate way by asking those higher-order thinking questions from Bloom’s taxonomy.   Get them to tell you something you’re not prepared to hear!
 

·         Give your students responsibility as a group.  Whatever you’re comfortable with - whether it’s groups, games, competition, group think.  Something where they feel responsible as a group, not as an individual, to apply their time to that task.

Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to give the teacher time to say more than a word or two in response!  Putting students in the center of our coaching makes our efforts more effective, because our attention is where it should be:  On the students who are (directly or indirectly) in our charge.

 

This week, you might want to take a look at:

The video clip from which the excerpt above was taken:

*https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/professional-development-teacher-evaluation

Lesson plans using one of my favorite instructional tools:  sticky notes!

http://teachers.post-it.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Post-it-Teachers/Home/All-Activities/?utm_campaign=bazaarvoice&utm_medium=Default&utm_source=Stories&utm_content=Default

 

Lesson plan for sparking rich online discussions:

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/thoughtful-threads-sparking-rich-1165.html

A podcast suggestion tech tools for young learners:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1039

Recommendations about user-friendly, free apps for classroom use:

http://litlifeblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/our-favorite-free-apps-for-classroom-use/

 

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!