Avoiding the Fire Hose!

Recently, I had a discussion with a now-expert teacher about her past experience as a student teaching intern.  She told me about a time when her university supervisor had arrived unannounced.  She said, “The feeling I had when she walked into the room……My heart stopped.  Not that she caught me doing something I shouldn’t be doing.  It wasn’t like I was showing a movie or something and thought, ‘Oh, no, she’ll think I show movies all the time.’  It wasn’t like I was slacking off.  I was doing what I should be doing - teaching.”

This heart-sinking feeling is not uncommon for a teacher when a supervisor walks in.  Charlotte Danielson points out that even tenured teachers may feel, “a tightening of the stomach, a visceral fear, that the supervisor will observe something not to her liking” (Danielson, 2009, p. 2).  How much more troubling, then, is this situation for a student teacher who is a novice and vulnerable in so many ways? 

Probing my now-teacher friend for why she had this strong negative reaction when her university supervisor walked in, it came down to two things: lack of trust and knowing what was coming.  From past experience, she knew that these unplanned pop-ins would mean a lunch-time debrief – during the time she had planned to make needed copies for the afternoon, get materials laid out for small-group activities, and take a much-needed brain break. 

She also tensed up at the thought of the feedback the debrief session would include.  She said the supervisor was, “general with praise and specific with criticism.”  And that is what her recommendations always felt like – criticism, not suggestions.  She said the feedback came like a spraying fire hose, not giving her an opportunity to say much.  And when she did get to talk, she felt there were expected responses – something she was supposed to say, a scripted answer that she didn’t quite know.

Even though this situation involved a university supervisor, there is much that coaches can take from it regarding making recommendations.  Previous posts have described the importance of establishing a trusting relationship and how that might be done; the situation described above underscores its importance.  Another insight from this scenario is that it’s helpful to consider the timing of your recommendations.  When you have important recommendations to make, offer them at a time and in a context where they can be received with thoughtfulness.  The teaching day is packed with need-to-dos; there is no empty time.  Making sure that lengthier conversations are planned for can provide a context more conducive to learning. 

Being specific with both praise and recommendations is another important consideration.  I like to use the “sandwich” technique, making sure recommendations are preceded with and followed by specific praise. 

Another important aspect of making recommendations that this situation points out is the need to limit the number of recommendations given at once.  Avoid the “spraying fire hose” approach!  Although you may see many things that should be changed, the reality is that a teacher can only bring focus to a few things at a time.  Giving multiple recommendations could put her in information overload mode!

Finally, make sure that recommendations are given as part of a two-way conversation.  Danielson points out that “the experience of listening to suggestions….is a completely passive one” (2009, p. 4).  A monologue of recommendations is unlikely to engender change.  Instead, create a dialogue about the pedagogy you’re suggesting.  Recommending as part of a conversation about practice allows important learning to emerge.  Because learning occurs as part of an active intellectual process, inviting your student teacher to weigh in about the recommendations increases the chance that there will be transfer.  Open the conversation to questions about the nuances of what you are suggesting.  Ask her questions to help her think about possibilities. 

By planning the context and timing of your recommendations, serving up praise along with suggestions, limiting the number of recommendations, and opening opportunities for dialogue, your recommendations will be more welcome and effective, and hopefully you can abate heart-stopping, stomach-tightening experiences for the teachers you are working with!

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

This link about the language of recommendations.  It’s written for the world of business, but you can think about how the suggestions might apply to coaching:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1212_how_to_instruct/page5.shtml

This story about supporting student teachers:

http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2013/10/22/fp_chaffee.html

Game templates for content review:

http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/ppt-games/

A video about using advertisements to teach analysis:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teach-students-to-think?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=digest

And finally, a three-minute video on the benefits of instructional coaching: (you could ask your principal to show this!)

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/instructional-coaching

Pressure and Release

This week I read an article on the internet that got me thinking about the gradual increase of responsibility in coaching.  The article was about – once again, horse training.  I could practically take the article and paste it right here, I was making connections to coaching all over the place!  (The link to the article is at the end of this post, so you can take a look at it for yourself if you’d like.)

Horses are extremely fine and intelligent animals, but I still don’t know that teachers would like the comparison.  Nonetheless, I’d like to share some of the insights I gained with you.  Here’s a direct quote to get us started:

Training horses really is quite simple, because it involves not much more than the appropriate application of pressure and the exquisite timing of the release. But those adjectives, “appropriate” and “exquisite,” are where the real challenges lie, because these are the very things that make the difference between a horse having trouble, responding obediently, or responding with enthusiasm.

Let’s paraphrase that to apply to coaching and teachers.  Coaching, like horse training, involves the appropriate application of pressure – if we take the definition of pressure as “an influence that pushes or urges.”  I’d like it better if the definition said, “nudges or urges,” because as a coach I do feel like I am sometimes nudging and often urging the teachers I am working with.  Nudging them to think differently, urging them to try something new. 

According to the article, pressure is appropriate when it is “applied with focus, care and intention for a specific outcome.”  Translation:  Identify a focus for your coaching, a specific outcome.  Since you are working with a teacher and not a horse, this can be a joint enterprise!  Determining together the intention of your coaching work will ensure that your urging feels like encouragement, not coercion. 

When working with horses, pressure should be applied “very slowly and smoothly, progressing to the point at which it becomes effective and motivates the horse to try something.”  In other words, just the amount of nudging needed to encourage – and no more.   In horse training, how can you tell if the pressure was applied appropriately?  “The horse responds calmly and becomes more responsive and more willing.”  If urging from coaches is appropriate, teachers are willing and ready to take on more responsibility. 

How Do You Know If Your Timing is Exquisite?

Knowing when to release – give the teacher more responsibility – is all about timing.  In horse training, “If you release too early or too late, your horse won’t do what you expected.”  Letting go too soon means lost opportunities for learning.  Hanging on too long means lost opportunities for interdependence and true collaboration, learning together.  If your timing is exquisite, “the quality of response increases, and learning occurs “quickly with a minimum of difficulty.”  Conversely, you’ll know your timing was ineffective if “the quality of the response decreases” and “it takes longer to teach something.”  More support would have been beneficial.  The horseman uses the words “dull” and “heavy” to describe the sluggish response when release comes too early.  You’ve seen this happen as a coach when something you’ve worked on with a teacher slips away when you are no longer urging.  Let the Gradual Increase of Responsibility Model for Coaching guide you as you tune in to how to release exquisitely.

As you learn when to nudge and when to stop nudging, with appropriateness and exquisiteness, you’ll notice “how confidently and calmly (the teacher) begins to respond.”  Urging appropriately and releasing exquisitely leads to learners who respond “with enthusiasm”!

I must end this post with a note of caution that has little to do with coaching but everything to do with schools and change.  The horse trainer notes that inappropriate application of pressure is pressure that “comes on too fast and too strong, with no time for mental processing.  It is applied with an expectation that the horse must react instantly.  There is no teaching principle behind it: Do it or else!”  Sometimes mandates from government agencies or district or school administration have these unfortunate characteristics.  If our teachers are put in this situation, we as coaches have the responsibility to mediate that pressure.  I have seen coaches do just that with powerful, positive results.  I hope that few of you are in that uncomfortable position, but if you are, I am at least relieved to know that teachers have you as their ally for a more appropriate improvement process.

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

The whole article about pressure and release in horse training:

parelli.com/pressure-motivates-release-teaches.html

Plus a little something for everyone from different academic areas:

A video showing the engage-explore-explain-elaborate-evaluate learning cycle as students learn about chemical vs. physical changes:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-physical-and-chemical-changes

This “BOOKMATCH” poster helps kids choose a just-right book:

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson1172/poster.pdf

A Pinterest board for Social Studies Teaching Resources:

http://www.pinterest.com/lauracandler/social-studies-teaching-resources/

A video where students turn-and-talk about patterns they see during choral skip counting:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-number-patterns

Free Word Work Activities (from Teachers pay Teachers):

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Freebie-Word-Work-Activities-241610

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/ap-Word-Family-Word-Work-FREE-869401

The Horse Trainer

A book I was reading this week has a description of an extraordinary horse trainer.  Rather than “teaching them who was boss” and tying the horses up to learn to respect a rope and halter, this trainer’s method was markedly different.  Here’s the author’s description:

Ben looked at the horses for a while and then climbed into the small corral where the colts were. The young horses moved over near the fence, putting as much distance as possible between themselves and Ben….He did nothing while the horses wandered around the perimeter of the corral, looking for a way out. Occasionally they’d look back at Ben. He stood there quietly. He moved to the middle of the corral and stretched out his arms like a big human scarecrow. He started to talk to the colts, quietly and calmly…Finally, one horse moved closer to him, perhaps losing its fear or becoming curious about what Ben was doing….

After a while, Ben actually lay down on the ground, right on his back, looking up at the sky. He remained in that position a long time, his patience seemingly endless.  Gradually the horses all moved closer, perhaps because he appeared less threatening stretched out on the ground like that…. He was coaxing the horses to trust him. He was allowing them to take their time and become comfortable with him in a way that bonded them as partners.*

The author concludes the description by saying that the horses this trainer worked with “ended up being some of the best horses we ever had.”

I couldn’t help but think about coaching while reading this account.  As we’ve discussed previously, so much of coaching depends on first establishing a relationship of trust.  I’ve also noticed that as we make ourselves more approachable, our effectiveness increases.  The horse trainer made himself vulnerable by standing with arms outstretched in the middle of the corral and later by laying down on the ground in the midst of the horses.  When coaching, modeling is a way that we make ourselves approachable and vulnerable.  We say, “Here I am, for better or for worse.  Let’s examine my practice together.” Teachers may respond with curiosity at first, but such interactions establish connections that open avenues for other types of coaching moves.  When we make recommendations while coaching, we’re more approachable if our recommendations occasionally include examples of lessons gone awry.  

The next time I run up against a resistant teacher – one who is pulling at the halter, so to speak – I’ll remember the methods of this gentle horse trainer and move forward with patience.  Being humble and approachable usually pays off.

* From I Knew Their Hearts, by Jeff Olsen.  pp. 7&8

This week, you might want to take a look at some resources for independent reading:

Scholastic Book Wizard provides leveling information for most titles (lexiles, DRA, Guided Reading, or Grade Level Equivalent):

http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/

An article about buddy reading with older peers:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1420

A podcast about reading workshop with high school students:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=946

Positive Peer Pressure to Read in Middle School:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1449

A 1 min. video that shows how to involve families in classroom reading time (D.E.A.R. Reading – Family Style!):

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/dear-reading

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Structured Modeling

Even though it happened nearly a decade ago, I still remember clearly the frustration I felt during one of my early coaching experiences.   I had finally gotten an invitation to model for a teacher who I’d had my eye on for a while.  She was an extremely organized teacher whose instruction generally followed traditional patterns that included lots of worksheets and keep-the-kids-busy activities.  I was excited to model a very different kind of lesson – something interactive that included extended writing, lots of student talk, and use of a rubric to guide students’ thinking.  I felt it would provide this teacher with a view of something new – an engaging way to do business in the classroom.  But my bubble was quickly burst.

Mrs. N. welcomed me into the class with a smile and announced to her students that I was a special guest here to teach them.  She then went to her desk in the back of the room, turned on the computer, and started checking e-mail.  As the lesson progressed, she shifted her attention to the pile of worksheets that needed grading.  Then she stepped out of the room, presumably to take care of some other pressing business. 

This disappointment was an important lesson for me about the value of taking a few minutes before modeling in a classroom to set up the scenario I’d like to see unfold.  When I talk in advance with a teacher, we can determine together a focus for the observation:  What is she wondering about for her own instruction?  What seems important in this lesson for her to attend to?  Is there something I’m wondering about that I’d like her to notice?  By setting a focus, the effectiveness of a modeling session increases exponentially. 

Once the focus has been selected, it’s helpful to have a method in mind for keeping track of insights during the observation.  Whether it’s a blank sheet of paper where she’ll jot higher-level questions, two column notes for students’ behaviors and teachers’ responses, or a list of students’ names so that she can check off participation, having a note-taking method you’ve decided on in advance makes observations more effective. 

These days, I set the stage for a modeling session by making sure we’ll have some notes by the teacher to refer to when we meet again later.  Although I still occasionally get a teacher who can’t help but check her e-mail at least once while I’m in the room, debrief discussions are richer when we have evidence from the modeled lesson around which to focus our conversation.  Providing structure for the observation pays off!

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

Protocol for a PLC – Looking at Student Thinking:

http://www.ronritchhart.com/COT_Resources_files/LAST%20Protocol2.pdf

Student perspectives:  What is inquiry-based learning?

http://vimeo.com/14250807

More about Inquiry-Based Learning:

http://teachinquiry.com/index/Introduction.html

Ten Things Every Writer Needs to Know: A Podcast with Jeff Anderson:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1389

A Teachers Write Community – posts discuss quick writes, mini-lesson, feedback, and more:

http://www.katemessner.com/teachers-write/

That’s all for this week.  Happy Coaching!