What
do you say as a coach when you have just observed a well-polished lesson? In
addition to affirming and praising (natural responses when you see good things
happening!), the coaching move of asking questions can play a helpful role. That’s
because the already-effective teacher may know better than you do what didn’t
go quite as she had hoped; a prompt from you could provide the cognitive coaching to help her pinpoint aspects of her teaching that she wants to
fine-tune.
This
week, I spoke with a coach, Becki, who is working with a very solid teacher. “Shelly
is great,” she said. “Her instruction is well-planned, her delivery is strong.” Becki
could go on and on, talking about “so many wonderful things” that she had
observed. So what is Becki’s role as a coach? How can she be of service?
Becki
said that after telling this teacher, “Shelly, this is what happened that I
want to brag on you about,” she asks, “When you were going through it….when you
were actually teaching, what was going through your head, and you thought, ‘I
wish I would have said this,’ or ‘I wish I would have done this differently.’
What was going through your head?” Becki said, “That just cues her” and “she
will instantly respond.” For example, when Becki asked that question recently,
Shelly said, “You know, I always feel like I rush closing. Like I’m looking at
the time and so instead of really bringing it back into what I had planned to
do for closure, I end up not doing that at all.” Although this surprised Becki (who felt she had seen Shelly bring closure to the lesson), Becki’s prompt
helped them zero in on the fact that it wasn’t the closure
Shelly had planned and hoped for. This recognition provided the opening to talk
together about how to manage the lesson to ensure adequate time for the
important opportunity for students to reflect on their learning at the
conclusion of a lesson.
Although
already-effective teachers may not need your modeling or recommending, asking
questions is a coaching move that can help these experts further refine their
instruction. Reconnecting them with the fleeting thoughts they had while a
lesson was in progress is a valuable coaching move.
This week, you might want to
take a look at:
10
Classroom activities to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
How
to develop conversational courage – an important coaching skill!
A
video about assessment and curriculum mapping:
Research
skills - How
to prevent plagiarism before it begins:
Ideas
for using wordless picture books as an instructional tool for learners of all
ages:
Apps
tested and approved by teachers (sorted by category):
That’s
it for this week. Happy coaching!
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