Polishing the Process

“I can’t wait to tell you about a coaching conversation this week,” Sandi said when I ran into her in the hall. “Molly was so excited about her lesson, and the question I planned to ask her really paid off.”

Sandi is part of a group of coaches I’ve been working with, using the GIR model to support cycles of coaching. In recent weeks our focus has been on asking questions to guide teacher reflection. This week, when I began our meeting by asking for celebrations, Sandi jumped right in to tell her story.

Molly, a teacher Sandi was working with, was so excited about a lesson she had just taught that she asked to meet with Sandi a day earlier than they had planned. Seeing Molly’s enthusiasm, Sandi rearranged her schedule and prepared for their conference. Questioning had been a productive strategy in her recent meetings with Molly, and she felt it should still be her dominant coaching move. Seeing Molly’s excitement about her lesson, she knew a different kind of questions was called for, so she crafted a question that was also affirming (the next stage in the GIR coaching cycle).

“How could you share this lesson with others on your team?” Sandi asked, after hearing Molly’s summary of the lesson. Molly felt validated by Sandi’s question: her coach was acknowledging her expertise by suggesting her lesson would have value to others. Molly was excited to share her ideas, and they planned time for it during an upcoming PLC. But Molly also wanted to think through how she might adjust the lesson if she taught it again so that she could share those tweaks as well. Since Sandi hadn’t seen the lesson, asking questions about what went well and how students’ responded was a natural coaching move that helped Molly refine the lesson.

When instruction is going well and teachers need little support, coaches can be sounding boards as teachers polish the processes they are using. A coach’s questions then take on an affirming role, acknowledging and encouraging best practice. Meeting with a coach can give the teacher’s work a chance to shine.

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

A video of an interactive read aloud:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid2109637168001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAPmbRRLk~,C5G7jhYNtifLHMZ3Mk1et94EXmm8Be9z&bctid=4073220644001

Ideas for using classroom observation to support teacher learning:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/observing-for-learning?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=digest

Images to support visual thinking skills:

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/10-intriguing-photographs-to-teach-close-reading-and-visual-thinking-skills/?_r=0

Different types of grouping for social learning:

http://readingyear.blogspot.com/2014/08/learning-is-social.html

This article explains why sitting in a circle enhances discussion – an important idea for learning both in the classroom and in professional development settings:

https://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1139

That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!

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Carrying a Cat by the Tail

A couple of years ago, I had a coaching experience I’d rather not repeat. I was working with a student teacher at the time, but the lessons learned could apply to any coaching experience.

The intern (who I’ll call Amber) had been on my radar since early in the student-teaching experience. Scores on her evaluations were low, and it wasn’t hard to see why. Amber’s dead-pan deliver left students unengaged, which opened up all kinds of possibilities for classroom management issues. In addition, her instructional plans were driven by teacher monolog (or ping-ponged teacher-student drills) rather than discussion, and the low expectations that she seemed to have for student learning became self-fulfilling prophesies.

Despite assigning her the best mentor teachers as models and conferring regularly with specific recommendations for change, as the end of the student-teaching experience approached, I was worried about whether I’d be able to recommend Amber for licensure. It was time to enlarge her circle of support and try coaching methods that went above and beyond typical mentoring interactions.

We saw Amber turn the corner after video recordings of Amber and another teacher leading the same lesson were reviewed side-by-side. Questions directed Amber's attention to differences, both subtle and not-so-subtle, in teacher-student interactions. This comparison provided the wake-up call for Amber that helped us get traction for instructional improvement.

I’d rather not have had that experience, but having made it through (with eventual success!) taught me a thing or two. It was a learning experience I won’t soon forget.

Thank goodness. Because recalling that experience, I think, will help me make course corrections with other teachers earlier in the game.

Every teacher (and especially every student teacher) has areas for improvement. But when progress seems slow, it can feel frustrating, especially for the mentor or coach who has a front-row seat, and especially when the teacher herself seems unaware of the need to change.

That’s been the case recently with another student teacher (who I’ll call Marie).  Marie has been making minimal apparent growth so far. In addition to the coaching conversations we’ve both had with Marie, her mentor and I have had lots of problem-solving conversations with each other. Again, the modeling and recommending seemed to have little impact. Again, something more was needed.

Yesterday, we put our heads together and proposed and then dismissed a number of possibilities. Then my brain started connecting to past experiences. I thought about multiple teachers with whom I’d worked where progress, at first, seemed slow. But after examining the details of the situation, I threw out each example as useless.

Until I remembered Amber. Even though these two teachers were different in so many ways, they both had made little growth, despite our best coaching efforts. They both had seemed complacent about their teaching. And, importantly, they both had an apparent lack of enthusiasm that left students unengaged. When I finally made this connection, I realized I had a list of tried-and-true tools to choose from.

Because I remembered past successes with Amber, we now have a list of coaching strategies to try. Now, we have a game plan. And now, importantly, we are feeling hopeful for change!

It was hard working through the situation with Amber (and countless other teachers who have faced difficult challenges). But I learned a thing or two in the process. And when I finally made a connection between Amber and Marie, I knew we could move in the right direction.

Reflecting on the “ah-hah” moment for coaching Marie this week reminded me that solutions I’ve found in the past might work in the present. I just have to sift through those experiences and find a good match. It also reminded me that difficult situation are often the best teacher. Which brings us to Mark Twain’s vivid axiom: A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

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

Profocols for building community during professional development:

https://leadliteracy.com/articles/57

A New York Times article about reintroducing play as part of the kindergarten curriculum:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/education/out-of-the-books-in-kindergarten-and-into-the-sandbox.html?_r=2

Classroom-safe video collections:

http://www.teachertube.com/collections/

The power of “Empathy Book Clubs”:

https://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1359

Why we must teach math for understanding:

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/the-problem-with-math-problems-were-solving-them-wrong/?_r=1

That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!

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Teetering Between Coaching Moves

When it’s time to shift the weight of responsibility for improving instruction, alternating between recommending and questioning as coaching moves can provide a productive balance.

As teachers are getting more comfortable with new instructional approaches, they might still benefit from your recommendations. You can appropriately make suggestions during planning conversations, but using questions intentionally as a coaching move during debrief will give the teacher you’re working with the opportunity to gain her own insights through reflection.

It’s all too easy to continue recommending beyond the time when the teacher is ready to do the lifting on her own. You shift the weight of responsibility for improvement to her as you recommend less and question more. With a mixture of recommending and questioning, there’s a healthy back-and-forth action between who is providing the answers. Before long, the teacher will be doing all of the heavy lifting.

I talked with a coach this week who had introduced readers theatre as a strategy for improving reading fluency in a first-grade classroom. Students seemed enthusiastic about the activity, but the coach was worried that engagement would flag if the teacher continued using the same approaches each day. So she made suggestions about ways to group students differently to practice their parts, sometimes using partners, sometimes small groups, and sometimes alternating between boys and girls as the children chorally rehearsed the script. This suggestion mixed things up enough so that the whole-group portion of the lesson stayed interesting. When the coach and teacher got together again to talk about how the approach was going, the coach led with a question: “How else might you vary the introduction to the lesson to keep student excited about their practice?”

The teacher decided students would enjoy alternating between a high, squeaky voice and a low, booming voice. Then, with a stroke of genius, the teacher decided to have the girls use the low, booming voice and the boys use the high, squeaky voice. I was in the room when they tried it and I heard the children squealing with joy as they practiced their parts. Knowing her students well, the teacher modified this effective instructional approach to the delight of her students. The coach’s question paid off; the teacher had the knowledge to make this strategy work for her class.

As you plan for coaching conversations, consider the relative benefits that might be provided by recommending and questioning. Your recommendations might do the heavy lifting during the planning conversation, then questioning can shift the weight during debrief. Alternating between recommending and questioning can provide balance as a coaching cycle continues.

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

An interesting post about how principals can support instructional coaches:

http://blogs.scholastic.com/education_pulse/2015/05/seven-ways-principals-can-support-instructional-coaches.html#.VWSsbaaiqKo

Using classroom observation to support teacher learning:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/problem-of-practice?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=digest

Six differentiation strategies:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2015/04/01/6-differentiation-strategies/?utm_source=newsletter20150404

Ideas for developing writing fluency by helping students get unstuck when they can’t spell a word:

https://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/give-it-your-best-try-and-move-on/

10 Reasons to start a staff book club:

https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2014/08/16/top-ten-reasons-for-starting-a-staff-book-club-by-megan-skogstad/

That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!

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Keep the Energy Flowing

Have you gotten used to writing “2016” yet? Before the new year becomes old hat, take advantage of the increased motivation that accompanies a fresh start and help teachers maintain their new-year enthusiasm for teaching as the calendar pages turn. Motivation catalyzes the success of an organization, so efforts to maintain drive and enthusiasm among teachers can pay off in important ways. Research suggests that coaches and other instructional leaders can create a climate that nurtures motivation. Here’s how:

Recall Successes

Revisiting a personal success can increase motivation. When I debriefed with a teacher about a lesson that had frustrated her, I realized the tone of our conversation needed to change. I asked her when she had taught a similar lesson that went well. It didn’t take long for her to remember such a lesson. The smile returned to her face as she reflected on this triumph, and we learned a lot together as we compared the two lessons.

Self-efficacy – our belief about our ability to successfully accomplish a task – is closely tied to motivation. When people expect to do well, they tend to try harder, be more persistent, and perform better.* Reviewing past successes strengthens feelings of efficacy.

Interesting, Valuable Work

When teachers see the work they are doing as valuable, their interest and sense of responsibility increase. Work that requires creativity or interacting with others is usually inherently motivating. Use your leadership power in teachers’ best interest by minimizing routine tasks and maximizing meaningful work. Do you find ways to cut through the red tape, reducing teachers’ paperwork load? Do you engage teachers in lesson design rather than policing their adherence to a rigid curriculum? By taking actions like these, you are reshaping teachers’ work as interesting and valuable and helping them to maintain motivation.

Involvement

When people get to participate in creating a system or process, they are much more likely to follow it than when it is imposed by an outside expert. Is there a process that needs improving at your school? Make it easy for teachers to offer suggestions. Teachers usually relish a chance to take on problems when they feel their ideas will be acted upon. They want to add value to the organization. Side note: Asking for suggestions and then not using them is a sure-fire way to decrease motivation.

Rewards

We educators tend to be leery when the word “reward” is used in conjunction with learning. For me it’s the Pavlovian image of dogs salivating that make the word a turn-off. But research suggests that rewards can be motivating. As author Michael LeBoeuf says in his book, The Greatest Management Principle in the World, “What gets rewarded gets done.”

Done well, extrinsic motivators compliment teachers’ internal motivation. Appreciation and recognition are forms of extrinsic motivation that encourage continuation of the good things that are happening. William James said, "The deepest desire in human nature is to be appreciated." Everyone wants to know that their efforts are valued. Buy a stack of thank you cards and make a habit of surprising a couple of teachers each week by describing how their work has added value to the team and organization. Appreciation and recognition increase motivation.

Motivation matters! Teaching is an energy-consuming activity that could leave teachers feeling drained. Helping teachers recall success, engaging with them in meaningful work, involving them in problem-solving, and showing appreciation will increase teachers’ motivation. Taking these tangible steps can keep the energy of the new year flowing! 

*Pintrich, P. R., & Schunk, D. H. (2002). Motivation in education: Theory, research, and applications (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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

Start the new year by revisiting learning goals:

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2015/12/ring-new-year-revisiting-literacy-goals

Facts on leaving NCLB behind:

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2015/12/ed_dept_sketches_out_transitio.html

High 5! Learn multiplication facts through movement (check out the video):

http://creeksidelearning.com/multiplication-games/

Tips for conferring with English-language learners:

https://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=580

Four corners: Incorporating movement into vocabulary practice:

https://lugarparapensar.wordpress.com/2014/09/24/four-corners-take-vocabulary-practice-out-of-the-classroom/

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