Friday, September 9, 2016

How to Frame a Recommendation

In coaching, when it comes to recommendations, it’s all about how your frame it. If a meeting starts with a teacher airing frustrations about a lesson or the kids, you may be headed in the wrong direction. When that happens, I like to back up the conversation by asking, “What went really well in the lesson?” When we couch recommendations within a broader framework of success, they are more likely to be received and employed.

Another way to frame a recommendation is by stating it as a “noticing.” I like to memorize sentence starters so that I can prompt myself during a coaching conversation. My sentence starter for noticings is, “I’ve noticed that when the teacher ____, students ____.” I’ve found this handy sentence stem is flexible and effective.  The noticing can be specific to the teacher’s class: “I’ve noticed that when you use the doc cam to model, your kids follow directions better” or a more general observation: “I’ve noticed when teachers use the last two minutes of a lesson for reflection, students often make new connections.” The frame can be stated as a negative, “I’ve noticed that when teachers move on to another student after a wrong answer, kids often shut down” or a positive: “I’ve noticed that when teachers probe an answer that seems wrong, they can often uncover a kernel of correct thinking to build on.”

Oftentimes this sentence stem leads a teacher to make her own recommendation: “I should try asking follow-up questions when students are confused.” If the teacher doesn’t go there herself, I use another favorite sentence stem that is full of possibilities: “I wonder what would happen if…..” 

These sentence frames worked for me today when I met with Amanda, a vibrant young teacher who has much to offer the profession. She walked into my room and even before she was in the seat she was venting her frustrations about the lesson I’d observed. “The kids were all over the floor,” she said. “There were two girls playing with each other’s hair, and half the time the kids weren’t even listening!”

“You sound frustrated,” I said. “Let’s back up and think about what went right in the lesson.”

“What went right?” she said, surprised that I’d suggested there was anything valuable to be discussed.

“Yes,” I queried. “What do you feel good about?”

“Well, the read-aloud. The kids were really into that.”

We talked about all the positive comments and relevant learning that happened during the story. “That book was a great choice,” I said.

“And I was really pleased that some of the kids noticed the way I’d grouped the numbers. They noticed it on their own without me pointing it out. And Edgar – he is really shy and hardly ever speaks up. I saw when he figured it out. The light bulb went on!”

We gloried in the light-bulb moment, and then Amanda returned on her own to the frustrations she’d expressed earlier. However, she was now on more solid ground. “But it was still so frustrating that kids weren’t paying attention during the game!”

“Why do you think that happened?” I asked.

“I’m not sure,” she said, and paused thoughtfully. “Maybe they didn’t understand the procedures. I just shouldn’t have tried that game so early in the year, before procedures were in place.”

I didn’t want her to give up on the game so easily! Now was the time for that flexible sentence frame: “I’ve noticed that when teachers are clear in giving directions, students are more engaged.”

“Yes, I definitely could have been more clear with the directions,” she said.

“Modeling would help,” I suggested, and added another sentence with my frame: “I noticed when you were clear in describing the purpose at the beginning of the lesson, students seemed very focused. I wonder if they didn’t see how the game connected to that purpose? I’ve noticed that when teachers keep bringing the activity back to the purpose, reminding students of the reason for the activity, engagement goes up.”

Wow, that was a lot of noticings! Had I overdone it with that sentence stem, I wondered?

But Amanda’s face suggested otherwise. She sat up straight and seemed reenergized. “Yes,” she said, “that makes sense.”

“So, being clear with directions and tying each part of the lesson back to the purpose. Do those seem like good goals to shoot for?”

“Yes! I can do that!” she confidently responded.

As Amanda’s experience demonstrates, words matter. Choosing the right ones to frame a recommendation makes coaching more effective.


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

Info. on Next Gen. Science Tests:


A Podcast with Kyleen Beers on being an advocate (you can skip to 2:15 for the start of the panel discussion):



Poems for the beginning of the year:



Mentor texts to build classroom community:


Three tips for beginning of year writing workshop:


That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!


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