As professionals, teachers are lifelong
learners seeking continuous improvement, and coaches can play a supportive
role. Successful coaching is a developmental process that is responsive to teachers’
changing needs. Effective coaches provide more assistance in the beginning,
when something new is being learned, and gradually reduce that support as teachers
develop additional expertise for the new approach. The GIR model is an
adaptation of Pearson and Gallagher’s Gradual Release of Responsibility model,
which many teachers have read about and used to guide their instruction. Like
the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model, the GIR coaching model shows how
support changes over time. In the GIR process, coaches model, make recommendations,
ask inquiring and probing questions, affirm teachers’ appropriate decisions,
and praise in order to provide decreasing
scaffolding that moves teachers toward skillful use of effective instructional
practices.
Coaching moves serve as scaffolds for
instructional improvement. A
scaffold is a supporting framework. In a physical sense, a
scaffold is “a temporary platform used to elevate and support workers,”
and according to Merriam-Webster, “scaffolding may be raised and lowered.” Coaches
are constantly deciding how high the scaffolding needs to be to provide for
effective instruction.
When a lot of support is called for, modeling provides an illustration of
strategies a teacher can later try herself. Making
recommendations, the second phase of the GIR model, provides less support
than modeling, but is strong scaffolding to assure students receive cogent
instruction. As teachers increase in experience with a teaching strategy,
effective coaches pull back and provide support that is more ancillary. They
make fewer recommendations; instead, they ask questions that encourage the teacher
to reflect on her own instruction and the needs of students. This third phase, asking questions, encourages
metacognition and contemplation about teaching and learning, building the teacher’s
capacity as a reflective practitioner. The fourth phase of the model is affirming. As a coaching cycle
progresses, a teacher will need less and less support; however, she may still
look to you for affirmation that the decisions she is making are appropriate. Praise, the final phase of the coaching
model, is a form of feedback that might be provided to any colleague. Although
at this stage the teacher will be more confident and not necessarily feel a
need for the coach’s approval, she’ll still appreciate being recognized for the
hard work she is doing.
How an instructional coach moves
through the five phases of the GIR model will, of course, be idiosyncratic.
Some teachers will benefit from lots of modeling and recommending when trying
something new. For others, questions to support reflection about potential
changes will provide sufficient support. One teacher might request
recommendations for improving her math instruction but benefit from simply
hearing affirmations about her already-solid instruction during guided reading.
Coaches choose what scaffold to use based on teacher and student needs, and
they move from one stage to the next when they have evidence the teachers they
are working with need less support. In the upcoming weeks, blog posts will
consider each of the coaching moves of the GIR model. Understanding a variety
of scaffolds helps us match support to teachers’ changing needs.
This week, you might want to take a look at:
A video about identifying, sharing, and
using success criteria:
In this video, Ruth Ayres speaks to
students about revising memoir:
Ice breakers and attention getters:
Tips for tech-phobic teachers:
What is “the writing process”
really?
That’s it for this week. Happy
Coaching!
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