Friday, December 29, 2017

Coaching Forward


The old year is drawing to a close, and we are looking with hope towards 2018.  That probably involves some reflection on the year gone by, considering its favorites and also its faults and flaws.  A debrief conversation when coaching is a lot like this end-of-the-year reflection.  A teacher may be more comfortable looking back on a lesson if she is using the reflection to look forward – to consider teaching moves she might make in the future – rather than focusing too much on the lesson that has already occurred.  I call this coaching forward.

When we coach forward, we use post-conferences to connect reflection with future practice. The lesson has passed, and it is useful only as the pillar that holds the bridge to future lessons.  The phrase, “As we think about the next lesson….” becomes a pivot point from past to future for both the high points and the low when coaching forward.  “As we think about the next lesson, what do you want to be sure to hang on to from this lesson?”  “As we think about the next lesson, what might you want to change?” 

I took this approach recently when working with Amy after she’d taught a first-grade lesson on adjectives.  Amy felt the lesson was successful and had evidence from student work to support her assertion.  When we talked about what went well, it was with an eye toward future lessons.  She noted that students were engaged as they generated lists together, using their five senses to stimulate and categorize their thinking.  When I prompted Amy about what she might want to hang on to from this lesson, she was able to articulate the success in terms of building on previous learning and taking a constructivist approach.  Coaching forward helped Amy crystalize her learning.  The approach that worked so well after this successful lesson can also be helpful following a less-successful one.

When coaching talk is backward-focused, there may be an uncomfortable emphasis on what could have gone better in a lesson.  Taking a future-focus increases comfort and makes a post-observation conference more productive.  For Amy, coaching forward led to the construction of action plans.  Objective observations from the lesson are important insofar as they support conversations that are directed toward future practice.   

As you coach your way into the new year, resolve to create space for teachers to generate ideas that lean to the future, mentally rehearsing how the next lesson builds from the last.  Coaching forward takes a “back to the future” approach, framing reflective conversations that support future teaching.


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

A podcast with Jim Burke, author of English Teacher’sCompanion, as he takes a back-to-the-future view of his career:



The role of stories in teaching and change:



A video for students that describes a concrete approach to short constructed responses (the R-A-C-E strategy):



Summarizing in science:

Dealing with distraction:

That’s it for this week.  Happy New Year!


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1 comment:

  1. Hi Vicki,
    Thanks for celebrating. I agree with your idea of coaching forward -- it is always about the next things we can do to influence student learning. I enjoy your round up of links, too.
    Thanks,
    Ruth

    ReplyDelete