My Coaches' Couch: Questions for Revising Practice

When I was a kindergarten teacher, an interesting conundrum at the beginning of the year was that students didn’t know the difference between a statement and a question. I remember after one child, Katie, read her story about a cat to the class, I asked, “Does anyone have any questions for Katie?” Many hands shot up, and as I coached Katie to call on her friends, they “asked” things like: “I had a cat, but she ran away.” “My grandma has a cat.” “My cat’s name is Tiger.” We had some work to do in understanding the difference between a question and a statement! After a while, though, students got good at asking questions. Not only did students’ authentic questions show their interest in their peers’ work, they also supported revision.

Similarly, authentic questions during a coaching conversation show our interest in a teacher’s work and support revisions in her practice. Here are a few questions I collected from coaches recently:

· What activities could support this lesson objective?

· What will you be watching for?

· How can you encourage students to take the lead in asking questions?

· How do you create genuine discussions between students?

· Which students didn’t get it during the lesson?

· What did you notice?

· What do you wonder?

· What surprises were there for you during the lesson?

· What would you leave out of the lesson if you taught it again?

As you read these coaches’ questions, does it prompt some that might be fruitful with teachers you are working with? The questions above are those coaches had thought out in advance and written on the GIR conferencing guides as reminders to themselves when preparing for an upcoming conversation.

When we’re familiar with a teacher’s goals and confident about her ability to generate effective options for consideration, we can plan a couple of questions in advance that will anchor a coaching conversation. Other questions grow organically from the conversation as we listen with the intent to help the teacher clarify and extend her own thinking.

Like my kindergarten friends, we can show we are listening and understanding by asking thoughtful questions. I’m coming more and more to believe that all I really need to know I learned in kindergarten!

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

Deep reading lesson plan for MLK Day:

https://www.greatbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/King-Lesson-Plan_2.1.17.pdf

We probably all put too much on our plates. How are we going to get done what needs to be done? Here are 15 things productive people do:

http://www3.forbes.com/leadership/15-surprising-things-productive-people-do-differently/?utm_campaign=15-surprising-things-productive-people-do-differently&utm_source=FacebookTest1&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=3&kwp_0=552062&kwp_4=2149004&kwp_1=897321

Ideas for a simplified rubric:

http://www.brilliant-insane.com/2014/10/single-point-rubric.html

Interactive read-alouds in science:

https://www.amnh.org/explore/curriculum-collections/integrating-literacy-strategies-into-science-instruction/interactive-read-alouds

Reading and writing at home builds skills for literacy – and life:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/16/well/family/literacy-builds-life-skills-as-well-as-language-skills.html?WT.mc_id=SmartBriefs-Newsletter&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=smartbriefsnl

That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!