Friday, March 23, 2018

Coaching Frustrated Teachers


For more than a month, our team had been working on student discussion, and Bethani was frustrated.  Despite her carefully-planned questions, discussion had fallen flat during the lesson on character traits in her third-grade classroom.  As I settled in for our coaching conversation, I reminded myself of past experiences working with frustrated teachers.  I knew we’d be more successful if I listened to and affirmed Bethani’s frustrations, focus on one aspect of instruction, brainstorm causes and solutions, and choose a next step.

Step One: Listen

As Bethani reflected on the lesson, she described how the partner talk she had used as a lesson opener had fallen flat.  Bethani had felt sure her students would be interested in talking about themselves, but she ruminated about how, when she asked them to turn to a partner and share two “inside traits” about themselves, there was a lot of silence followed by a little bit of talk about what was for lunch.  Later in the lesson, Bethani had given each student a card with a trait and asked them to move to separate sides of the room depending on whether their card listed an “inside trait” or “not an inside trait.”  She was discouraged that, when it came time to defend their choices, they hadn’t made the distinction between traits and emotions, and they had little to say.  She had been expecting a healthy debate!  As Bethani described her frustrations with the lesson, I mentally catalogued them but didn’t say much.

Step Two: Affirm the Frustration

Once the tide of Bethani’s frustration seemed spent, I affirmed her frustration. “It can definitely be frustrating when a carefully-planned lesson doesn’t turn out the way we expect,” I said.  My affirmation acknowledged Bethani’s careful planning, and my use of the pronoun “we” demonstrated that other teachers (including me) shared similar frustrations. Although validating Bethani’s frustration was an important step, it simply cleared the field for the real work ahead.

Step Three: Narrow the Focus

Although Bethani felt frustrated about several aspects of the lesson, I knew we couldn’t tackle everything at once.  Asking Bethani to narrow the focus was our next step.  “If you could change one part of the lesson, which part would it be?” I asked.  Bethani sat up straight and there was a long, thoughtful pause before she responded.  “The card sort,” she said. “I knew it would be difficult, but I thought it would lead to great discussion and help them see the difference between emotions and personality traits.  But it just didn’t work.” My request for the one thing she would change helped Bethani move away from the feeling that everything had gone wrong to focus on priorities.  

Step Four:  Consider Causes

Now that we had prioritized the portion of the lesson that seemed most significant, it was time to brainstorm.  Why hadn’t things gone the way she’d planned? “I guess the concept was too hard,” Bethani replied when I asked her about possible causes.  “That’s one possibility,” I said.  “What else might have gotten in the way?”  “I’m not sure,” she said.  “Describe the situation to me,” I asked.  “Let’s visualize what happened.”  Bethani talked about how students’ divided up after they received their trait cards, and she described how some students seemed confused, especially those who had a card that described an emotion.  “But I was expecting that,” she said.  “In fact, I intended it to be hard.  That’s why I thought they’d get into discussing it.” “Tell me more about what happened,” I prompted.  “I chose a few students to read their cards after they had separated,” Bethani explained.  “Then I asked everyone to show whether they agreed or disagreed.  If they disagreed, I asked them to tell me why.  But I had to repeat a lot because they couldn’t hear each other.”  Bethani had identified several possible causes for the flopped discussion.  And they all may have played a part. But to move forward, it would be helpful to isolate a solution.

Step Five: Resolution and Next Steps

As I visualized the scenario Bethani had described, the thing that jumped out at me was the space between would-be discussants.  “How far apart were the two groups of students?” I asked.  “I had them go to the walls, so there was a lot of space between the two rows.”  I didn’t respond, wondering if a pause for thinking might allow Bethani to come to her own solution. “I wonder…..” she said.  “I found myself repeating comments.  I bet if the two lines had been closer together, things would have worked out differently.”  “Use of space can make a surprisingly big difference when we are hoping for student-to-student discussions,” I responded.  “Students could see each other, so that was a plus,” I said, “but proximity is important, too.” “So,” said Bethani, “next time I’m hoping for rich discussion, I’m going to think about how students are facing and how far apart they are.”  Bethani had identified her own next steps.

When I listen and affirm the concerns of a frustrated teacher, I know I’m taking important first steps in our coaching conversation.  The way I angle my questions and responses as we move forward can help teachers to narrow to a manageable focus, consider causes, and define next steps.  Together, we are able to discover tentative solutions. 

Checking back with a frustrated teacher is vital.  The solution we designed may work, but there’s also the possibility that it might not be working.  If frustration has increased, a more supportive coaching move, like modeling or making specific recommendations, may be needed.  Or perhaps other issues have cropped up and we can begin this process again.  When we check back with teachers, we demonstrate that we care about their frustrations and their successes.  Together, we walk the path toward ongoing instructional improvement.


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

My guest post about resilience on CCIRABlog:



A video about building coaching relationships:



Podcasts about social justice and education:



Best books on the craft of writing:



An interesting picture-book read aloud that looks at changes in technology and gender roles across 400 years through one delicious dessert:


(and here’s a video of the book if you’re curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5ainLDFbNY)

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

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