Saturday, October 5, 2019

Notice & Name


In his book, Choice Words, Peter Johnston (2004) reminds teachers to help students observe closely and look for patterns, noticing and naming what they see. Johnston suggests that this practice invites students to make sense of information.  The same practice can be applied with teachers during a coaching conversation.  By noticing and naming features of a lesson, we support effective instruction.

Our noticings can include recognition of the different ways students responded during the lesson.  Encourage the teacher you are working with to describe something he saw or heard and tell why it matters, and you can do the same. Using the sentence stem, “I saw” or “I heard” can keep the conversation focused on evidence of student learning.  Connecting these noticings to statements of importance (What did I notice and why does this matter?) helps us link our noticings to practice.   For example, we might notice, “I saw that when students were standing up around their table during the small group work, they moved the manipulatives more.”  Our “Why does this matter?” might be: “Students are more interactive when they are standing.” These statements of importance require us to make inferences. Our noticings about student learning usually signal aspects of effective instruction that transcend the specific lesson – generalizable take-aways that the teacher can use again and again.  Asking, “Why does it matter?” also helps us develop beliefs based on these conclusions, and we determine future actions that seem right based on our beliefs.

As coaches, we can also notice and name the brilliant things teachers do.  As we watch teachers at work, we can find their individual genius and label it.  When we think about what the teacher seems to do well almost without effort, we have identified an area of brilliance!  For example, Sarah is a first-grade teacher who listens carefully to student responses and uses those responses to build students’ understanding.  When I mentioned this to Sarah, she smiled shyly and was humbly pleased, but surprised!  Sometimes areas of strength come so automatically that teachers may not even be aware of their own genius.  By shining a spotlight on things the teacher does well, we build their confidence and encourage more of the same.  Even better if we can name these attributes around their colleagues, who then know where to turn with questions about the practice.

By noticing and naming what is working for students and teachers, we build on successes and improve instruction!

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Reflecting with teachers is something I’m passionate about!  You can read more about it in my book, Collaborative Lesson Study, which is now 1 month old.  J  It’s available here (20% discount code is TCP2019).  If you’d like to join the free Facebook book club for the book, click here. 
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This week, you might want to take a look at:

This TeachThought podcast where I talk about Lesson Study and how it values teachers and teaching:



A video about using peer teaching to review homework and build students’ understanding:



Why books, and the conversations about them, matter:



How movement and exercise support learning:



Scroll down for 7 student engagement strategies (even though it says for reading instruction, these apply generally):


That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

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