These
days, even seemingly simple decisions can feel difficult: Should I go to the
grocery store? Pick up or delivery? What
about restaurants? Is eating inside a safe choice? Should I let the kids use
that public restroom? Seemingly insignificant
questions have taken on increased importance. And that can lead to what author
Emily P. Freeman calls, “decision fatigue.”
If the teachers you work with are suffering from decision fatigue,
making instructional decisions may feel especially hard. I’m a big fan of
open-ended questions, but at times like these, it may take a closed question to
move coaching forward.
Open-ended
questions encourage exploration and contemplation. Asking, “What are you finding
success with during remote learning?” seems like a wonderful reflective
question, but for a teacher with decision fatigue, the catalog of options might
seem too big to explore. A more focused
question, such as, “How did your synchronous meeting with students go
yesterday?” might be better received.
Now
might also be the time to incorporate some closed questions. Questions with an either/or,
yes/no response lighten the burden of decision.
When it’s time to take action and
there’s a need to induce it, there’s a place for questions like, “Would you
rather use Loom or Snagit to record that info. for students?” or, “Would this
YouTube video be helpful?” Offering a clear choice eases the decision-making
process.
Even
if asking questions is the way you usually support a teacher, now might be a
time to take a look at the GIR coaching model (see below) and take a step
back. Would it feel more supportive for
you to make a recommendation than ask a question? Is there an approach you could model that
would be helpful? Right now, teachers might
benefit from the increased support of recommendations or modeling.
As
seemingly simple questions become complicated in today’s world, teachers might feel
overwhelmed by instructional decision-making. Asking closed questions, making recommendations,
and modelling are supportive coaching moves that could be the right fit for
teachers suffering from decision fatigue.
This
week, you might want to take a look at:
Ask
before acting (especially now):
Check out the “Read on a Pattern”
section of this post for ideas about encouraging variety in students’ reading (could
be a summer reading goal):
Tips
for remote teaching with ELs:
And
more tips from Larry for remote teaching in general:
Providing
writers feedback that gets used:
That’s
it for this week. Happy Coaching!
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