Modeling Planning and Problem-Solving

The beginning of August is a gear-shifting time, a time of both reflection and preparation. As we get ready for students to return to school, teachers and coaches engage in thought-filled work as they both remember the past and anticipate the future.
 
Thinking and problem-solving are part of the process that leads to effective instruction, and coaches can model these processes by thinking aloud during school start-up conversations.
 
Making thinking audible demonstrates processes that are possibilities. Coaches can model expert thinking and problem solving as they work with teachers. Just as important as the instructional practices they model in the classroom are the decision-making strategies used to design and guide instruction. 
 
As you meet with teachers, you can think aloud about approaches that might be taken and illuminate the many factors under consideration. For example, a coach may review assessment information, consider students’ strengths and weaknesses as readers, determine where students lie on a developmental continuum, weigh possible learning experiences (considering the benefits of each), and determine a plan of action all while making her thinking public by sharing it aloud as she goes through this process.
 
It might feel strange at first to verbalize your thinking in this way. It’s about being really in tune with how you make instructional decisions-—all those many factors you automatically consider—-and then taking the lid off your brain and letting your teacher-friends see how you do it. 
 
With practice, modeling decision-making becomes natural and begins to pay dividends. Coaching conversations become more productive as coach and teacher thoughtfully consider together the many factors that weigh into our judgments and choices.  Instructional decision-making is a complex process; by thinking aloud about that process, we model effective problem-solving approaches as possibilities.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
Protocols for data exploration:
 
http://mycoachescouch.blogspot.com/2016/08/be-data-explorer.html
 
 
Letters from home:  Letting family & friends teach us about students:
 
https://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=73
 
 
Ideas for helping students who are in the fight or flight mode:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/blog/fight-flight-freeze
 
 
5 strategies for SEL:
 
https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/5-strategies-for-incorporating-social-emotional-learning-into-your-classroom/
 
 
The Bedley Brothers podcast on collaboration:
 
http://bedleybros.podomatic.com/entry/2015-05-30T01_00_00-07_00
 
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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