Tools for the Work

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I’m so excited that my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner will be released IN JUST 1 WEEK!!! You can order it now and use the code: TCP2022 for free shipping. Plus, if you buy the book before August 6 and send me a screenshot of the purchase HERE, I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide (click for a preview) that you can use as you share the book with your colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!
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Instructional coaches have many job titles: Your role might be labelled as a coach – a literacy coach or a math coach or a technology coach – but you also might be in a role with a different title that includes a lot of coaching: Instructional facilitator, mentor (for a teacher new to the profession), department head, principal or assistant principal, cooperating/supervising teacher or university supervisor/liaison (working with a pre-service teacher) – and the list could go on. If your day-to-day includes supporting teachers’ instruction, you are playing a coaching role. Whether you are working with early-career teachers or veterans, the way you interact with them – the characteristics of your interactions – differ. I call these “coaching moves.” Here’s a quick list of the 5 main coaching moves and when they might be called for:
 
 

Move	When to Use
Model	Teacher lacks experience with content or practice
Recommend	Teacher comes with requests or questions, or has a limited teaching repertoire
Question	To Prompt planning, problem-solving, and reflection
Affirm	Good things are happening, but teacher is looking for confirmation
Praise	Teacher no longer looks to coach for confirmation

 
 
These coaching moves are used by coaches and mentors working with teachers at any point along the continuum of experience and expertise. The need for these moves differs among teachers and across time. For example, modeling (the most supportive move) occurs when a preservice teacher has her first practicum experience, visiting a school to observe a teacher in action. Even a very experienced teacher, however, may benefit from modeling; for example, a new technology application could be demonstrated, or an approach to whole-class discussion might be modeled if that is the focus area for a coaching cycle. If you are mentoring a first-year teacher into the profession, recommendations about available resources might be warranted. For some, asking questions to support reflection about potential changes will provide sufficient support. An elementary school teacher might request recommendations for improving her math instruction but benefit from simply hearing affirmations about her already-solid instruction during guided reading.
 
When I talked to a mentor who was working with a student-teaching intern, she described how the GIR model (below) guided her. “She really needed the modeling,” she said, “and at first even that wasn’t working. She didn’t know what to pay attention to. Modeling started working better once I gave her very specific things to watch for.” Then they moved into recommending – a phase that lasted a long, long time! Questioning became the dominant move (even though recommending lingered) much later. And the mentor felt they never made it to praising when she commended the intern’s work; it still felt more like affirming, because the intern seemed to be looking for validation.
 
A coach who was working with an experienced teacher to implement close reading said, “She really didn’t need the modeling, or the recommending, either. I jumped right in with questioning. That helped support her thinking and reflection.”  But later, when the same teacher was working on differentiation – a complex teaching skill – modeling and recommending were included before moving to less-supportive coaching approaches.
 
Successful coaches and mentors adjust based on the complexity and difficulty of the task, as well as teachers’ experience. The five coaching moves in the GIR model can be selected, as appropriate as tools for the work.
 

My husband has a garage full of tools, so it amazes me when he “needs” to buy a new one. He explains, however, that having the right tool for the job means it gets done more efficiently and effectively. Similarly, using the right tool at the right time makes the coaching process more productive and profitable. As you think ahead to the upcoming school year, having these 5 moves in your toolbelt will support your coaching work.

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

A getting-to-know-you activity: Students create their ideal bookshelf:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/my-ideal-bookshelf-books-that-educate-us/
 
 
Using “Reading Selfies” to progress monitor:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/may-20-2022-end-with-a-bang/
 
 
This podcast episode about what it’s like to be an instructional coach:
 
https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/instructional-coach/
 
 
Back to school checklists for teachers:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.org/back-to-school-teacher-resources/?utm_source=newsletter20180818/
 
 
This video with 5 key roles of an instructional coach:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtlVavxZBrk&t=196s
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy coaching!
 
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