Matching Metaphors when Coaching

 

Student engagement is key to learning. The degree of attention, curiosity, and enthusiasm students hold is directly related to what they will take away from a lesson. This week, when observing Gina’s first-grade class, I noticed low engagement and I needed to figure out why. There are so many factors that influence engagement. Drilling down, I determined that the lesson’s pacing was a major factor.
 
In a well-paced lesson, students don’t feel rushed, but time doesn’t drag, either. Further complicating this instructional feature, an appropriate lesson pace doesn’t mean a steady one. During an effectively-paced lesson, the teacher is sensitive to students’ needs and responses. She might quickly move through a review of content but be intentionally slower when introducing a new concept or procedure. Changing the pace coaxes the brain into paying attention, increasing engagement.
 
As I thought about how best to discuss the complexities of pacing with Gina, the word tempo popped into my head, and I instantly knew this word would have power for Gina. As a serious musician, Gina understands the role that varied tempos play in a composition. She has watched a conductor slow the group during heavy largo and adagio sections of a piece and she has felt how the mood changed during fast-paced allegro movements. When I asked Gina to describe the tempo of the lesson she’s just taught, her background knowledge sprang into action, creating a fruitful coaching conversation.The word tempo acted as a metaphor for the lesson’s pacing, and it worked because it matched Gina’s experience.
 
Metaphors can get the mental gears in sync, building bridges to understanding. Metaphors make complex concepts clear, shaping our thinking and our actions. However, metaphors’ power may go untapped when listeners don’t have the background knowledge to make connections. Metaphors are powerful when they open a flood of personal associations.
 
When I talked with third-grade teacher, Jana, about the pace of her STEM lesson, she described students’ enthusiasm for the project, and I drew attention to how she had created momentum through the scenario she described. We also discussed some points of friction during the lesson – when she hurried through directions and, later, when students were gathering materials. The analogies of momentum and friction range true because of Jana’s orientation toward engineering.
 
I remember working on this same topic with a teacher whose passion was running. For her, the word pacing didn’t need translation. It came fully-loaded with metaphors she related to. She connected to the need to adjust pacing throughout the lesson. She knew the value of pacing for a strong finish. She described how her pacing varied depending on the length of the race, and that was a useful analogy, too.
 
Metaphors have also been powerful when talking with teachers about transitions. A dancer and a former marching-band member related to the idea of choreography. This term was productive as they thought about students’ movement through the room to form groups, pick up materials, and move back and forth between the whole-group carpet discussion and independent work at desks.
 
Talking with teachers about whole-group discussions, we’ve broken the IRE pattern by using sports analogies. Instead of ping-pong like discussions where the teacher serves a question, one student responds, and the teacher evaluates the response (initiate-respond-evaluate), we’ve worked to make discussions more like a skillful volleyball set, where several students touch the ball before it goes back to the server. Or like a soccer play, including throw ins, passes, assists, and an occasional corner kick.
 
Real objects can enhance the metaphor (and just add fun!). During planning conversations, I’ve handed out pom poms and then shared Carol Tomlinson’s quote: “A fuzzy sense of the essentials results in fuzzy activities, which in turn results in fuzzy student understanding.”* The pom poms were a visible representation of fuzziness – what we wanted to avoid as we set objectives for the things students should know, understand, and be able to do as the result of a lesson.
 
During a PLC meeting, I brought in cotton candy. Teachers took a taste and felt it melt away on their tongue. I asked them what they noticed. Then I shared a quote from Wiggins and McTighe about activities that are “like cotton candy---pleasant enough in the moment, but lacking long-term substance.”** Such activities are prevalent around holidays, so we brainstormed activities that maintained the fun we are craving but had substance, too. These activities will be engaging not just because they include candles or candy canes, but because they are minds-on activities.
 
Metaphors activate the senses; we see them in our mind’s eye and feel them as lived experiences. When we create constructive comparisons, we are expressing abstract ideas in familiar terms. Choosing and using metaphors makes coaching conversations stick!
 
[Challenge: Reread this blog post counting all the analogies (subtle and explicit) that are included. As you pay attention this week, I think you’ll be amazed at how prevalent analogies are in our everyday language!]
*Tomlinson, C. (2014). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners (2nd Ed.). ASCD. p. 62.
 
**Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2011). The Understanding by Design guide to creating high quality units. ASCD. p. 9
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

Fixing up versus teaching:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/conference-records-that-stay-with-kids/
 
Setting goals with students (think about this for January):
 
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/back-to-school-goal-setting-students-teacher-maurice-elias
 
Looking for a gift list to share with parents? Teachers’ tastes and needs differ, but this is a pretty good starting place. I like #1. 😊:
 
https://www.weareteachers.com/best-gifts-for-teachers/
 
 
This app guides students through creating a digital picture book – and they can even purchase a hardcopy:
 
http://www.storyjumper.com/
 
 
The idea of embodied cognition may sound complex, but the concept is powerful, and this explanation is practical:
 
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-acting-out-in-school-boosts-learning/
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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For more about coaching, check out my new book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner. I’m so excited to share it with you! During December, you can use the code: DEC2022 for 15% off plus FREE SHIPPING. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!
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