A Recipe for Modeling

 
Modeling is an approach often used by coaches when there’s a new instructional strategy being introduced. If you decide (with the teacher) that modeling could be helpful, there are a few ingredients that can make it a powerful teacher-learning opportunity.
 
What does it look like to model so that the teacher you are working with understands each part of the process well enough to later try it on their own?  When I think about modeling for a teacher, I sometimes just think about doing what I’d normally do, with someone watching.  But when I stop to think about how I model for students, I realize there’s actually a lot more to it.
 
When I model for students, I stop all along the way and explain what I am doing and why I am doing it.
 
When I model for a teacher, I need to also take the chance to explain what I am doing and why I am doing it. Because instruction for students is the first priority for both of us, I don’t stop in the middle of a lesson to do this. Instead, I spread the explaining over our planning and reflecting conversations. 
 
When I model for students, I usually give visual or verbal reminders of the process. I might have a list of steps on a slide, or we may make an anchor chart together.
 
When I model for a teacher, I might give her a lesson plan or a list of steps or ask her to jot down notes while I talk the process through in advance. Then she can follow that procedures list as she later observes the lesson.
 
When I model for students, I zoom in on the parts they are ready for. If it’s a writing assignment, for example, I might think aloud only about my supporting evidence, not saying much about the other parts of the essay.
 
When I model for a teacher, I need to think about what she’s ready to notice. There’s so much happening in any one lesson. What’s most important for her to notice now? What is she ready to take in?
 
We want to model well enough so that the teacher can later make moves of her own. We aren’t modeling with the expectation of duplication. Yes, there are important aspects of the teaching to attend to – the ingredients we must get right – but there is also room for ingenuity: a little more of this, a little less of that, and a pinch of something new. We aren’t expecting a clone.
 
If our conversations have focused attention on important ingredients of the process that the teacher is ready to notice, she will be ready to do it on her own. Teachers don’t need a precise recipe; they need a guide who is willing to demonstrate and a process that is open to possibilities. 
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
This short podcast episode about how to distract the distractor:

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/edutips/edutip3/
 
 
Using art to improve writing:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/free-videos
 
 
Ways to Use ChatGPT to Save Time:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/6-ways-chatgpt-save-teachers-time/
 
 
How tone of voice shapes classroom culture:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-tone-of-voice-shapes-your-classroom-culture/
 
 
It’s still National Poetry Month! Using modern poetry as a cure for senioritis:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/the-cure-for-senioritis-poetry/
 
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
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