Volley and Return: Ask a Follow-Up Question

An instructional coach is a listener and learner first. She meets with a teacher to listen to and learn about her concerns, strengths, and needs. Listening builds connections and fosters respect, trust, and safety. As coaches attentively listen, teachers realize that their ideas and opinions are truly of interest.
 
To start a conversation that offers opportunities for listening, ask an open-ended question.  Asking “What’s on your mind?” can quickly move a conversation to what’s exciting, anxiety-provoking, or all-consuming for the teacher. It’s a question that says, “Let’s talk about what matters most to you!” Similarly, asking, “What are you wondering about?” or “What is missing for you right now?” invites teachers to get to the heart of what they care about and gives them the power to choose the coaching path ahead. It signals an open agenda rather than a pre-set coaching script.
 
After asking the opening question, practice deep listening. Give your whole presence. Be attentive. Listen to make sense of the words that are being said. Be keenly interested in understanding the teacher’s reality. Listening to a teacher’s complete response creates room for their ideas and values their viewpoint.
 
The next step is key: Ask a follow-up question. The follow-up question is your chance to demonstrate that you were truly listening. This question should be more specific and clearly connected to what the teacher has said. I can’t give you a script for that, because it completely depends on what has been expressed by the teacher. Your intunement gives you the content. Your response shows you were fully engaged.
 As you listen to understand the teacher’s perspective, feelings, and goals, you can pose questions that support the teacher’s self-directed learning. Rather than assuming we know what the teacher needs, we ask and listen. Responsive coaches are those who pay attention. When we pay attention, the teacher feels attended to. She knows her comments matter.
 
The initial question and the follow-up help you understand and help the teacher feel understood. Additional questions can lead to analysis as the teacher tests her ideas. We receive the information and return it in ways that prompt reflection.
 
In the “serve and volley” of conversation, linking the volley to the serve is what’s important. When we take up a comment by echoing or extending it, we strengthen the coherence and depth of the conversation, building capacity for analysis and change.
 
Starting with a question is important because it demonstrates openness. But the real power comes when a follow-up question is responsive. After that, coaching questions can become more and more focused, pointing toward improvement. Every question opens an opportunity for response, and every response creates space for deeper understanding.
 

This week, you might want to take a look at:
Coaching new teachers:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/free-videos/
 
 
Supporting student “voice” – the oral communication kind:
 
https://ccira.blog/2025/07/29/true-student-voice-helping-students-be-better-speakers/
 
 
Adjusting levels of support for middle schoolers:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/supporting-middle-school-students-zone-proximal-development
 
 
“Where I’m From” links literacy & community:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/linking-literacy-and-community-at-the-start-of-the-year/
 
 
Keys to productive struggle:
 
https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2019/09/productive-struggle-elementary-mathematics
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
Want more coaching tips? Check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner, available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! You can use the code: FDNF25 for 15% off. 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!