Co-Teaching as Modeling in Instructional Coaching

Modeling, the most supportive move in the GIR coaching model (see below), offers the opportunity to demonstrate practices that the teacher might choose to take up. Modeling also provides content for teacher-coach conversations and builds teachers’ confidence and efficacy. And, since the end goal of coaching is to improve students’ learning, it’s important to note that research demonstrates coaches’ modeling can improve student achievement.
 
Modeling helps to establish the coach’s credibility and to foster a learning culture where everyone’s practice is put up for analysis, including the coach’s.
When the modeling occurs in the teacher’s own classroom, the teacher sees that the practices observed (hopefully!) were worthwhile for her students. Thoughts that “this wouldn’t work for my kids” are avoided. Teachers appreciate seeing the strategies in action with their students. They value the coach as demonstrator to support possible changes in practice. Modeling can sharpen teachers’ attention to student learning and broaden their instructional repertoire. 
 
Co-Teaching as Modeling
You have probably used, seen, or heard of co-teaching as a model for providing support for students needing special services. The special education teacher pushes into the classroom and becomes a teaching partner.
 
Co-teaching can also be a way for a coach to model. When coach and teacher co-teach, it offers an opportunity for learning-while-doing. In the perfect scenario of co-teaching, colleagues ping pong instruction back and forth – one asking a question, another following up to push students for deeper thinking; one at the document camera, another leaning in to support an individual student. Teaming like this gives a coach a chance to be part of the action and to demonstrate the nuances of an instructional approach with the teacher as an active participant. I love it when I see this happen! However, this is not always easy to pull off. Below are some guiding principles for coaches who want to try this modeling approach:
 
Pre-Plan
Co-teaching works best as a planned experience, not as a response to ineffective instruction. When you plan the lesson with the teacher, including how you will partner, the teacher will be ready to both participate and pay attention. Jumping into a lesson to co-teach because you feel something has gone awry, however, is more likely to cause damage than improvement.  
 
No Correction-in-Action
Correction-in-action can be hurtful to the teacher and can also undermine her relationship with her students. Ensure that words and actions convey respect. Respectful relationships (teacher/coach and students/teacher) are vital to learning. Anything that could potentially undermine those relationships should be avoided.
 
Don’t Interrupt Student Learning
Coach-to-teacher conversations shouldn’t interrupt the learning experience for students. In the classroom, the most vital outcome is student learning. Although some have suggested that students will put up with a pause while teacher and coach confer with each other, to me, this undermines the very goal of coaching. We can find other times and places to talk that are not on students’ time.
 
Cautions for Co-Teaching
I have observed co-teaching working seamlessly, which helped me recognize the above guidelines. However, I’ve also observing co-teaching in ways that give me reason to suggest caution in using this modeling approach.
 
A co-teaching experience I saw years ago remains strong in my mind. The coach seemed dismissive of the teacher’s knowledge and possibly undermined her relationship with students. I was in a first-grade classroom when this coaching occurred. The teacher introduced students to an activity, giving instructions that were, admittedly, a bit ambiguous. The coach, who had been observing, decided to step in and make it a co-teaching situation. She changed the task slightly as she gave students clearer directions about what to do. The teacher, in what appeared to be a face-saving attempt, reiterated to students what the coach had just said. Students started working and then the coach called for a mini-conference with the teacher. She whispered, “I wonder what would happen if…” and then finished the sentence with a recommendation disguised as a question. The teacher nodded her head and complied, her feelings of self-efficacy ebbing before my eyes.
 
I know the coach was acting out of two sincere desires: a desire for strong instruction for the students and a desire to help the teacher. But this co-teaching scenario backfired, illustrating the importance of pre-planning, conveying respect, and maintaining the flow of instruction for students. Additionally, it raised a caution about recommendations disguised as questions.
 
Co-teaching can be an effective coaching move, but it’s a risky one. The example above is extreme, but I’m sure I’ve made mistakes in my coaching that were similar in nature – it’s always easier to see it from the outside. I’m learning that giving myself time to think before reacting helps me choose words that respect the teacher’s intentions, and it’s harder to do that in the midst of instruction.
 
Co-Teaching as Collaborative Partnership
Modeling through co-teaching can be a powerful way for coaches to make instructional practices visible while keeping teachers actively involved in the work of teaching. Students benefit because two heads and four hands are better, and teachers benefit as they learn while teaching. Co-teaching can enrich the teacher’s instructional repertoire and strengthen the collaborative partnership that coaching depends on.

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Did you know My Coaches Couch is also a podcast? (with different content) Find it in your favorite podcast app or at MyCoachesCouch.podbean.com.
 
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This week, you might want to take a look at:

Instant mood-boosters:
 
https://aestheticsofjoy.com/2020/10/17/8-quick-things-you-can-do-right-now-to-boost-your-mood/
 
 
Teaching students discernment and reasoning when using AI:
 
https://www.middleweb.com/53084/teaching-discernment-in-our-interactions-with-ai/
 
 
Modeling acceptance when dysregulated behavior happens:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/responding-to-dysregulated-behaviors-what-about-the-other-kids/
 
 
Building the emotional resilience to receive feedback:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/helping-students-give-receive-feedback-without-defensiveness
 
 
Like Superbowl champs, coaches treat teachers as capable professionals:
 
https://www.the74million.org/article/super-bowl-players-get-expert-coaching-teachers-should-too/
 
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: FNDS26 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!