End-of-Year Reflection

The two most common meanings of the word “reflection” are:

To think, ponder, or meditate

and

An image cast back by a still surface like a pond or mirror

When we talk about reflecting on our teaching, we are incorporating both meanings.  Reflection means that we spend time in deep thought about the teaching and learning that has occurred.  We think about what was learned, how it was learned and the connections with previous experiences.  We also see ourselves:  we look at our instruction critically, understanding ourselves as teachers and our students as learners.  We see both what we and our students know and what we still need to know.

Reflection includes serious thinking and questioning; it requires self-awareness and honesty.  Effective reflection includes concrete and specific examples and analysis – breaking ideas down into component parts and considering how to put them back together again in new ways. 

As the busy end of the year approaches, coaches can assist teachers in pausing for reflection in several ways:

*Send out an e-mail with reflective questions for self-pondering

*Set up end-of-year coaching conferences for reflection

*Ask for time at an upcoming faculty meeting and facilitate peer-to-peer

  reflection

Here are some reflective questions that might get teachers started:

*What have my students learned?

*How did I go about determining what was learned?

*What have I learned from this experience?

*What learning experiences were the most valuable?  Why?

*What learning experiences were less valuable?  Why?

*What more do I need to learn about this approach/concept/topic?

As the school year winds down, providing time for reflection is a valuable gift you can give the teachers you are working with.  

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

A video suggesting that students reflect on their “Shining Moment.”  Share this idea so teachers can use it with their students, or consider how you might modify it as a coaching tool:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/celebrating-student-achievement?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=digest

A podcast about motivating readers:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=922

A video about developing a passion for math:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/passion-for-math?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=digest

Join the “Teachers Write” community. Kate Messner and guest authors post daily. Themes span mini-lessons, quick writes, Q&A sessions, and feedback:

http://www.katemessner.com/teachers-write/

Cookie sheet activities for word work and early numeracy (project for summer planning and preparation!):

http://blog.maketaketeach.com/the-cookie-sheet-challenge/

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Hear You I Do!

This week I was traveling in a city where the prominent car dealership’s slogan is, “We hear you.”  One of their billboards has a pair of Yoda ears with the words, “Hear you we do!” in between.  Their message is important and has relevance for coaching.  So, if you feel like you're getting good at listening, go a little deeper and work on hearing what teachers are saying to you.

We listen with our ears, we hear with our hearts.  Our hearts, together with our capacities for reasoning, create a more intense connection.  Hearing implies a deeper level of understanding.  It requires effort.  Listening is passive, but hearing is an active verb.

A novice teacher told me about a disappointing experience she had with her coach. This young teacher was so excited about the potential of inquiry-based learning.  She had learned about it during her teacher preparation, and it fit perfectly with her personal philosophy of teaching and learning.  She shared her ideas with her coach, but the coach, although she listened, seemed not to hear. Her recommendations seemed to fit more with a conventional teaching style rather than supporting the teacher’s hopes for using inquiry in her classroom.

To hear, this coach would have had to first listen deeply to the teacher’s ideas, trying to understand both the purpose and the process.  She might have asked questions to better identify what the teacher valued.  If inquiry learning was unfamiliar to the coach, additional research may have been needed to really support this teacher’s efforts.  The coach could ruminate a bit, contemplating how to put these ideas into practice, anticipating challenges and making suggestions for successfully implementing the approach. 

 As you work to enhance your coaching skills, take listening one step further and work on your skills as a hearer of teachers’ words.  The better you are at hearing, the better you will be heard.  Teachers' response might just be, “Hear you I do!”

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

Ideas for engaging boy readers:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1321

Education Week’s  "Spotlight on Elementary Math" is a collection of articles on using research-based methods to teach fractions, understanding the role of spatial skills, the role of gender in math instruction, and building STEM skills.  Download these articles at:

https://fs24.formsite.com/edweek/images/spotlight-on-elementary-math-sponsored.pdf

Click on the blue titles in the spreadsheet to be launched into some amazing math problems!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AjIqyKM9d7ZYdEhtR3BJMmdBWnM2YWxWYVM1UWowTEE&output=html

A video to show students the connections to math in the everyday world:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/math-for-everyday-life?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=digest

A podcast about student research:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1849

That's it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Reflective Listening

“You’re such a good listener and so easy to talk to!”  That was my sister’s remark after a recent lengthy phone conversation.  Her comment reminded me again of how I often get to practice my coaching skills, even when I’m not on the job! As I reflected on our conversation after we hung up, I realized that while we talked I’d automatically used some things I’d learned from Cognitive Coaching (Costa & Garmston, 2002), especially what I’ve come to think of as reflective listening. 

There are two basics to reflective listening, and I often find myself using both in a coaching conversation – especially one where the teacher is not feeling positive and needs to do a bit of a brain dump.

The first is naming and reflecting back the emotion:

“It sounds like you’re feeling really frustrated because there is so much content to cover between now and the benchmark test.” 

“I can understand why you’re worried about Sophia.  You’ve pulled out all the stops but she still isn’t making progress.”

“You seem disappointed in the unit your team created during the PLC day last week.”

After naming and reflecting a teacher’s emotion, I often see her shoulder’s drop and tension visibly leaving.  She has been understood.

A partner to naming the emotion is summarizing.  You have to really listen and think at the same time to do this!  After a teacher has given a lengthy description of a situation, provide a summary statement:

“You feel like that project would overwhelm your students because there are too many choices.”

“Your intervention group isn’t making the progress that you’d like to see, and you’re wondering what needs to change.”

“So you’re feeling that lesson didn’t go well because the mini lesson wasn’t ‘mini’.”

These summary statements often result in a light-bulb moment.  Although you’re really just reflecting what the teacher has just said, hearing it all wrapped up in a single statement provides clarity and a sense of direction.

Just like in my conversation with my sister, teachers feel listened to and ready to move forward when coaches use reflective listening practices like emotion naming and summarizing.   Thoughtful responses like these open up the conversation for productive problem-solving.

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

A podcast about formative assessment:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1934

A Pinterest Board with series books for intermediate readers:

http://www.pinterest.com/choiceliteracy/if-you-like-the-magic-treehouse-more-sophisticated/

The results of revamping a boring geometry problem:

http://fawnnguyen.com/2013/05/07/20130506.aspx

Video clips of guided reading instruction across all levels of early readers:

http://www.janrichardsonguidedreading.com/video-clips

Education Week’s “Literacy and the Common Core” is a free download that contains 7 articles on a variety of topics related to interdisciplinary literacy:

https://fs24.formsite.com/edweek/images/literacy-and-the-cc-2013-sponsored.pdf

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Increased Traction

“That think-pair-share was quick and focused – so effective!”

“The photos that you showed got students so excited for their project!”

“That Venn diagram really worked as a pre-writing strategy today!”

Giving praise has been identified as an effective approach for helping teachers reflect on their professional practice (Blasé & Blasé, 2000).  When coaches are specific with their praise, the reflection that is fostered has an ongoing impact.  Praise that is focused on specific, concrete instructional actions enhances teachers’ motivation, self-esteem, and efficacy.  And that is not just “feel good” stuff – when teachers are motivated and believe that they can make a difference, student achievement increases.

“Labeled praise” has been part of the parenting literature for decades, and it also deserves a place in your coaching repertoire.  Like positive parenting, specific praise identifies exactly what was said or done that you want to applaud.   Giving attention to the positive increases the positive!  You know that from classroom management, but it also applies to coaching. 

Specific praise reinforces the use of effective teaching strategies, risk taking, and creativity.  A teacher who hears, “The way you focused students on the learning objective and included self-assessment was outstanding,” is likely to intentionally include these practices as an ongoing part of his instruction.  He’ll probably also be a more resourceful problem-solver who looks for creative solutions to help his students grow.  As one teacher explained, “Praise gets me searching for new and innovative things on my own.” 

“Great job,” might produce a momentary happy high, but, “Great job – those open-ended questions really got students thinking!” has a lasting impact.  As we’ve seen in recent posts: specificity pays off!  Whether you are making recommendations, asking questions, providing affirmation, or giving spontaneous praise, being precise gives your coaching more traction.  

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

Tips for getting kids to talk about books:

http://blog.stenhouse.com/archives/2014/03/26/in-the-classroom-with-jen-engaging-our-youngest-readers/

So you think you want to tweet chat?  Information for teachers:

http://christopherlehman.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/so-you-think-you-want-to-tweet-chat-from-lurker-to-chatter-101/

Math manipulatives in the primary classroom:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-math-to-kinesthetic-learners?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=digest

Here’s a Pinterest Board with series books for intermediate readers:

http://www.pinterest.com/choiceliteracy/if-you-like-the-magic-treehouse-more-sophisticated/

An article about research strategies for primary students:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1536

Education Week’s “Spotlight on Blended Learning” is a free download that contains 7 articles on including online components in face-to-face teaching:

https://fs24.formsite.com/edweek/images/spotlight-on-blended-learning-sponsored-v2.pdf

That's it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

How was your day?

Last week’s blog post talked about the importance of being specific when making recommendations.  Well, as it turns out, specificity is important when asking questions, too! 

Facebook recently led me to a blog post about one mommy’s frustration with her husband’s circadian, “How was your day?” query.  In her post, the author detailed how many things her day was – one baby-snuggling moment was so perfect, she thought they should adopt four more children.  The next moment her senses were bombarded with the crying, messy, never-ending busy-ness of mommying and she felt ready to give away the three children they already had!  How could she respond to the question, “How was your day?”

Similarly, the teachers we work with and the lessons they teach are filled with the best of times and the worst of times.  If we ask, “How was your day?” we are likely to get a very non-specific answer.  But if we ask, “When did you feel successful today?”  We’ll probably get a thoughtful response. 

Recently, I discussed with some coaches the kinds of specific questions they were having success with.  Here are a few they mentioned:

Did you have any “light bulb” moments today?  Did your kids?

When were you proud today?

Who made you smile?

Who changed today?  Who grew in a skill?

What surprised you today?

What happened today that made you laugh out loud?

Did anything happen today that made you want to pull your hair out?

When were the students confused?

How was (student)’s participation?

How was the noise level in the classroom?

How did transitions go?

When did you feel frustrated today?

How did guided reading go?

What was something that went totally different than you anticipated?

What can I help you do right now?

Is there anything you wish you could change about today?

Probing questions, designed to narrow a teacher’s focus, especially benefit from the characteristic of specificity.  Even questions like, “What are some different ways you might help students understand?” that inquire and are designed to open teachers’ thinking and engender broad responses, benefit from an element of specificity.    

Asking specific questions is an art that requires some practice.  So, when you’re sitting in the teachers’ lounge on Monday, you might try asking, “Did anything happen this weekend that made you laugh out loud?” rather than, “How was your weekend?”  You might get a funny look at first, but you’ll probably end up having a good laugh yourself, and your friend will know that you really wanted to listen.  In the hall after school, you might ask, “Was there anything that really frustrated you today?”

Asking questions like these may feel a little weird at first, but the more attention you give your questions, the more meaningful the answer will become.  Planning two or three specific questions (word-for-word, written down) before a coaching conversation can increase the chances that you’ll start conversations that lead to improved learning – for both teachers and students. 

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

The beautiful blog post that inspired my thinking today:

huffingtonpost.com/glennon-melton/the-questions-that-will-save-your-relationships_b_4618254.html

Six questions to foster honesty:

http://www2.cortland.edu/dotAsset/317310.pdf

An article about blogging as reader response – in first grade!:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1879

Tips from Diane Sweeney about keeping coaching positive:

http://dianesweeney.com/strengths-based-approach-supporting-coaches/?utm_source=March+2014&utm_campaign=March+2014+blast&utm_medium=email

A video about asking higher-order questions:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-higher-order-thinking-skills?utm_source=Teaching+Channel+Newsletter&utm_campaign=1aef9d3d6d-Newsletter_September_07_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_23c3feb22a-1aef9d3d6d-290610213

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

The Value of Specificity

As a coach, you spend a lot of time making recommendations, and you want those recommendations to be meaningful and powerful.  For teachers who need a lot of support with a new instructional approach, your recommendations will likely be as effective as they are specific. 

EFFECTIVENESS = SPECIFICITY

Recently, I coached a coach who was feeling frustrated.  “Her classroom management just isn’t improving,” she said, bemoaning the stagnant state of this novice teacher’s skill.  “Every lesson that I’ve observed, I’ve talked to her about it.  I’ve told her that if she focuses on the classroom management, the other pieces will fall into place.”

“What specific recommendations have you made about classroom management?”  I asked.  The coach quickly saw where I was leading.

“I guess I haven’t really gotten specific,” she said.  We then talked about specific recommendations she might make, including having a class discussion about how misbehavior impacted learning for the whole class, dropping the pitch of her voice to get students’ attention, and practicing her ‘teacher look’ in front of the mirror.  When the coach provided these very specific recommendations, it made a difference quickly.

Specific recommendations also made a difference with a teacher I was coaching.  Discussions in her classroom were falling flat; ineffective questioning patterns produced student disengagement, and student-to-student talk was almost non-existent.  After observing this teacher in action, I made a very specific recommendation:  DO NOT REPEAT STUDENT ANSWERS.  When I discussed this recommendation with the teacher, she acknowledged that she had recognized this problem herself, but found herself repeating all the time because students' voices were soft and didn’t carry well in the room.  I made another specific recommendation:  ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO SHARE THEIR ANSWERS ‘LOUD & PROUD.’  Using this catch-phrase, with a little explanation, would help students feel ownership for their responses.  As the teacher prompted loud and proud responses and quit repeating students’ answers, dialogue in the classroom took a turn for the better.  Specific recommendations had made a difference.   

Very specific recommendations like these can get a teacher pointed in a positive direction.  Of course, when less support is needed, recommendations can be more general, or another form of coaching, like asking questions, may be more appropriate.  When teachers are looking to you for answers, however, a coach’s specific recommendations can really hit the mark.

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

A template for a pre-reading anticipation guide, useful in any content area:

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/printouts/AnticipationGuide.pdf

A podcast about working with English Language Learners and their families:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1973

A blog post about the power of collaboration:

http://www.literacyinlearningexchange.org/blog/collaboration-change-force

National Geograhic’s Photo of the Day – great for descriptive writing practice:

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/

This TED talk focuses on why and how some teachers are giving the math curriculum a makeover:

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Recommending: Gentle Words

When I was young, my mom often bought the Reader’s Digest magazine in the check-out line at the grocery store.  Her favorite part was the section called, “It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power,” which was really just a simple multiple-choice vocabulary test of interesting words.  Maybe it was that introduction that sparked my interest in the power of words, because I’ve always been intrigued by the importance of finding the “just right” word for a situation. 

As a coach, it’s not necessarily the big fancy words that are important.  But choosing the word that has a kinder, gentler feel can make a big difference in how a recommendation is taken up.  When I say, “I’m wondering how a Venn diagram would work in this lesson,” it is an invitation for the teacher I’m working with to consider this tool.  “You should use a Venn diagram instead of that chart,” would not be received nearly so well. 

In the spirit of gentle words, I invite you to look over the table below and consider some soft words you might include in your conversations with teachers:

Harsh Words	Gentle Words
but	since
	so
you	we/us
should/must	could
always/never	sometimes
will	might
best	possible
determine	consider/wonder
wrong	different

Although these are small and simple words, I think you’ll find that they do enrich your word power!

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

A video about changing from “have to” to “get to” – the power of language:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eNJaObd05YI

If end-of-year research projects part of teachers’ end-of-year plan, share this free online organizer for bibliographic information:

http://www.bibme.org/

Awesome diigolet is a simple tool that allows you to highlight and sticky note on web pages – and those markings are right where you left them when you revisit a website!  Info at:

https://www.diigo.com/tools/diigolet

Concept maps are a great way to organize information during research.  Try this free online organizer:

https://bubbl.us/

Lesson plans for informational texts:

http://www.ncte.org/lessons/nonfiction-texts?roi=echo4-25932451636-35121896-042de28d9de941830ecd0f124e7fa679&

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!