A few years ago, I was working as a
district literacy coordinator when the time came to buy new materials. Before we could begin to know what we wanted,
it was important for us to define our instructional philosophy. That way, materials would match the way we
wanted to teach. I love all of the
philosophy statements we created together; they speak to who I am as a teacher.
The one at the top of the list that we all
easily agreed upon was, “The learner must be at the center of literacy
instruction.” Like the hub of a wheel,
the center point determines the action.
If the child is at the center (rather than the test, the teacher, the
Unit Plan, etc.), then instruction will look different. Similarly, if the child is at the center of
our coaching, our coaching will look different.
This important idea was brought home
to me yesterday as I worked with a group of wonderful coaches. We had watched a
video clip of a coach who was making recommendations to a middle-school math
teacher. Here’s a snippet of their
conversation:
Coach: Something else I want you to think about, too,
is your questions. Try purposely not to
make them convergent. When I come next
time, I want to see evidence of them thinking in alternate ways. I want you to, between now and then, start to
ask questions that are divergent questions.
They follow more of Bloom’s higher-order thinking questions. I want to see the atmosphere shift of, okay,
I’m asking a question. Can you get the
answer? The answer’s black. Now are you going
to say black? to: Oh, good, you’re thinking.
You’ve thought of something I didn’t think of. I’d like you to feel comfortable with them
telling you something you’re not prepared to hear. I also want to see some sort of engagement,
whether it’s, whatever you can feel comfortable with. Whether it’s groups, games, competition,
group think. I want to see something where
they feel more responsible as a group, not as an individual, to apply their
time to that task. And care about the
task. And then the last thing I want to
see is I want to make sure they have a feeling, and if you choose the questions
carefully, that they understand there’s a reason to do this. Why do I care? You don’t want to be the sage on the stage.
Teacher: Right.
Coach: You want to be that guide on the side. So you want to be in there asking
questions. You want to be a magician
that’s not going to tell them the answer, but you’re going to ask questions. And I say to teachers: When you’re about to
tell, because time is clicking, you’re frustrated, change your telling into a
question.
Teacher: Yah, I’m going to sit back and reflect on
these and start building these into my lessons.
You know, piece by piece.*
When I showed this clip to the
coaches during our professional development, they were aghast. That coach must have been an outside
consultant, they said. We would never
talk to our teachers like that, they said.
One coach hit the nail on the head:
If she had just phrased her recommendations in terms of what students
needed, rather than what she wanted to see, the coach could have made the same
recommendations, but it would have worked much better.
How much more palatable do these
recommendations seem (and how much more likely to be implemented)?
· Get your students thinking in
alternate way by asking those higher-order thinking questions from Bloom’s
taxonomy. Get them to tell you
something you’re not prepared to hear!
·
Give your students
responsibility as a group. Whatever you’re
comfortable with - whether it’s groups, games, competition, group think. Something where they feel responsible as a
group, not as an individual, to apply their time to that task.
Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to give the
teacher time to say more than a word or two in response! Putting students in the center of our
coaching makes our efforts more effective, because our attention is where it
should be: On the students who are (directly
or indirectly) in our charge.
This
week, you might want to take a look at:
The video clip from which the
excerpt above was taken:
Lesson plans using one of my
favorite instructional tools: sticky
notes!
Lesson
plan for sparking rich online discussions:
A podcast suggestion tech tools for
young learners:
Recommendations
about user-friendly, free apps for classroom use:
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
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