Monday, August 31, 2015

Platforms for Coaching

As teachers and students settle into the routines of a new school year, coaches are also figuring out structures that will best support their work. Being responsive to the unique context where you are working means there is no “one way” that coaching should be done. Coaching needs vary based on how your position is defined, who you are working with, and the demographics of both the teacher and the student population. Whether you are working at the district or school level, whether your mentees are student teachers or have years of experience, the following questions bear consideration.

When will you take a team approach to coaching, and when would working with individual teachers be best? Team work has the advantage of efficiency and collaboration, while working one-by-one can offer coaching customized to the needs of a specific class or teacher. Finding the right blend depends not only on the population with whom you are working, but also on the time you have available.

How much time will you spend in classrooms during instruction? How much time should be scheduled for conferring? This balance might vary based on your relationships with teachers, whether they’ve established personal goals for instructional improvement, and the type of support that  is needed (modeling vs. questioning, for example).

Will taking a student-centered approach be comfortable and effective? Would time spent on curriculum or lesson planning yield broad and impactful change? Data discussions might lead us in one direction, and planning lessons as a team would have a different outcome. Choose structures for coaching that match the outcomes you’re aiming for.

Each of the above decisions will be guided by the way your focus shifts between assessment, curriculum, and instruction. Many coaches begin the year with a look at last year’s summative assessment results and then launch into assessment for screening and diagnostic purposes. Don’t overlook the power of day-to-day formative assessments and kid-watching! These provide data that can truly guide instruction and help determine curriculum needs.

As you establish a schedule for your work this year, there are many factors to consider! Although improved student learning is always at the core, there are many ways to get at that focus. Choose a plan based on your unique situation, and then be ready for the plan to evolve as improvement you’ve worked for leads to new platforms for coaching!


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

Cheap and ingenious classroom organizers:


Why adults observe children - a letter to the class:



Blog post: What close reading isn’t (or shouldn’t be):


Share this with students (intermediate and up) at the beginning of the school year to help them stay organized:



If your first day of school hasn’t happened yet (or even if it has!), check out this post:



That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching

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