Just
like a good lesson, a good coaching conversation needs closure. Closure let’s
the learning sink in, giving one last opportunity for meaning making and increasing
possibilities for application. In a lesson, closure might sound like, “Tell
your partner one new thing you learned today.” In my coaching conversations
this week, it sounded like, “What’s one thing you want to be sure to do?”
Even
though the teacher conversations I had this week were brief, we covered a lot
of ground during each one. Between the two of us, a lot of ideas were tossed
around. Many of them have merit and will likely make it into future practice.
But, as we concluded each coaching conversation, I wanted to narrow the focus
to one for sure next
step. So, emphasizing the positive, generative nature of our conversation, as
we wrapped up each conversation, I said something like, “We talked about a lot
of things together today and came up with a bunch of ideas. As you think back
on the lesson you taught and the conversation we had, what’s one thing you want
to be sure to do?”
In
that closure, everything leading up to “What’s one thing…” gave the teacher a
runway, letting their minds consider the ground covered and the horizon ahead. It
helped them narrow their focus so they were ready to make one idea fly.
This
approach worked in almost every conversation. Cindy wants to build some
vocabulary practice into her second-grade readers theater fluency time. Ellie
wants to give students a copy of the text she is reading aloud from the screen
when she models comprehension strategies for her fourth-graders. Lara wants to
make an anchor chart, along with a “cheat sheet” for multilingual students that
gives a description and a visual for important terms as her second graders
learn about place value.
Almost
everyone else, too, pinpointed a particular focus. But when I asked the
question of Maribeth, she gave a full rundown of the many ideas we’d talked
about. It seems she wants to do all of
them. And that’s great! But I still
wanted to be sure she didn’t walk away with overwhelm. Instead, I wanted her to
walk away with a clear next right thing. So I followed up. “It sounds like a
lot of those ideas resonate with you. Which one do you really want to focus on
during tomorrow’s lesson?” I asked. After a thoughtful pause, Maribeth decided
that she wants to talk students through tech steps rather than taking a student’s
Chromebook and doing it for them. She feels like this will give them more
ownership for their work and help them learn the processes better.
Closure
reinforces learning, encourages metacognition, clarifies key takeaways,
increases engagement and motivation, and provides a sense of completion. So, as
you think about the ideas shared in this post, “What do you want to be sure to
do?”
This week, you might want to
take a look at:
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