Can You Imagine? Coaching Teachers to Anticipate Student Response

Recently, I was coaching a novice first-grade teacher, Peyton, whose phonics lesson I had just observed. The lesson had trailed off as students finished the activity and began putting their materials away. Knowing the value of lesson closure for helping students make meaning of what they’ve just done, I asked Peyton what ideas she had for creating closure for her phonics lessons. Peyton said she’d included closure in her plans, but had forgotten to do it.  She had planned to ask, “What did you learn today?”
 
While a general, open-ended question might be productive, I wasn’t sure how well it would serve her first-grade students. I said, “I’m wondering – can you imagine how your kids might respond to that?” I encouraged Peyton to think of a few specific kids, including some whose skills were just emerging. How might they respond to that question? Peyton decided she’d need something more-specific to create a meaningful closure.
 
When we anticipate how students might respond based on previous experiences, we’re able to create a better plan for moving forward.
 
Predictive Planning
Predictive planning allows teachers to be preemptive, to replace weak areas in a lesson with stronger ones before enacting the plan. By anticipating student responses, teachers are also able to respond more effectively in the moment, to clarify concepts and correct confusion.
 
For example, during a middle school math PLC meeting, teachers predicted that students would make calculation errors when working through the word problems. Because they anticipated that using the wrong operation might cause these calculation problems, teachers decided to emphasize how to choose the correct operation during their opening discussion. Their preemptive planning fended off student confusion. When it came time to teach the lesson, the teachers were tuned in for students who were confused about which mathematical operation to use. Their awareness had been heightened that this might be a concern.
 
When teachers think the lesson through from the students’ point of view, they are more prepared to support students’ learning. Going into the lesson, the teacher has a solid plan. Because of this thoughtful preparation, they are also well-positioned to be flexible when teaching.
 
Asking teachers to imagine how students might respond helps them proactively consider potential student confusion. Envisioning what student thinking will look like allows for revision even before the lesson is taught!
 
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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:

Confidence boosts progress:
 
https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/secondary/school-students-sense-of-control-improves-reading-progress
 
 
Naming craft moves in student writing:
 
https://vimeo.com/1085797889/edfda2b9c8
 
 
Nurturing classroom identity and belonging:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/do-i-belong/
 
 
Boosting comprehension with immersive read-alouds:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/taking-your-read-alouds-from-interactive-to-immersive
 
 
The Collective Efficacy Cycle for teacher PD:
 
https://www.k12dive.com/spons/the-5-steps-of-a-collective-efficacy-cycle/650710/
 
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!