The Third “E” for Coaching: Equipped

 
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Last week, I wrote about two qualities of effective coaching: empathy and empowerment. Empathy strengthens the coaching relationship and empowerment strengthens the teacher’s sense of agency. But there’s a third “E” that is a prerequisite for authentic empowerment: making sure the teacher is “equipped.” No matter how empowering our pep talks feel, unless the teacher is well-stocked with effective instructional strategies, the encouragement will fall flat. Giving someone responsibility without ensuring they have the needed knowledge, skills, and resources isn’t really empowerment. It’s setting them up for frustration.
 
Teachers need opportunities to make decisions and exercise their professional judgment, but they’ve got to have enough to draw on as they make those decisions. They need a well-stocked instructional toolkit.
 
Two of the coaching moves in my Gradual Increase of Responsibility (GIR) Model are important for equipping teachers: modeling and making recommendations. Both provide teachers with tools they may need to move forward.
 
Modeling: Providing a Blueprint
 
Observing a lesson in action can sharpen teachers’ attention to student learning and broaden their instructional repertoires. Because the teacher isn’t busy thinking about providing the instruction, she can give energy to watching and listening. Because she doesn’t have to be worrying about the kid rolling around on the carpet or what’s happening on the other side of the room, she can decide what she will pay attention to and when. That gives her the opportunity to think deeply about instruction.
 
When the coach is modeling, the teacher can look at the big picture. how the lesson is arranged and how the choreography of instruction plays out, and then lean in to examine the work of one group or one student. Rather than simply hearing about a strategy, the teacher gets to see it in action. Modeling can help a teacher notice possibilities that might otherwise be difficult to imagine. A teacher may have heard about open-ended questioning, collaborative learning, conferring, or graphic organizers, but seeing those practices in action makes them more concrete. The teacher can begin to envision what those approaches might look and sound like in her own practice. Modeling provides a blueprint.
 
When a teacher needs something more than her own experience in order to successfully meet student needs, modeling can provide that “something more.” Whether the modeling is live or recorded, with students or without them, it can open doors for communication and provide a shared experience for the coaching conversation that follows.
 
Recommendations: Adding to the Toolbox
 
Another way to add tools to a teacher’s instructional toolbox is to make recommendations. When coaches make recommendations, they take a consulting stance. They draw on research and experience, advocating for particular choices and actions. They might offer information about instructional strategies, content or skills, developmental processes of learning, standards, curriculum, or resources. Recommendations can be helpful when teachers are trying something new or wrestling with a tricky instructional question.
 
When a teacher poses a specific question, her question itself provides important information about what she is focused on and ready to consider. If she asks, “How would you approach this?” or “What would you do with this group of students?” her question is an invitation for the coach to share insights. Recommendations might be the best response if the situation is urgent and important. Coaches should consider how the recommendations they offer build on teachers’ existing strengths. And, instead of offering a single path forward, we can offer several ideas and invite the teacher to consider her students’ needs and her own preferences to determine a path forward.
 
Be judicious about when and how to offer recommendations – only when necessary, and with deference to teacher judgment. This approach honors teachers’ agency, empowering them as instructional decision-makers.
 
Three E’s for Coaching
 
Modeling and recommending are coaching moves for increasing teachers’ instructional repertoire so that they are equipped with knowledge, skills, and resources.

Let’s think about how adding “equipped” as an essential “E” for coaching works with the two “E’s” considered last week. Empathy helps coaches understand where teachers are. Empowerment gives teachers ownership of where they want to go. Equipping helps provide what they need to get there.

These three E’s work together. A coach who empathizes without equipping may understand a teacher’s frustration but leave her without new possibilities. A coach who equips without empathy may provide excellent strategies that don't fit the teacher's immediate concerns. And a coach who empowers without equipping may hand over responsibility before the teacher has the tools to act on it. But when empathy, equipping, and empowerment work together, the coach listens to understand the teacher’s concerns and provides support that expands the teacher’s options; then the teacher has the opportunity to make meaningful decisions about her practice.

The goal is for teachers to become increasingly-equipped to make instructional decisions. That's the purpose of the Gradual Increase of Responsibility Coaching Model: we support teachers generously as needed and gradually step back as their knowledge, skills, confidence, and independence grow.

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

Giving and receiving feedback (reading the bolded text offers some good reminders!):
 
https://learningforward.org/2026/08/24/giving-and-accepting-feedback-is-a-professional-capacity-that-can-be-improved/
 
 
Tech tools to support neurodivergent learners:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/tools-support-neurodivergent-learners
 
 
5 Design principles for effective PD (scroll down to this heading):
 
https://pce.sandiego.edu/practicing-what-we-teach/
 
 
Expand inclusion while students “Meet Someone New” through picture book biographies:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/meet-someone-new-monday-using-picture-book-biographies-to-bring-marginalized-voices-into-the-classroom/
 
 
Mentors need new teachers (not just vise versa):
 
https://ncte.org/blog/2020/01/mentors-need-new-teachers/
 
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: AUG2026 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!