The Logic of Respect

If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them become better than they are.

                                                                                                         John W. Gardner

Trust and respect are intertwined.  Where there is mutual trust, colleagues develop an understanding of each other’s views, strengths, and needs.  This understanding leads to respect.  We can usually understand another’s actions better when we take the time to find out about what that person values and has experienced and when we respect their individual attributes.  Inquiring about teachers’ past experiences gives you a window into their instructional actions.  If you respect the individual, things will eventually make sense. 

One of the teachers I’m working with provides a good example.  Erica is a quiet beauty.  Somehow, I’ve come to associate beautiful young women with outgoing personalities, but this is not the case for Erica.  She is serene and thoughtful.  Her lesson plans are detailed and well-envisioned.  I’ve watched her in the classroom, moving from student to student with quiet comments that elevate students’ thinking.  She will never be the sage on the stage, the entertainer-type of teacher.  I wouldn’t want her to be. 

When coaching Erica, I started by acknowledging the powerful conversations she was having with individual students, labeling them for her as “conferences.”  We initially talked about structuring those conferences for increased impact.  I tried to build from where she was and the unique assets she brought as a teacher before making suggestions that might have been a bit more outside of her comfort zone.  We were well into our coaching work before we talked about bringing more exuberance to her read alouds.  A buoyant read-aloud, with lilt in her voice, dynamic volume, and pregnant pauses did not come naturally to her.  But she recognized the need and was willing to work on it because of the mutual respect we had developed.  Unprompted, she even began adding different voices for each character, and admitted to practicing in front of her mirror (after shutting the door to keep her roommates on the other side!). 

Instruction is most likely to improve when we respect the teachers we are working with and have earned their respect.  Don’t be in a rush to recommend; work on building respect and understanding first.  The simple equation for those in a rush is:  no respect = no change.* 

*Powers, B. (2011).  Choice Literacy Newsletter, September 27, 2011.  Downloaded from choiceliteracy.com. 

This week, you might want to take a look at these ideas for using technology in coaching and in the classroom:

A video about using technology to coach:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-coaching-models

A site with reviews of educational websites and apps that is searchable by subject area, grade, and cost (including plenty that are free!):

http://www.graphite.org/

This Pinterest Board on using technology in the classroom:

http://pinterest.com/nctedotorg/integrating-technology-in-the-classroom/

An NPR podcast about how social media boosts literacy:

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=213500923&m=213500920

Online reading & writing tools:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1566

That’s all for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Models, Demonstrations, and Explanations

“If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.”

W.B. Bateman

When teachers want their students to try something new, they often demonstrate the method that they are expecting; they engage in the processes they want their students to use.  Students observe and then it’s their turn to try.  Reading aloud to students, for example, provides a model of what fluent reading sounds like.  Demonstrating how to mix chemicals safely is another example of the important role modeling can play in the classroom.

Coaches can also provide models, and these models don’t have to occur in the classroom.  For example, during a coaching conversation, a coach can model a questioning technique like providing sufficient wait time.  If the objective is to model this questioning strategy and encourage the teacher to apply it in her own classroom, the coach should be explicit about the purpose at the onset, draw attention to the wait time during the conversation, support reflection about the impact of this strategy, and then guide the teacher in planning for sufficient wait time during her own instruction.  Modeling during a coaching conversation has the benefit of allowing you to hit the “pause” button in your demonstration and provide an explanation.    

In addition to providing models of instructional processes, coaches can also provide models of completed products:  a graphic organizer that might be useful in the classroom, a lesson or unit plan, or an analysis of student assessments.  The purpose here is not for the coach to do the work for the teacher, but for the coach to provide a model that will guide the teacher in future work.  It’s important to talk about the process used in creating the product.  For example, if you share a graphic organizer that can be used in a science notebook, what guided you in creating the organizer?  How did you determine the information that should be included?  What did you think about in terms of format?  Demonstrating such thinking and how thinking shifts based on context builds a teacher’s repertoire of strategies and fosters cognitive flexibility.   

All teachers benefit from coaching.  Some teachers need significant modeling, including clear and repeated demonstrations of effective processes and products.  Left without adequate demonstrations, these teachers may continue using less-effective teaching techniques.  Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  You can’t do it the same way and expect a different outcome.  If our job as coaches is to improve the effectiveness of instruction, then models, explanations, and demonstrations will be essential elements of our coaching. 

This week, you might want to take a look at resources about teachers modeling for their students:

A Teaching Channel video about modeling use of digital resources: 

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/classroom-modeling

Richard Allington & Patricia Cunningham talk about how children benefit from modeling, demonstration, and explanation during literacy instruction in this article:

http://www.education.com/reference/article/children-benefit-modeling-demonstration/

Modeling for great classroom management:

http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2012/02/18/how-to-be-a-great-teacher/

Video of a teacher modeling the addition process:

http://fcit.usf.edu/mathvids/videos/strategies/em/concrete/etmc_clip3_med.mov

Or this video where a teacher models the division process:

http://fcit.usf.edu/mathvids/videos/strategies/em/representational/etmr_clip5_med.mov

Read more about modeling during instruction at:

http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/StateArt/Read/idea4.html

Who's in the Center

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:

*https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/professional-development-teacher-evaluation

Lesson plans using one of my favorite instructional tools:  sticky notes!

http://teachers.post-it.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Post-it-Teachers/Home/All-Activities/?utm_campaign=bazaarvoice&utm_medium=Default&utm_source=Stories&utm_content=Default

 

Lesson plan for sparking rich online discussions:

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/thoughtful-threads-sparking-rich-1165.html

A podcast suggestion tech tools for young learners:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1039

Recommendations about user-friendly, free apps for classroom use:

http://litlifeblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/our-favorite-free-apps-for-classroom-use/

 

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Power of the Pause

In last week’s post, we talked about the value of having the teacher choose the focus of the coaching work you’ll do together.  Once a focus for coaching has been selected, the GIR coaching model (see below) can provide a guide for the work you do together, reminding you to gradually increase the teacher’s responsibility and ownership for the things she’d like to improve. 

Not all teachers will need the first (and most supportive) coaching practice – modeling.  With some teachers or focuses, Making Recommendations is the coaching move to lead with as you begin a coaching cycle.  As with choosing a focus, the recommendations you make will be most effective if they grow from the teacher’s specific concerns or comments.  This is why WAIT time is so important during a conversation.  We’ve all heard of wait time, but I like the reminder I read recently: WAIT stands for Why Am I Talking?  This little acronym encourages me to pause, hold my tongue, and really consider what the teacher has been saying before jumping in with a recommendation.  Waiting allows me to listen better, because while the teacher talks, my mind is not rushing ahead thinking about what I’m going to say in response – I know I’ll have time for that once she pauses.  My response is better because I’ve really listened, and because I’ve allowed myself a few seconds to think about what I’ve heard.  The pause pushes my own thinking to a higher level.  That thoughtful pause also sends the message that I value what the teacher has said. 

A children’s book, I Have a Little Problem, illustrates this concept well.  The book begins with a bear looking for a solution to a problem that we (as the reader) don’t know about.  After having unsatisfactory solutions posed by the shopkeeper, the shoemaker, the doctor, and various other townsmen, the bear dejectedly walks out of town and sits on a hill.  There he meets a friendly fly, who takes the time to listen and finds out the bear’s real problem:  he is alone and afraid.  As the fly and bear go off together, we recognize that listening provided a way for the bear’s problem to be solved. 

As with the bear, so with the teacher!  We have probably all been a victim, at one time or another, of a solution that was provided by someone who didn’t really understand the problem.  My goal is to avoid that situation by talking less and listening more during coaching conversations.   The pregnant pause – silence – sometimes makes us feel like no one is thinking.  But in actuality, that pause is usually when the highest-level thinking occurs, for both you and the teacher.  The pause works on both sides of a recommendation.  When we pause after making a recommendation, the pause becomes an opportunity for the teacher we’re coaching to thoughtfully consider how that suggestion might apply in her teaching, with her students.  It demonstrates our faith in the teacher’s own judgment and the insights she has about learning in her classroom.

As you make more space for silence during a coaching conversation, I think you’ll like the outcome.  Sandwiching a recommendation between thoughtful pauses is likely to increase the effectiveness of that recommendation and of your ongoing work as a coach.    

This week, you might want to take a look at a plethora of math resources and a bit about reading:

Here’s a free online game for developing number sense with fractions:

http://play.centerforgamescience.org/refraction/site/

Here’s a video of a kindergarten math lesson using a game to develop number sense:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/mingle-count-a-game-of-number-sense?fd=1

An interesting series of articles about the importance of math in the classroom:

http://nrich.maths.org/2489

(Explore the colored buttons on the top menu to find wonderful low- and high-tech math games for any grade.)

Ideas for helping students document their reading (and other great comprehension suggestions):

http://chartchums.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/so-your-students-are-starting-to-read-chapter-books/

An article about the power of rereading:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view-print.php?id=41

That’s all for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Choosing a Focus for Coaching

Improvement Begins with I.

Arnold H. Glasow

Coaching is about improvement.  Coaches wouldn’t exist if somebody didn’t want something to change.  But coaching works best when the somebody who wants something to change is the same person as the one who is supposed to be doing the changing!  In teaching, that means instruction is most likely to improve if the teacher owns the desire for change. 

My experience is that it’s often the best teachers who are most interested in improvement (there’s a message in that!).  We shouldn’t be deterred from working with these outstanding teachers.  As Charlotte Danielson has said, “Because teaching is so demanding and complex, all teaching can be improved; no matter how brilliant a lesson is, it can always be even better”*

Whether we’re working with expert teachers or novices, having them choose the focus for our coaching cycles makes coaching more effective.  Brenda Powers** suggested that working on a problem someone else hands you is “not going to add much zest or pleasure to your teaching.”  If a teacher is working on something she cares about it’s always going to be a better problem to think about than anything suggested by somebody else.

Instructional frameworks can be helpful in determining a coaching focus.  I like Charlotte Danielson’s work.  Although her Framework for Teaching is now being used extensively as an evaluation instrument, the title of her book is Enhancing Professional Practice – and that’s just what we as coaches want to do.  She talks about teaching in terms of four areas, or “domains”: Planning and Preparation, Classroom Environment, Instruction, and Professional Responsibilities.  I find that the descriptors of proficient and distinguished practice align well with research about effective instruction and with my own experience.  During an initial coaching conversation, the framework helps us choose a narrow, manageable focus for our work.

As coaches, our work is improving teacher effectiveness – and that is just the work that many teachers would like support with.  In these times when the stakes are high around teacher evaluation, coaches’ support in helping teachers improve their practice is a valuable commodity.  While some bemoan the emphasis on teacher effectiveness, I believe that, if our framework for evaluation is appropriate, it will be a good thing for kids.  And it might just open a door or two for you as a coach.  Once you step inside that door, allowing the teacher to choose the focus (putting the “I” in “improvement”) will heighten the value of your work together.   

* Danielson, C. (2012).  Observing Classroom Practice. Educational Leadership, 70(3), 32-37

**Choice Literacy Newletter, 8/31/2013.  Downloaded from choiceliteracy.com. 

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

The Danielson teaching framework rubrics, available free at: 

danielsongroup.org/userfiles/files/downloads/2013EvaluationInstrument.pdf

Other teacher effectiveness resources from Danielson on her site at:

danielsongroup.org/

Listen to this informative podcast about close reading:

choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1851

A blog post about what close reading isn’t:

christopherlehman.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/blog-a-thon-post-1-what-closereading-isnt-or-at-least-shouldnt-be/

A video about using counting collections in grades K-2:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/counting-by-ten-lesson

That’s all for this week.  Happy Coaching!

Asking Permission

This week I was traveling, and due to weather delays I spent a lot of time in airports.  During one of my stints in the gate area, I overheard a conversation between two women who I quickly determined were coaches in the business sector.  I hadn’t been intending to eavesdrop, but once I figured this out, my ears perked up.  I wondered how coaching done in the business world compared with what we do in the educational arena.  These coaches talked about their work with team members, project managers, and upper-level management. 

One of the women was a more seasoned coach, and she was giving advice to her colleague who had recently moved into the coaching role.  The new coach talked about how management was very supportive of coaching, told team members what her role was, and set the expectation that she would be working with them.  (This made me think about our principal/coach agreements – see last week’s post.)  But the new coach expressed frustration that she didn’t feel as welcomed as she would have liked.  She thought that, since the managers said it must be so, she could step right in and do her job. 

The experienced coach suggested a tiny tweak that she said would make a huge difference:  she talked about the importance of asking for permission before stepping in.  This veteran coach explained that she’s noticed a significant mind-shift when she asks, “Can I offer my thoughts?” and her colleague says, “Yes.”  Even though nothing has really changed (the manager still requires the coaching), asking for and receiving permission to coach seems to flip a mental switch, making the listener more receptive.  The seasoned coach said she even does this with her husband (great practice!).  When her husband is telling her about a situation, she pauses and asks, “Do you really want my opinion?” before plowing ahead with advise.  If he says, “Yes,” then she gives it and he listens.  But sometimes he says, “No, not really” – and she leaves it at that.

The experienced colleague pointed out that, after getting permission to coach, it’s important to give team members some value that they can see right away.  “It’s hard to sell them on change,” she said.  “They would rather just sit in their cubes and do the same thing they’ve always done.”  For coaching to work, the coach has to offer something that will be immediate and obviously useful as an introduction.  That paves the way for future work.

As you consider how the advise of this business coach applies in your context, you might coin an “asking permission” question that feels natural to you, and then think about how you will follow up with value-added work.   Can you share an efficient way to analyze assessment data?  Or a tool for quickly setting up a class website (see below)?  Is there a video clip that is sure to be a hit at Back-to-School night?  A procedure for peer editing that will make revision more effective and lighten the teacher’s paper-grading load?  Such early wins will pay big dividends. 

Although I still can’t say I was grateful for the rain delays I experienced this week, I feel lucky to have caught this conversation.  You never know what wisdom you’ll pick up while waiting at an airport gate!

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

How to create a class website in 30 minutes or less – really!

http://theedublogger.com/2013/08/29/class-website/ 

Classroom management strategies: 

http://www.ernweb.com/public/1004.cfm?utm_source=+Classroom+management+art+2013-14&utm_campaign=resend+classroom+management&utm_medium=email#.UiZfI9Qo7IU

“Inside Mathematics” is a great website with lessons and professional development for the standards (by grade level).  Here, check out videos of classroom lessons that capture kids’ thinking:

http://insidemathematics.org/index.php/exemplary-lessons-integrating-practice-standards

A Pinterest Board  with articles and resources to share with families about the importance of reading and play:

 http://pinterest.com/mrsmere/parent-pages/

A video with ideas for giving students roles so that reluctant participants become engaged in group work:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/strategies-for-engaging-students?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=digest

Here’s a pinterest board with ideas for classroom seating:

http://www.pinterest.com/choiceliteracy/take-a-seat/

  

That’s it for this week!  Happy Coaching!

The Same Song

The family I grew up in has three girls – myself and my two sisters.  Although we now live in different states, a couple of weeks ago we got together, and we all brought our flutes – instruments that have been rarely used since our high school days.  We thought it would be fun to play together again.  We flipped through some old music, recognizing familiar tunes.  Every page or so, one of us would call out, “Let’s play that one!”  Then we’d all lift our instruments, count out the beat, and begin to play. 

We were enjoying our melodic walk down memory lane when unfortunately we started a song that was not music to our ears.  It sounded so bad that we stopped, mid-measure.  “Where were you?” I asked, thinking we had somehow gotten out of sync.  Indeed we had!  Although two of us pointed to the same spot on the page, my other sister pointed to some notes – on the adjacent page!  We were not even playing the same song!  No wonder it sounded awful!  After laughing until our sides hurt, we pulled ourselves together and started playing again – making sure we were on the same tune. 

I thought about that experience this week in conjunction with setting the stage for coaching.  I’ve noticed how important it is for the principal and coaches to be singing the same song.  Mixed messages about coaching can undermine the relationships of trust you are trying to build with teachers.  Ideally, you and your principal should see eye-to-eye about who will be coached.  The most successful models I’ve seen are the “All In” model and the “By Invitation Only” model.  In the “All In” model, the principal sets the expectation that all teachers will participate in coaching sessions at some point during the year, either individually or as part of a small group.  The “By Invitation Only” model is what the name describes – the coach is invited into the room at the invitation of the teacher.  This model works well when the coach has already built strong relationships, and it requires credibility and trust.  Both of these approaches have the benefit of avoiding the stigma that coaching happens to someone who needs to be fixed.  We want to build the understanding that teaching is about continuous improvement, focusing on students’ needs, and making ongoing adjustments to practice.

Be sure you and your principal are singing the same tune about what your coaching model will be.  Next week’s post will talk about other aspects of the Principal/Coach agreement.  Whether this is a formalized document or just an informal declaration of expectations, it is an important part of getting the school year off to a smooth start.

Since this week starts off with International Literacy Day, you might want to take a look at:

Ideas for celebrating the day (with connections to the upcoming movie release of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) at:

http://flash.sonypictures.com/movies/cloudywithachanceofmeatballs2/literacy/media/digital_ILD_activity_kit.pdf

Top 10 Ways to Turn Your Students into Enthusiastic Readers:

http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/top-ten-ways-to-turn-your-classroom-into-a-hotbed-of-enthusiastic-readers-by-megan-ginther-and-holly-mueller/

A video showing how literacy and technology work together in the science classroom:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/problem-solving-with-technology--2?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=digest

Podcasts with book recommendations:

            For young readers:  http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/podcast-series/chatting-about-books-recommendations-30130.html

            For adolescent readers:  http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/podcast-series/text-messages-recommendations-adolescent-30214.html

A Pinterest Board with great recommendations of non-fiction for kids:

http://pinterest.com/choiceliteracy/great-nonfiction-for-kids/

That’s all for this week.  Happy Coaching!