Coaching Cycle/Coaching Continuum

1

Common Board Configuration (CBC)

DATE: Monday, June 10, 2013

BENCHMARK: Coaching Cycle

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:

•What is effective instructional coaching?•How can I alter my approach/work with my administration/teachers to maximize my effectiveness as an instructional coach?•How can the coaching cycle benefit instruction?

HIGHER ORDER QUESTIONS:•How will I ensure that teachers successfully incorporate collaborative strategies during group work?

EXIT SLIP:

•What is effective coaching?

•How can I alter my approach to maximize my effectiveness as an instructional coach?

•How can the coaching cycle benefit instruction?

AGENDA: I Do: facilitate the understanding of the coaching cycle and the coaching continuum via discussion and a power point presentation.

We Do: organize the components of the coaching cycle on the continuum.

They Do: develop one component of the coaches’ action plan via goal setting You Do: reflect on the information received through this presentation through response to questions.

HOME LEARNING:

What can be done at your site to promote a culture of coaching?

BELL RINGER: Read the article, “ Characteristics of Literacy Coaching” and complete group activity.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics of the coaching cycle and their relevance to teacher and student support.

VOCABULARY:

•Coaching Cycle

•Coaching continuum

Ice Breaker• Read the article, “

Characteristics of Literacy Coaching”

• Select one characteristic and describe how you would implement this characteristic into your coaching practice?

•What is effective instructional coaching?

•How can I alter my approach/work with my administration/teachers to maximize my effectiveness as an instructional coach?

•How can the coaching cycle benefit instruction?

Essential Questions:

Once there was a peddler who sold caps.But he was not like an ordinary peddler,carrying his wares on his back.He carried them on top of his headFirst he had on his own checkered cap,then a bunch of gray caps,then a bunch of blue caps,and, on the very top,a bunch of red caps.

-SLOBODKINA (1940, n.p.)

The Coaches’ To Do List

Order •Resource Provider

•Data Coach

•Classroom Supporter

•Mentor

•Learner Facilitator

•Curriculum Specialist

•Instructional Specialist

•School Leader

•Catalyst for Change

Coaching Responsibilities:• Whole Faculty Professional Development

• Small Group Professional Development

• Planning

• Modeling Lessons

• Coaching

• Coach-Teacher- Conferences

• Student Assessment

• Data Reporting

• Data Analysis

• Meetings/Common Planning/Lesson Study

• Knowledge Building

• Managing Materials /Weekly Coaches logs

Instructional Coaches…

develop future leaders by supporting teachers in the areas of curriculum, assessment, and instruction and by fostering an environment of collaboration, reflection, and professional growth

Consider…

“You can teach a person nothing. You can only help him discover it within himself.” attributed to Galileo

Consider

An effective Instructional Coach differentiates professional learning opportunities by thinking of coaching as a continuum.

CONTINUUM OF COACHINGInteractive coaching Intra-active coaching

Increased external scaffolding Decreased external scaffolding

Transformation may occur when teachers or his or her coaches are provided opportunities to observe, co-teach, confer, study, research, and reflect on practices based on behavioral evidence.

Subject-centered pedagogy Solution-seeking andragogy

adapted fromK. S. Froelich & E. A. Puig, 2010, p. 128

The Literacy Leadership Team: Sustaining and Expanding Success

Note: The term observation lesson has been used to replace demonstration lesson to denote the opportunity being provided versus a model lesson to emulate.

Components of the Coaching Continuum:

Provide an observation lesson (“model”) to improve learning and instruction

E

Co-teach with a host teacher in an observation classroom to improve learning and instruction

D

Confer, observe, and debrief to improve learning and instruction

F

Facilitate a study group or literacy leadership team to investigate adaptive challenges to improve learning and instruction

B

Facilitate action research to seek resources after reflection to improve learning and instruction

A

Facilitate a workshop or session to improve learning and instruction

C

CONTINUUM OF COACHING

Provide an observation lesson to improve learning and instruction

Co-teach with a host teacher in an observation classroom to improve learning and instruction

Confer, observe, and debrief to improve learning and instruction

Facilitate a study group or literacy leadership team to investigate adaptive challenges to improve learning and instruction

Facilitate action research to seek resources after reflection to improve learning and instruction

Interactive coaching Intraactive coaching

Increased external scaffolding Decreased external scaffolding

Transformation may occur when teachers or his or her coaches are provided opportunities to observe, co-teach, confer, study, research, and reflect on practices based on behavioral evidence.

Subject-centered pedagogy Solution-seeking andragogy

Facilitate a workshop or session to improve learning and instruction

adapted fromK. S. Froelich & E. A. Puig, 2010, p. 128

The Literacy Leadership Team: Sustaining and Expanding Success

Note: The term observation lesson has been used to replace demonstration lesson to denote the opportunity being provided versus a model lesson to emulate.

Coach Responsibilities

Whole Faculty Professional DevelopmentSmall Group Professional DevelopmentPlanningModeling LessonsCoachingCoach-Teacher ConferencesStudent AssessmentData ReportingData AnalysisMeetingsKnowledge BuildingManaging Materials

Place these roles on a continuum from 1 to 12. 1 represents the least support.

When literacy coaching is approached as a continuum of professional learning, it diminishes resistance to change by providing options.

Coaching Cycle

How Do I Know Where

to Start?

Classroom Walk ThroughWhat is it?An observation technique that allows the observer to record “snapshot” information on the effective elements of a classroom including:

• instructional strategies• standard-based objectives • aligned instructional materials• level of cognitive interaction• classroom displays and resources• student engagement

Why do it?The classroom walk through

provides a powerfultool for instructional coaches

to gather information for the purposes of • coaching • tiering• professional development

Note taking/Note making

Observations… Questions?

Note taking/Note making

Observations…

12:10 T: That’s what good readers do. They try to connect to things in their lives. Teacher roving room. 12:20 Teacher reviewed rules for sitting in front of the easel. T: Mrs. Porche has given us this huge umbrella. So we need to write her a thank you note. When we write a letter to someone, what do we need to do first? S: Date T: Write September. 12:21 T: Are you talking about indenting? T: Take a few minutes to think. T: Repeats message students have given. T: Say it with me so I don’t forget it. T: Let’s clap “donation”. T: Used white board, “nation”, definition T: Read back what we have.

Questions?

Why? Book boxes on tables, workboard visible. Purpose? Focus? What do you want the kids to think about while writing? TPR? Note: Response letter from Ms. Vickey’s class to observe workstations. So the kids understand that’s something they can do to remember a message. Why? Teaching by analogy. How is rereading going to help the students in their writing?

The Coaching Cycle

• Why do we do it?– To set up the gradual release coaching cycle – naming goals,

roles, and accountability for teacher and coach.• How do we do it?

– Invite the teacher to meet with you.– Share observations & notes from walkthrough.– Discuss teacher’s existing strengths and skills.– Determine instructional strategies to be refined during the coaching

cycle.– Schedule a modeled teaching session that focuses on identified

instructional strategies.

PRE-CONFER

ENCE

• What does it look like?

I meet with the teacher to figure out where she feels comfortable moving next butalso keeping an eye on whole-school needs/vision. We talk about how students aremoving and how she is feeling about her implementation of writers workshop. Bythe end of the conversation we have decided that I will model the next writersworkshop lesson so that she can observe how I use the mentor text to drive myinstruction. The next step will be for her to choose some additional mentor textsand try using them in future mini-lessons.

PRE-CONFER

ENCE

Coaching Prompts…

• Describe the students’ behavior when . . . After this lesson, can you describe how the outcomes matched

your goals? How did you recognize the need to switch approaches?How did you figure that out?What challenges did you encounter in the lesson?How are you planning to go about this…Where are you going with this …

• Why do we do it?– To demonstrate for a teacher (or group of teachers) how to implement

a pedagogical structure or a content move. Important to narrate/reflect throughout the model.

• How do we do it?– Teach a lesson that focuses on the strategies discussed during the pre-

conference. – The teacher observes and takes notes.

• What does it look like?

During the pre-conference we discussed providing explicit instruction by giving students step-by-step instructions to solve problems. I reminded the teacher of what he should look for during my lesson and provided him a lesson observation form to fill out. I modeled how to teach division, demonstrating how to think aloud and then providing step-by-step, clear directions for students to follow. While I taught the lesson and students were taking guided notes, I quickly spoke with the teacher and said, “Did you see how I provided showed students exactly how to think to solve the problem?”

• Why do we do it?– To discuss teacher implementation and student learning throughout the

coaching cycle and plan for next steps.

• How do we do it?– Teacher shares feedback/notes taken during the modeled lesson. – Answer questions the teacher has about the strategies modeled during

the lesson. – Plan a lesson that allows for the teacher to practice implementing the

strategies.

• What does it look like?

After modeling a read aloud for a resistant teacher, we meet to debrief. I explain what I was hoping for and we begin to discusshow the students talked about the text. She would like them to do better on extended response writing and we think about howtalk can lead to that. The debriefing takes on a planning feeling because the work is moving forward. I let her know I will take onany aspect of the work that is still uncomfortable, so she plans todo the reading and prompting and asks me to do the follow up ofstudent talk and the “big idea” at the end.

• Why do we do it?– To SHARE the work in order to gradually release the entire model to

the teacher.

• How do we do it?– Select the collaborative teaching approach that best fits the teacher’s

needs.– Teach the lesson that was created during the planning phase.– Debrief as soon as possible after the lesson.

Collaborative Teaching &

Debrief

Several collaborative teaching approaches have proven to besuccessful to guide educators who work together in coteaching partnerships:

• Supportive Co-teaching• Parallel Co-teaching

• Complementary Co-teaching• Team Teaching

Collaborative Teaching

• What does it look like?– To determine effectiveness of the coaching cycle and plan for next steps.

• How do we do it?– Conduct an informal observation of the teacher during a scheduled

time to look for implementation of new practices.– Meet with teacher to provide targeted feedback. – Identify the next steps for teacher’s own practice. The coach and– Discuss opportunities to build capacity through structured

opportunities for the participating teacher to share learning with colleagues.

Observation & Feedback

Opportunities for Coaching

Questions to Ponder…

• What factors impact your ability to carry out your role as an instructional reading coach?

Discuss the factors that impact your role as a coach.

• How can you increase the amount of time you engage in coaching activities?

Brainstorm solutions.

How are You Spending Your Time?

Percentage of the workweek

Time spent

80%Engage in a dialogue between teachers,

administrators, students and observations 

10% Plan and prepare for training sessions 

5% Provide observation lessons 

5%Engage in professional book study

 

Coaching ResponsibilitiesApproximate Coaching Time

PercentageProfessional Development(Department, Grade Level)

80Planning

Modeling Lessons

Coaching

Coach-Teacher Conferences

Data Reporting

20Data Analysis

Meetings

Knowledge Building

Managing Materials

Other

Consider Time

Allocations

Use of a Coach’s Time

• How do we ensure the coach’s time is used for maximum benefit?

• What do you believe are the most important ways coaches spend their time?

Language of CoachingTell me about your purpose in/when … Tell me about your lesson/focus of…Describe the students’ behavior when . . . After this lesson, can you describe how the outcomes matched your goals? Were there any shifts in your instruction?How did you figure that out?What challenges did you encounter in the lesson?How are you planning to go about this…What are you planning for with the next lesson…

The Principal Coach Relationship

An effective principal/coach relationship can be achieved by having the coach and principal: Collaborate Create an action plan Develop or participate in the Reading Leadership Team Review and discussing the coach’s log and calendar Attend common planning to know what are the look fors

when he/she conducts their walkthroughs Communicate and share ideas with the leadership team

The Principal can…Support and protect the role of the coachShare a common vision for the coach’s role with the whole

facultyProtect the coach’s timeGuard some time for professional development for the coach

and by the coachRevise and guide the coaches through the discussion of their

weekly logsCreate tier action plans to guide coaches and administrators

work

Leadership Team

Coaching Model

Questions

• What can be done at your site to promote a culture of coaching?

Goal for the 2013-2014 school year

During the 2013-2014 school year I promise I am going to __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Exit Slip

What is effective coaching?How can I alter my approach to maximize my effectiveness as

an instructional coach?How can the coaching cycle benefit instruction?

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ResourcesFisher, D. (2007) Improving adolescent literacy: Content area strategies at

work. Digital writing, digital teaching: Integrating new literacies into the teaching of writing. Available online: http://hickstro.org/2007/03/10/doug-fishers-improving-adolescent-literacy-strategies-at-work/

Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2008). Better Learning Through Structured Teaching. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), pgs. 4,10-12,18-19

Fisher & Frey (2008). Fisher&Frey resources. Retrieved February 10, 2010, from www.fisherandfrey.com

(U.S. Department of Education (2008). Direct, Explicit Comprehension Strategy Instruction. Available online: http://www.adlit.org/article/27740