The Art of Coaching Page 17
Coach:
That would be really high leverage! We know how important regular assessment data is for students. I'm wondering if that should be the goal area that we work on—tracking student learning and communicating assessment data to students?
Teacher:
Yes, that is so important. I know assessment is my biggest area of growth.
Coach:
And as you recognized, in order for you to reach this goal, you'll need to develop some organizational systems and routines.
Teacher:
I agree. And that sounds much more exciting.
Coach:
Of your school's instructional foci this year, which feels most relevant to you in connection with this goal?
Teacher:
I think our writing goal. We're aiming to have more than 10 percent growth on our district's writing exam, and I want to see 15 percent growth for my English language learners (ELLs). I really care about that goal, and I think I'm already doing a pretty good job at teaching writing. It's just the feedback, the assessment piece I'm not great at. I need to just do it I don't know why I don't.
Coach:
Great! Let's build on what you're already doing well. In terms of assessment, what might have a significant impact on your students?
Teacher:
Sit down with them and talk about their writing more often, as well as give them more written feedback. And keep track of how they are doing.
Coach:
Great. That's getting really specific. So far I hear that you want to provide verbal and written feedback to students on their writing assignments. Let's think about the time frame. How often do you want to do this?
Teacher:
Every week. Definitely. I want to give them the feedback within two days of the time they turn in their assignments.
Coach:
OK. How long do you think it'll take you to read and respond to all their assignments?
Teacher:
Probably six hours.
Coach:
So is doing that every week realistic?
Teacher:
Probably not.
Coach:
OK. What might be more realistic?
Teacher:
I think every other week. I could do that.
Coach:
Is this something you want to do all year? Provide feedback every other week?
Teacher:
Definitely. But wait—if I miss one time, then have I failed my goal?
Coach:
Our work is to make this possible—so that the systems and structures and routines are in place and you can meet this goal. I believe you can do it. What might be a realistic time frame for you to set up systems to track their progress?
Teacher:
I think I need a couple months to get that figured out. I'm going to say after the first marking period.
Coach:
OK—here's what I'm hearing so far. It sounds like we have two goals: (1) I provide verbal and written feedback to all of my students on their writing assignments every other week within two days of submission of their assignment for the entire school year. (2) By the end of the first marking period, I have created systems to track their progress on the writing standards. I use these systems for the entire school year. As a result of the feedback I provide students and the assessment systems that help me track their progress, all students make 10 percent growth on the writing exam, and the ELLs make 15 percent growth. Does that sound like what we've been talking about?
Teacher:
It does. But now I'm getting nervous—that seems like a big goal.
Coach:
It is. What other feelings are coming up for you?
Teacher:
I guess it's exciting too. I know it would make a significant difference for kids. What do you think?
Coach:
This is a focused, narrow goal. You've already started thinking about how you'll realize it. I believe you can meet it. Let's go for it! Let's start thinking through the action steps. OK?
Teacher:
OK. If you're really going to help me meet it, then yes, let's go for it. And I'll get organized along the way, right?
Coach:
Well, that's the next thing we're going to talk about: What are the actions you're going to need to take in order to meet these goals? Organization sounds like one of them.
4. Identify High-Leverage Activities
The next step is to identify the activities that will guide a client toward his goal. This happens in two parts—first, in a brainstorming conversation with the client, and then you can reflect on the work thus far and add other activities that might be helpful.
The “High-Leverage Activities” Conversation
Coach:
Teresa, I'm really excited about working with you on this SMARTE goal. I know it has the potential to make a big difference for your students. Today we'll brainstorm activities that can lead to meeting this goal. Many of these are the coaching activities we'll do together, some you'll do alone, and some I'll do alone. I'll take notes today. What are your first thoughts about the kinds of activities that will help you meet this goal?
Teacher:
As I said, I need to get organized.
Coach:
Great. Let's start with that: develop systems of organization. What else, Teresa?
Teacher:
Then I just need to do it—sit down and read their papers and give them feedback.
Coach:
What needs to happen first to help you do that?
Teacher:
I need to make the time.
Coach:
OK. How about if we capture that as “create time management systems”?
Teacher:
That sounds good. I definitely could improve my time management. Is that something you know about?
Coach:
I can gather some resources that we can look over together. I'll add that to my column of things to do. What else might be challenging about giving feedback?
Teacher:
OK—here's the truth. Sometimes I'm a little vague about what I'm giving feedback on. I read their essays and I'm a little stumped about how to respond—I'm overwhelmed by how much improvement they need to make, and I don't know where to start.
Coach:
What if we were to read some student papers and analyze them together? Would that help?
Teacher:
Yes, I'd love to get your perspective on their writing.
Coach:
Great. Let's add “Identify what kind of feedback you want to give.”
Teacher:
Right—and I want to give both written and verbal, remember?
Coach:
Yes. Would it be OK if at some point I observe you giving a student feedback? Could I sit on the side and just observe the interaction? Sometimes it can be really helpful to have another set of eyes on a high-leverage exchange like that—I might notice things in the student's reaction that might be helpful.
Teacher:
That would be great. Sometimes I wonder if I'm really clear when I give kids feedback.
Coach:
Sure. Are there any other moments when you think it might be helpful to have me observe?
Teacher:
I'm not sure. I can't think of any.
Coach:
I was thinking about when you explain an assignment and give instructions. I could observe those lessons.
Teacher:
That might be helpful. Maybe I'm not clear at that point either. Yes, that would be great.
Coach:
OK, so we've identified some moments when I will observe and then we can debrief. Going back to what you said when we identified this goal—that you know you need to “just do it”—I'm wondering what other things might have gotten in the way of doing it before? Beyond the absence of organizational systems?
Teacher:
I think part of the problem might be with
how I'm assessing or what I'm assessing for. I realize that sometimes my rubric isn't clear. I think the kids don't really know what's expected or what to do. I'm afraid I'm vague about this too. I didn't learn enough about assessment when I got my teaching credential.
Coaching:
That's really insightful. How about if we spend some time looking at the rubric together and thinking about this question you identified of how you can clarify what you're expecting?
Teacher:
Definitely. I don't know how to go about that alone, so I could use your support.
Coaching:
That's what I'm here for. Now let's think about one specific element of this goal: the needs of English language learners …
This conversation continues until coach and client have exhausted their ideas about what actions might lead to meeting the goal—this is a first start at exploring the gaps in the client's skills, knowledge, and capacity. This list can be added to or modified as coaching plays out. It provides immediate ideas of what happens within coaching; it should be instructive, inspiring, and exciting.
5. Break Down the Learning
At this point, after eliciting the client's perception of the actions that will lead her to accomplish her goals, the coach retreats to think and plan alone. It is essential that coaches determine where a client is in her learning; we can only coach within the ZPD, and the parameters of this zone can be murky. It takes a while to know our clients as learners and we can roughly identify a ZPD by listening, observing, and asking questions. Coaching challenges often stem from the coach's inaccurate assessment of the client's ZPD. As we get to know them, we also anticipate the scaffolding we need to construct in order to help the client build her skills.
For example, let's say the teacher we're coaching wants to use literature circles in her classroom and has never done so. She has identified some actions that she thinks will help her reach a goal around developing this structure, but she can't gauge how much she doesn't know. Using knowledge of this instructional practice, a coach can identify the skills, knowledge, ability, and capacities that the teacher needs to have in order to successfully implement literature circles. The coach knows that the teacher will need to understand the students' reading levels and interests, identify appropriate texts, order or gather materials, group students, communicate expectations and procedures, delineate roles for discussions, and so on.
For each of these teacher actions, the coach must assess her client's capacity to implement them. The coach may know, for example, that the teacher has a database for tracking student's reading levels, but that she struggles to communicate procedures. Literature circles are procedure-heavy; the coach recognizes this as an area for focused coaching.
At this stage the coach works alone to plot a course of coaching actions. When we show up to a coaching session, we navigate between letting the client direct the conversation where he needs to go and steering the conversation toward the ends the client has determined. But in order to steer effectively (as we often need to do), we must have thought through the learning chunks. When we haven't done this planning, we are likely to forget components of knowledge and skill that the client needs in order to be successful.
After reflecting on the chunks of learning that a client must engage in, we add to the list of high-leverage activities. When we review the plan with the client, we'll point out the activities that we added and explain our reasoning.
6. Determine Indicators of Progress
In the next step, we return to a conversation with the client to agree on the data and evidence we'll gather along the way to demonstrate progress toward goals. This conversation is another opportunity to identify the changes the client is hoping to make and how those changes will be evident.
For a goal like Teresa's (the teacher), the evidence will be easy to collect: documents that track student performance, feedback forms and copies of feedback to students, and the coach's direct observations of the conferences with students are all relevant data that will show that the teacher met her goals. However, when the goals are more subjective, then data are a little trickier to gather.
The “Indicators of Progress” Conversation
Here's what this type of conversation might sound like with the aforementioned principal who wants to improve his communication.
Coach:
I hear that you want to improve your communication with your leadership team. You want them to feel that you believe in them, that you want to hear their ideas, and you want them to take leadership. How might we know when that has happened?
Principal:
Right now I think they're apprehensive about sharing their thoughts. I'm so opinionated and I'm concerned that I might have shut people down. So I think if I heard my team sharing their ideas and even disagreeing with me I'd feel like I'd met this goal.
Coach:
Great. That's something I can definitely take note of when I'm observing leadership team meetings. I'll be sure to listen for those moments and document them. What else?
Principal:
I guess if members of this team volunteered to take on different roles or tasks, then I'd feel like they were taking a lead.
Coach:
OK, I'll be sure to note that as well.
Principal:
But I don't want them to only volunteer for things. I really want them to feel that they can do what I ask—I want to make sure I build their capacity to take on leadership roles so that they feel good about it.
Coach:
Definitely. That's really important to distinguish—it's not just about doing the role, but doing it well. So what might we look for?
Principal:
For them to volunteer for something and then be effective. Then I'll feel like I'm meeting my goal.
Coach:
OK—how are we going to know if they're effective?
Principal:
I'm going to have to carefully monitor what they do and the result. I'll talk to them about it and get their perspective.
Coach:
It might be helpful to give some surveys about how they feel, their confidence level, even how much they feel you believe in them. If we did one now, we could do another in a few months and then at the end of the year so we'd have a few sets of data. What do you think?
Principal:
That would be helpful.
Coach:
What else might be evidence, perhaps during leadership team meetings, that you've improved your communication?
Principal:
I really want to talk less and listen more. I want to get them thinking and talking about the issues facing our school.
Coach:
So I could script some leadership team meetings and take notes of what you say—how many times you ask questions or share your opinions, how many times other members ask questions or share their opinions. That could be interesting data to collect now and in a few months.
Principal:
That would be good. I'm afraid to see what it's like now. I dominate every discussion, I already know.
Coach:
Well, if we start documenting it, we can see the change. Let's think of this as another type of data that we'll collect.
7. Develop Coaching Theories of Action
A theory of action is an articulated rationale behind a strategy that's meant to improve student learning. It's expressed in a simple if-then statement, but it also needs to be specific and explicit in its reasoning. This helps us to be clear on what each element of our plan is intended to result in. Although it may need to be revised once it's in play, your theory of action is your best thinking made explicit.
This stage of planning is done alone by the coach and doesn't need to be shared with the client—it's the equivalent of a teacher's lesson plans. This is when the coach thinks through what she needs to do in order for the client to meet his goals. We consider the coaching strategies we'll try and anticipate how our client's practice will shift. We also ta
ke time to consider and articulate the strategies that could result in systems change.
Here are theories of actions that I developed to help Teresa meet her goals: