Coaching Teachers to Be Effective Instructors

Sep 13, 2011 by Contributor EducationViews.org

What does an instructional coach do? Look at instructionthe act, process, or art of imparting knowledge and skill. Look at coachto teach. Instructional coaches teach teachers how to be effective instructors. his is the focus of instructional coaching because Good instruction is 15 to 20 times more powerful in producing student achievement than family background and income, race, gender, and other explanatory variables. tudent learning must be at the heart of all decisions made in the school. (Hershberg 2005, page 224!he "irst #ays of chool) Instructional coaches are not guides b! the side or mentoring buddies. he! coach" the! train" the! teach. #ootball season is here. $ t!pical professional football team has %& assistant coaches. heir 'ob is to impart knowledge and skills, to train and bring out the potential in ever! pla!er and mold them into a team that achieves success together. Likewise, the instructional coaches in the Caldwell School District teach the knowledge and skills of effective instruction to the teachers. They train to bring out the potential in every teacher to build a professional learning team at the campus they are assigned to. No Teachers Lost The Caldwell School District knows that effective instruction, not programs, fads, or bu words, is the keystone to student success and that is why this past year student achievement e!ceeded the re"uirements of #$%. hree !ears ago (aldwell lost &) teachers. wo !ears ago the! lost * teachers. his past !ear the! lost + teachers. When teachers are effective and successful, and the students are learning, happ!, and successful, teachers sta!. What,s (aldwell,s secret sauce? -lementar! director .onathan (line, sa!s, We decided that ever! school needed an instructional coach to help the teachers become e/perts in teaching. #le!is Contos

Alexis Contos (on the right as she works with a teacher on program routines) is an instructional coach at Sacajawea Elementary School. She is in her fifth year as an instructional coach as she observes, suggests, and models effective classroom instruction. Alexis uses a coaching cycle in her role. She takes teachers through a coaching sequence that includes

1. pre-conference, . goal or focus setting, !. modeling, and ". de#riefing.

0he sets up a pre&conference which allows the teacher and her to establish a focus or goal throughout the coaching process. 0he models strategies within that focus and encourages the teacher to adapt the strateg! to their own classroom practice. $ debriefing session follows to discuss the success of the new strateg!. 'ut, the cycle does not stop there as the focus or goal is always to continue to improve the teacher(s instructional effectiveness. $le/is believes that as a coach, it is e/tremel! important to build trust with ever! teacher in the building. 0he does this b! becoming vulnerable herself, as this allows others to be open and vulnerable as well. $le/is remembers fondl! in her first !ear as a coach, when she began to work with a teacher that had onl! been in the profession for a !ear or so. 0he observed in her classroom, giving her non1evaluative immediate feedback on what was observed. $le/is was constantl! in her room modeling strategies for her to use and e/cited to do so. he! worked together that !ear and the new teacher blossomed into the remarkable teacher that she is toda!. $le/is sa!s, It has been one of m! greatest e/periences, to be able to be a part of a teacher,s 'ourne! on developing and honing one,s skill as a teacher. herein is the difference between a mentor and a coach. $ coach,s role is 'ob1embedded within a staff. he coach is available all the time. he coach teaches and trains repeatedl!. he coach encourages constantl!. )im *night, writing in the Winter 2++3, Journal of Staff Development validates the efficac! of instructional coaches. $%hen coaching is added to the staff development process, about &5 percent of the teachers implemented the new skill in their classroom.' $le/is takes pride in using her own personal development and uses it for the professional development of each teacher as well as the school itself. She not only coaches, she is part of the school(s professional learning community. $le/is sa!s, his is the most collaborative school that I know. $ll of the teachers take pride in all of the students, achievements and work together to do whatever it takes to meet the goals of our students. In 2++3 0aca'awea -lementar! 0chool was presented with the 4istinguished 0chool $ward. -ach teacher has worked hard and reflected on their own teaching to become the best educators that the! can. I believe that I also had a part in that. Lori +urgerson
ori !urgerson (on the left as she models blending routines with a teacher) is an instructional coach at $ewis and %lark Elementary School.

ori has worked with state departments of educations, school districts, and individual schools across the country as a "ational iteracy Consultant. She has been an instructional coach for four years and en#oys every minute of it.

0he has taken the time to build relationships with teachers and she sa!s that the! are ver! open to working with her and becoming better in their field and are alwa!s receptive to learning new things and growing. $s is the (aldwell 0chool 4istrict e/pectation, Lori is in the classroom *) percent of the time doing observations and modeling. With 2+ teachers and 5 paraprofessionals, Lori,s schedule is ver! bus!, but purposeful with observations focusing on reading, math, and language arts instruction and classroom management. 0he provides professional development for teachers in these areas. he principal and all the instructional coaches meet weekl! with each grade level to look at data and discuss students and interventions.

Lori likes to talk about a teacher who was reall! struggling with classroom management and the reading program. 0he was in her room a minimum of two da!s a week observing and modeling. he teacher was ver! eager to improve and the! would meet for a pre1conference, where the! discussed what the focus was going to be. They began with classroom management, since learning can(t happen without it. Lori modeled for her the basics, from the procedure for how to bring students in to the classroom from recess to the procedure for how to teach students transitions. $ procedure for transition can be found on pages 2++ and 2+% in !he "irst #ays of chool. $fter the modeling, the! met for a debriefing session to discuss how it went and Lori answered an! 6uestions the teacher had. 0everal times Lori went in and the! did side1b!1side coaching. When the teacher had her management down pat, then the! moved to the routines of the reading program.

7arr! 8 9osemar! Wong: -ffective eaching ; eachers.<et =a>ette.

Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better. (oaching, in its truest sense ?which is different to mentoring or counselling@, is one of the few models of training that actuall! encourages professional autonom!, risk and innovation. $s a school, we have had e/cellent feedback alread! on the process from teachers, but it is earl! da!s. We need to track the evidence all the wa! to student outcomes and to impact in the classroom. Aur educated intuition as teachers is that if !ou invest professional capital, and, of course, financial capital, into time for teachers to develop their practice, as well as giving them professional choices ; with supportive, e/pert feedback ; then the! will change and improve teacher 6ualit! and teaching and learning in a sustained wa!. (oaching could prove to be an important tool in driving teacher improvement and attaining a sense of a new professionalism for teachers. It can be a timel! trigger for the intrinsic passions that drive all teachers to be improve, not because we are not good enough, but because we can be even better.

(uild )elationships and !rust Like students, teachers need to know and trust !ou in order to enter willingl! into a coaching compact. When we coaches fail to invest time in building relationships, we ma! unwittingl! undermine our best efforts. $s a first1!ear principal, I e/perimented with several strategies to cultivate trust with m! colleagues. Before the school !ear began, I met with each teacher one1on1one to ask 6uestions and understand their hopes, fears, and support needs in the upcoming !ear. B! choosing to listen rather than to talk, I conve!ed that I saw m! primar! dut! as supporting good teaching. hroughout the school !ear, I helped run off1site professional1development retreats, where our founding staff of eight built a sense of communit! b! sharing stories. In .une,

we used grant funds to rent a beach house for two nights, where we cooked, laughed, and planned the opening of school together. $t another mid!ear retreat, I hired a masseuse to provide half1hour sessions for the teachers so the! could rela/ and feel pampered. hese small gestures helped offset the stress we all inevitabl! e/perienced as we launched a new school with few resources. he! also gave me a foundation of trust and collegialit! with most of the teachers I coached.

Lesson Planning: Shane Safir at right! wor"s with Erin #randvo$d, a teacher at the %mpact &cademy of &rts and 'echno$ogy, on a genocide pro(ect for her )or$d *istory c$ass. (redit: (ourtes! of .en 4avis Wickens *elp !eachers +lan with the ,nd in -ind $t one of the schools where I coach, a ninth1grade teacher ?who re6uested not to be named@ felt overwhelmed and frustrated. With %2) students and a new curriculum, he was drowning in a sea of student work and lesson plans. Aur coaching time focused on developing a strateg! for the spring semester. he teacher e/pressed an/iet! about curriculum mapping, noting aloud that it was not how he t!picall! thought or planned. 9ather than re'ect his adapted st!le, I tried to build off of it. We sat before a whiteboard in his room, pondering the visual cluster of ideas he had drawn with a dr!1erase marker. Csing this brainstorm as a rich starting point, I helped him to map these ideas into a tight, disciplined curriculum map, which included big ideas, specific learning outcomes, and assessments to measure student understanding. $fter a couple of meetings, he had articulated a powerful set of goals for his students and knew how he would measure them. Dore importantl!, he e/pressed a renewed sense of self1confidence in his abilit! to plan.

-odel (est +ractices Like good teaching, effective coaching often involves the modeling of best practices. =iulio 0orro, a trained histor! teacher at another school where I coach, was suddenl! charged with creating a humanities ?-nglish and social studies@ curriculum. 7e knew that he needed to develop his practice of scaffolding 11 modeling a learning strateg! or task, then graduall! shifting responsibilit! toward the students 11 for his reading and writing instruction, but he lacked the training to do so. $s his coach, I sought to model, little b! little, some strategies I had learned on the 'ob, such as literac!1building techni6ues, structuring controversial debates, and charting student discussions on the board for visual impact. $fter identif!ing the literar! concepts he wanted students to e/plore in a comple/ poem 11 imager! and allusion 11 we planned a lesson in which he would do a Ethink1aloudE of the first stan>a for students, repeat this process for the second stan>a, and stand b! them as the! practiced their fledgling anal!tical skills on their own. .onnect !eachers with )esources $s a fourth1!ear math teacher, (r!stal Froctor felt stuck. 4espite her best efforts, she knew that her students werenGt getting the math on the deep level the! needed to. But she wasnGt 6uite sure how to ad'ust her practice. I arranged for her to visit an e/cellent math teacher at another school, hoping she might find inspiration. In our discussion the following week, (r!stal said she found the observation helpful because the veteran teacher was so e/plicit in his teaching. When pushed a step further, she e/plained that she often took for granted what her students alread! knew, but watching the other math teacher taught her to break down words and concepts into smaller parts and analogi>e them to familiar markers in her studentsG lives. E#or e/ample, !esterda! I was talking about how steep an angle is,E she shared. EI reali>ed the! might not understand the meaning of steep, so I asked them to consider the streets the! climbed to reach school and to compare the steepness of various grades. he! got itHE I was reminded that good coaching is not about d!namic coaches serving as heroic educators, but rather stems from the simple habits of connecting teachers to resources and asking them reflective 6uestions. Shane Safir, an instructional coach with the Stanford School Redesign Network, Envision Schools, and San Francisco's June Jordan School for Equity, taught English and history for si years !efore serving as ""SE's founding co#rinci#al $%%&'%() his article originall! published on ,-./-0//1

Professional development is important for good teaching. Ellen Darling of the British Council shares some of the more important coaching tips provided by education expert Loraine Kennedy during our webinar on 26 June 2013, attended by people from all over the world. Coaching vs mentoring Loraine makes a clear and useful distinction between coaching and mentoring: Coaching is a developmental process by which an individual gets support while learning to achieve a specific personal or professional result or goal. Mentoring, on the other hand, is more like a teacher-pupil relationship whereby an expert or more experienced person helps a novice or new member of staff develop into a new role. Coaches use questioning and listening techniques to help someone discover their own learning path and this approach could work particularly well with experienced people who need guidance, but are capable of finding their own way to grow further. Principles of coaching The person in the coaching role should focus on a coachees future potential, and disregard any preconceptions that they may have, based on past performance. In addition, coaches need to be able to understand and value personality differences and respond to individuals accordingly. By looking forward and focusing on solutions rather than problems, coaches can motivate people in their professional life and re-engage them in their work. Interestingly, the person being coached knows the answer already and there is no right or wrong answer, but many right and equally valid answers. Setting clear objectives and creating an honest and trusting relationship are fundamental to the coaching process. Models of coaching ADKAR: Awareness of the need to change; Desire to change; Knowledge of how to change; Ability to implement change; Reinforcement to sustain change. This framework describes a process which can be followed to make professional changes. COACH: Collaborate; Own; Acknowledge; Communicate; Help. The coaching role here involves a great deal of collaboration with the coachee. GROW: Goal; Reality; Obstacles/Options; Way forward. The coach needs to understand the coachees context and perspective and to explore many options before deciding future action. Qualities of a coach A coach has to have good communication skills, particularly highly developed listening skills. You can follow the webinar for tips on how to avoid sounding patronising, such as avoiding making presumptions and delaying offering advice until invited to do so. Good coaches seek out someone to coach them or engage in peer coaching. To be a good coach you need to be a good coachee. Further reading: Teaching English online: opportunities and pitfalls For detailed practical advice, as well as links to further resources and courses, you can follow the webinar in your own time. More webinars on continuing professional development are available on our English Agenda website.