Transcript Creating a Culture for Coaching

Creating a Culture
for Coaching
Essential Questions
• What are the characteristics of an effective
instructional coach, what do they need to
know and be able to do?
• How do instructional coaches build teacher
capacity for selecting, implementing,
evaluating the impact of HYIS and foster
teacher reflection?
Why coaching?
Why is it important?
The purpose of staff development is not
just to implement isolated instructional
innovations; its central purpose is to build
strong collaborative work cultures that will
develop the long-term capacity for change.
Michael Fullan
Research on
Instructional
Coaching
Recent Research
Indicates That
With Classroom
Coaching,
Implementation
rates rise…
85% - 90%
University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning
One of Our Most Valuable
Resources…Teachers
Here’s what we know:
Teacher expertise accounts for more difference in student
performance—40 percent—than any other factor. Ferguson
(2001)
• Students who have several effective teachers in a row make
dramatic achievement gains, while those who have even two
ineffective teachers in a row lose significant ground. Sack (1999)
• Based on research in Texas, the importance of having an
effective teacher instead of an average teacher for four or five
years in a row could essentially close the gap in math
performance between students from low-income and highincome households. Hanushek, Kain, and Rivkin (2001)
Teacher Impact Continued…
• The difference in teacher effectiveness is
the single largest factor affecting academic
growth of populations of students. Sanders
(2000)
• The differences in impact by the most
effective teachers, the top one-sixth of
teachers, can be 9 months or more,
essentially a full year of learning. Rowen,
Correnti, and Miller (2002)
And finally…
#1 - Good instruction is 15 to 20 times more
powerful than family background and
income, race, gender, and other explanatory
variables. Hershberg (2005)
#2 - “It’s People, Not Programs” – Todd
Whitaker
There are really two ways to improve a school
significantly:
Get Better Teachers.
Improve the teachers in the school.
Instructional Coaching…
• Builds capacity for effective instructional
practices within specific content areas.
• Creates a partnership approach with
teachers.
• “Customizes professional development to
match each teacher’s needs and interests
while they help the school establish a
common understanding across all teachers.”
(Sweeney, 2003)
What characteristics of an
effective coach do you view in
this video?
What are the characteristics of an
effective instructional coach,
what do they need to know and
be able to do?
How can IFs build a culture for
coaching?
Make connections and build relationships
– every person has their own story.
 Build trust with teachers.
 Always begin with the positive. “Raise the
praise – minimize the criticize.” – Todd Whitaker
 Be supportive, but don’t enable or
condone ineffective behaviors.
 Work with the teachers as colleagues.

Successful coaches exhibit…
Active listening when working with
teachers
 Candor – about one’s strengths (no
bluffing, no arrogance)
 Acknowledging upfront to have some but not all - of the answers
 Reflection – individually and with the
teacher on teacher’s performance and
specific needs

How can administrators build a
culture for coaching?
Create a shared team vision for the
school
 Develop a shared understanding of all
teachers’ needs.
 Scheduled leadership meeting times are
encouraged.
 Support the coaching role of the IF by
communicating expectations to the staff.

Roles of an Instructional
Coach
Ten Roles of a Coach
• Resource
Provider
• Data Coach
• Curriculum
Specialist
• Instructional
Specialist
• Mentor
• Classroom
Supporter
• Learning
Facilitator
• School Leader
• Catalyst for
Change
• Learner
Coaching’s Big Four
• Content
• Instructional Practices
• Assessment for Learning
• Classroom Management
Jim Knight, University of Kansas
Instructional Coaching…
LAST Instructional Strategy
Looks like…
Acts like…
Sounds like…
Teach or tell someone about it…
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kwY__4
W2PyskVRcXr7yjPJ_gNRIJ96lxjaH_JG39KSg/e
dit?usp=sharing
Where do we start?

Just start. 

Begin with most receptive teachers – new
teachers, new to a content area/grade
level, teachers that specifically request
assistance and feedback.

Focus.
Review of High Yield Instructional
Strategies
1. Similarities and Differences
2. Summarizing and Note Taking
3. Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
4. Homework and Practice
5. Nonlinguistic Representation
6. Cooperative Learning
7. Setting Goals and Providing Feedback
8. Generating and Testing Hypotheses
9. Questions, Cues, and Advanced Organizers
Another focus area: Common Core
Instructional Shifts
What is the expectation for
instructional coaching?

The minimum expectation is one coaching
session per day. Coaching will be
documented weekly.
What constitutes a “coaching session?”
Planning session, PLC, plan-observefeedback-reflect with teacher, model lesson,
scheduling time for teachers to observe
master teachers, pulling resources, etc.

Evaluating Impact of Effective
Teaching Strategies
Providing Feedback
Not evaluating teacher, but evaluating
the effectiveness of the effective
teaching strategies as evidenced by:

fidelity of implementation

impact on student outcomes.
Debriefing
The teacher and the coach meet to
discuss:
• Degree to which students have
mastered the learning outcomes
• Effective Teaching Strategies used by
the coach/teacher (depending on if
observation, model lesson, & or coteaching stage)
• Instructional adjustments the teacher
made during the lesson
Feedback
Goal of feedback is to improve current
situations without criticizing or
offending.
Should be:
• Descriptive rather than Evaluative
(visible)
• Specific instead of general
• Given as soon as possible
• Realistic
• Positive
Warm Vs. Cool Feedback
WARM
• Supportive
• Strength oriented
• Focus on
solutions
• Promotes
positive learning
COOL
• Impersonal
• Needs oriented
• Focus on the
problem
• Provides constructive
criticism
Questions to Ask When
Debriefing/ Providing Feedback
• What did you see? What was the
focus on learning goals?
• What standard was being used and
are the procedures and assignments
appropriate?
• How will the student achieve
according to the standard being
addressed?
• What questions were being asked?
• Did the lesson end with the focused
learning goals?
Continued…
• What ETS did you see incorporated in
the lesson? Was the ETS presented
with fidelity?
• What needs did you see?
• What suggestions do you have for
teaching this standard?
• How can we support the teacher for
future student learning?
• How can you work together to
incorporate collaboration on this
lesson?
How would you provide feedback
to this teacher?
Teaching History
Reflection
“The teacher cannot rely on either
instinct alone or on prepackaged sets of
techniques. Instead, she or he must
think about what is taking place, what
the options are and so on, in a critical,
analytical way. In other words the
teacher must engage in reflection.”
John W. Brubacher, Charles W. Case,
and Timothy G. Reagan
Reflection
• The teacher and the coach independently
and systematically reflect on how their
collaborative work fosters the development
of the students’ understanding.
• Do this on an ongoing basis to re-examine
goals so that there is a cycle of continuous
improvement.
Questions to Foster Reflection
• What was I trying to accomplish?
• How did I go about completing the
lesson and solving problems I had
along the way (process)?
• What did I do well (strengths)?
• What did I have difficulty with
(weaknesses)?
• What have I learned/what would I do
differently?
Reflection Questions, cont’d
• What worked well?
• What did we learn?
• Did our conversations lead us closer to
our goals? How?
• Did we focus on the lesson or on other
issues?
• Did we do what we set out to do?
• How can we improve on this to make
coaching collaborating on lesson plans
more significant part of our work?
Data, Data, and More Data…
Are the students learning?
Coaches:
 assist teachers in the gathering and analysis of
formative assessment DATA about what
students know and can do as they enter a
learning experience
 help teachers use the data analysis to design
learning experiences at which students can be
successful
 train teachers in the ongoing use of formative
assessment data.
The question we must teach
teachers to ask is not did the
students complete all the
assignments and do their
homework, but rather, did they
learn what they were supposed
to learn, did they retain it over
time, and can they use it in ways
that demonstrate understanding
at a high level.
A Principal’s Perspective

Coaching Successes – Beth Lancaster
Essential Questions
• What are the characteristics of an effective
instructional coach, what do they need to
know and be able to do?
• How do instructional coaches build teacher
capacity for selecting, implementing,
evaluating the impact of HYIS and foster
teacher reflection?
Concerns? Questions?