1. What is Instructional Coaching?
1.1. Instructional coaches may model lessons, observe teachers, or simplify explanations of teaching practices
1.2. IC's help teachers incorporate research-based instructional practices
1.3. Ultimate goal is to help teachers create obtainable goals that will improve instruction
1.4. Instructional coaches are experts in many different scientific proven strategies for quality instruction
2. The Big Four
2.1. Classroom Management
2.1.1. Issues of classroom management must be addressed before content-related conversations can take place
2.1.2. Questions for Assessing Management Needs:
2.1.2.1. Are students on task?
2.1.2.2. Is there at least a three to one ratio with positive/negative teacher talk?
2.1.2.3. Clear expectations:
2.1.2.4. Expectations communicated and understood?
2.1.2.5. Do students have opportunities to respond?
2.1.2.6. Does the teacher care about he kids' welfare?
2.1.2.7. Does the teacher respect the students?
2.1.2.8. Are expectations high?
2.1.2.9. Does the teacher believe in his/her students?
2.2. Content
2.2.1. Coaches should assess whether the teacher understands content, can plan for it, can triage it, explain it clearly, and have deep knowledge of it.
2.2.2. Questions for Assessing a Teacher's Mastery of Content
2.2.2.1. Are their plans detailed?
2.2.2.2. Are their essential questions for each unit?
2.2.2.3. Can the teacher identify 10-15 questions that will be asked for the course?
2.2.2.4. Can the teacher tell you the top 10 concepts?
2.2.2.5. Does the teacher know and can they explain the concepts?
2.2.2.6. Do unit questions align to state standards?
2.3. Instruction
2.3.1. Can the teacher rely on numerous teaching practices for ensuring that all students master the content?
2.3.2. Questions for Assessing a Teacher's Instructional Practices
2.3.2.1. Does the teacher set the pace with organization at the beginning of the class?
2.3.2.2. Does the teacher model thinking?
2.3.2.3. Does the teacher question at various depth-of-knowledge levels?
2.3.2.4. Does the teacher engage students in a variety of exercises and activities to hold engagement?
2.3.2.5. Does the teacher provide constructive feedback?
2.3.2.6. Does the teacher use a variety of formats for teaching, such as story-telling, analogies, language, examples, graphic organizers, etc?
2.3.2.7. Does the teacher sum up objective at the end?
2.4. Assessment for Learning
2.4.1. Does the teacher know where his or her students are at? When students are on task, can teacher articulate how well each student is learning?
2.4.2. Questions for Exploring Formative Assessment
2.4.2.1. Does the teacher know the learning targets?
2.4.2.2. Do the STUDENTS know the targets?
2.4.2.3. Does the teacher check for understanding often?
2.4.2.4. Are the students involved in the development and use of the formative assessment?
2.4.2.5. Can the teacher look into the classroom and sense where each student is in their understanding?
3. Factors that Increase the Success of Coaching Programs
3.1. Time: Sometimes coaches are asked to do non-coaching related jobs during non-structured times. To maximize the coach's job, they should be spending most of their time coaching
3.2. Proven Research-Based Interventions: Coaches and school districts should determine together what the needs are and seek out resources to help
3.3. Professional Development for Instructional Coaches: Should attend professional development often in order to make sure they are being effective, not wasting time or money, and informing teachers well;; They should attend professional workshops to better their coaching abilities; they should be informed of the best practices
3.4. Protecting Coaching Relationship: Must establish and keep trust with teachers; ; they should not be viewed as bosses
3.5. Ensuring That Principals and Coaches Work Together: Coaches must understand principals vision and use them as the ultimate authority; principals should receive professional development, too, to understand the role of the coach
3.6. Hiring the Right Coaches: Great coaches must be excellent teachers, great at building relationships and communicating with others; affirmative, humble, and respectful
3.7. Evaluating Coaches: Coaches should create a rubric for being evaluated, it will increase staff buy-in and is an excellent form of professional learning
4. Coaches should look for the positive things that hare happening in the classroom instead of focusing on the negative in order to increase teacher morale and to change the deficit tone building-wide
5. Theory Behind Partnership Philosophy
5.1. Equality: Instructional Coaches and teachers are Equal Partner-believes that their purpose is not to persuade, but to listen and learn
5.2. Choice: The teachers have choice about what and how they learn: the IC's job is not to become friends, but rather, to offer choices and meet teachers where they are
5.3. Voice: IC's work to allow teachers to give their opinions about the content being learned
5.4. Dialogue: Coaches and teachers engage in dialogue about content; they do not wish to manipulate or control teachers, but, rather, wish to learn from them
5.5. Reflection: Coaches believe that teachers have the right to reject or accept ideas and should always collaborate with a team before making decisions
5.6. Praxis: Teachers adapt ideas for their best level of usefulness and apply content and strategies into their daily practice-in a real-world way
5.7. Reciprocity: Coaches try to learn as much as they can about teacher's classrooms, strengths, and weaknesses, in hopes of learning and getting something out of the relationship
6. What do Instructional Coaches Do?
6.1. Enroll
6.1.1. Getting Teachers on Board
6.1.1.1. One-to-One Interviews: Coaches reach out to teachers to find out about them, their administrative problems, student needs, and cultural norms; next they educate teachers on philosophies of coaching and personal philosophies. .
6.1.1.2. Interviews should be at least 30 min to an hour in length and one-to-one in order to allow the teacher to feel comfortable speaking openly
6.1.1.3. Coaches should determine what each teacher feels is rewarding about their work, what obstacles are in their way, what their students' strengths and weaknesses are, and what kinds of professional development they prefer.
6.1.1.4. The coach should obtain commitment from the teacher.
6.1.2. Small Group Presentation
6.1.2.1. Coaches can meet with grade level teams or at team meetings
6.1.2.2. Coach will explain what opportunities working with a coach can bring, clarify the partnership expectations, explain the benefits of cooperative coaching, and sign up teachers to work with them
6.1.2.3. This is the coach's opportunity to "sell them self"
6.1.2.4. The presentation should be informal, around 20 minutes, and explain their beliefs on classroom management, planning, teaching to mastery, or formative assessment
6.1.3. Large Group Presentations
6.1.3.1. The larger the resistance to coaching in the building, the small the group meetings should be
6.1.3.2. Occurs when coach wants everyone to hear the same message; should be conducted at the beginning of the year or prior to a new year beginning
6.1.3.3. Should engage teachers in partnership activities during the presentation
6.1.3.4. Should end with teachers choosing to sign up for coaching and also room for comments or ideas
6.1.4. One to One Informal Conversations
6.1.4.1. Coach has informal conversations with teachers throughout the school day
6.1.4.2. Coach responds to real problems with real solutions and allows "word of mouth" to encourage participation
6.1.5. Administrative Referral
6.1.5.1. Principal and coach must handle relationship and implementation with care; if teachers are told that they MUST work with the coach, backlash could occur and and teachers may feel that having to work with a coach is punishment
6.1.5.1.1. Principals can encourage coach/teacher work by making observations and then "suggesting" that the cooperative teacher works with the coach on a specific instructional practice
6.2. Identify
6.2.1. Coaches must respond promptly to teacher requests to collaborate
6.2.2. Coaches should not be worried if their list of cooperating teachers is low at first; instead, they should invest their energy in doing a good job with the ones who have responded so that word of mouth will spread high opinions of the coach
6.2.3. Teachers and coaches should schedule a meeting to identify areas of need; if an area of need has not been identified, they should work TOGETHER to identify it, perhaps with the coach observing the teacher first
6.3. Explain
6.3.1. IC's should translate research into practice with five tactics which will assist in making this happen.
6.3.1.1. Clarify-coaches should read, write, and synthesize what they plan to tell teachers; coaches should familiarize themselves with the research they share--note taking to the point that they know exactly where to access resources; process information by summarizing and even create professional learning communities for sharing insights and ideas
6.3.1.2. Synthesize: Coaches should be able to summarize the most significant ideas about the teaching practices they are sharing; coaches should make checklists to help them remember which ideas they have shared and with whom
6.3.1.3. Break It Down: Coach breaks teaching ideas down into manageable components and translates them teachers; provides peace of mind for users to make the material more accessible
6.3.1.4. See It Through the Teachers' (and Students') Eyes: Coaches should think about how the practice will actually look in the classroom; when explaining how to implement a practice, coaches should work to remove stress and anxiety from teacher
6.3.1.5. Simplify: Making something simplified is not making it easier, rather, making it more clear; Coaches should help teachers determine importance; coaches should use stories, analogies, or explanations to help teachers understand
6.4. Model
6.4.1. The Observation Form
6.4.1.1. Teacher and coach should work together to create an observation chart to hold teachers accountable for watching. Form should include a place for the teacher to note the teaching behaviors they noticed.
6.4.1.2. Checklists of noted teaching behaviors may also be used, but is not as effective as observation forms. Buy-in will occur when teachers help coaches make the sheet.
6.4.2. Giving a Model Lesson
6.4.2.1. Teacher and coach should determine who and how management will be handled
6.4.2.2. Coach should plan lesson intentionally and thoroughly
6.4.2.3. It is more effective for the coach to model only a teaching practice with the teacher instead of an entire lesson
6.4.2.4. Coach should defer to teacher expertise often throughout the lesson
6.5. Observe
6.5.1. IC observes teacher after the teacher has observed the IC
6.5.2. IC keeps track of observable teaching behaviors, the same way that the teacher did when watching the IC
6.5.3. IC Keeps track of many GOOD things happening during the lesson to ensure they are comfortable having them again
6.5.4. Coaches record relevant data, whether it be tallies of a teaching behavior, or a note about something that took place
6.6. Explore
6.6.1. Follow up meeting should be scheduled soon after observation
6.6.2. Conversation should be built on mutual respect
6.6.3. Data is the focus point of the conversation
6.6.4. Top-Down Feedback: feedback giver is prepared to tell teacher what he or she is doing wrong; coach does all of the thinking in this scenario
6.6.5. Collaborative Exploration of Data: coach sits BY the teacher as a partner and offers advice in a provisional way, showcasing his or her interest in hearing other points of view
6.6.6. The Language of Ongoing Regard
6.6.6.1. Should highlight positive aspects
6.6.6.2. Should be direct, specific, and nonattributive
6.6.6.3. Describes experiences (data) rather than attributes of the person
6.6.7. Dialogue
6.6.7.1. Coach and teacher should identify next steps
6.6.7.2. Sometimes they will not agree on next steps; employ rules of positive dialogue to discuss differences
6.7. Refine
6.7.1. No two coaching scenarios will be the same
6.7.2. Coaching should be tailored to meet the unique needs of the teachers
6.8. Reflect
6.8.1. Coaches should carry away with them new learning from the coaching experience
6.8.2. Many coaches keep journals to help them remember: what was supposed to happen, what really happened, and why there was a difference between the two