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Coaching 101: The Basics
September 5, 2011
My extensive background in the Direct Instruction programs written by Siegfried Engelmann has helped to shape how JP views our coaching process. The language of instruction is explicit and concise; our interventions are overt/direct/explicit; we use a model, lead, test (and retest if necessary) learning paradigm; we scaffold our coaching interventions based on the mastery level of the learner (in this case the teacher); we break things down into the smallest components possible and bring each component to mastery before proceeding. Coaching should be supportive supervision, not evaluation. Each coaching session, if conducted appropriately, should increase the level of trust the teacher has in her/his coach. I tell JP School Improvement Specialists that it is their responsibility to make sure that when they leave a room, their teacher should be more successful than when they entered the room. The effective teaching research on what works best for our children is also what works best for our adults! A learner is a learner, and in a coaching situation, the teacher is our learner, no matter the age. Therefore, if the learner has not learned, the teacher (coach) has not taught. The tendency is to differentiate adult learners from student learners. We, somehow, expect more from adults; when they have difficulty in achieving mastery of the coaching intervention, we assume it is their fault. In the same way we must never blame our children for not learning, we cannot blame our adult learners either. We must not allow our assumptions to cloud our decision making process as educators, and what we are first and foremost, are educators. I will be writing many articles concerning JP’s coaching model, but I will start with the first three steps that ALL JP coaches present:
- Glows to the Teacher/Students;
- Here’s What Happened;
- Schema- The “Why” for the Intervention.
We all know that anxiety can prevent learning. Let us put ourselves in the shoes of the teacher who is being coached, perhaps for the first time: her children are watching her making errors that another adult is “interrupting” to correct. This CAN be extremely threatening and it is our responsibility as a coach to make the situation as positive as it can be. As with all effective teaching, pre-correcting will accelerate the new learner’s acquisition of the desired behavior. Therefore, there should be a “background” workshop, presented before coaching ever begins, that provides all the schema and research necessary to understand why the coaching session is the most effective way of changing a teacher’s behavior and, therefore, the most effective and efficient way to raise student achievement.
First, teachers must be presented with, and must understand, the evidence that the teacher is the single most important factor affecting student achievement. If, as has been proven, the teacher is the single most important factor, then we must use the most effective and efficient tools to improve teachers’ ability to successfully teach all of their students. The evidence is overwhelming that coaching is that most effective and efficient tool and teachers who will be coached must be given a deep and thorough understanding of the research which supports this point (Joyce and Showers). JP also has a several DVD’s that show what the actual coaching session will look like. The more we can prepare our teachers for the coaching session, the more effective the session will be.
Children must be prepared as well. Prior to coaching beginning for the year, one principal at a JP sites goes around and asks the children who is their favorite basketball, football, or baseball star. Once the students respond, the principal then asks, “Who is that ‘guy’ on the sidelines who is always telling that player what to do?” Most students are aware of the role coaches play in sports. Our principal then explains that there will be an academic coach coming in to help make their teacher teach the best that they can, so that the students can learn in the best possible way. This principal then goes on to take advantage of this, and further relates how learning never stops- we all can always improve! This step can, in and of itself, lessen the anxiety on the part of our teachers since they now know their students will be prepared for what will be happening and won’t think the teacher is “at fault.”
GLOWS The same way we use management techniques to increase learning on the part of our children, those same management techniques must be used during the coaching intervention. To further prevent anxiety, the first step of any coaching intervention must be to enumerate the positive things that the teacher did! These “Glows” must be very specific, just as we would be specific with children when we are trying to intervene with a replacement behavior. “Good job” just doesn’t tell our teachers exactly what behavior they exhibited that was so effective. “I like the way you brought your group over quietly,” “I really like the way you asked the question and then called the student’s name,” “I like the way you move about the classroom so that you can have proximity to all students,” “I am really impressed with the way you modeled those Read Alouds for your students.” If there is nothing positive that you can honestly find, then praise something about the students. “Your students all looked like they were attentive,” “I like the way your students were tracking in their SS book.” These Glows must be specific, concise in their language, and honest. Otherwise, the teacher will not believe that you are telling him the truth and you have lost part of the trust factor you are trying to develop.
HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED: If a teacher knew that he or she was doing something ineffectual or, even, incorrect, they wouldn’t be doing it!!! No one WANTS to appear wrong! Again, we must rely on our background as educators. We know that schema and background knowledge is essential for true comprehension. We know that the best way to teach that schema and background knowledge is via explicit instruction. Therefore, in concise language of instruction so as not to confuse the teacher with wordiness, explain WHY you are intervening. (After the Glows) “Here’s what happened: I noticed that several students had difficulty responding in complete sentences,” “Here’s what happened: I see that some students are reading in a hesitant and choppy manner,” “Here’s what happened: These students consistently had problems with any kind of 3 digit multiplication,” “Here’s what happened: these students kept forgetting the sounds of many of these letters.”
SCHEMA This step is crucial to the coaching process. As we know, schema is necessary for in-depth comprehension. If teachers are simply asked to change a behavior without knowing why they are being asked to change it, the change will not be internalized. They will, perhaps, change the behavior for a few days, maybe a few weeks, but in all likelihood, the change will be short lived and will result in another intervention. If the teacher does not understand the importance of the intervention and the evidence/research behind that intervention, there will, at best, be a “dog and pony” show. The teacher will perform the desired behavior when the coach is in the room and abandon it when she is not being held accountable for implementing the change.
Once the HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED step is completed, the coach must give the evidence or research regarding WHY this is a required change on the part of the teacher. ALL interventions must have as their evidence, increased student achievement. If the intervention was based on a lack of fluency, for example, then the evidence, stated in concise terms, would consist of how vital fluency is to comprehension. If the intervention was made due to students’ lack of ability to remember sounds, then phonemic awareness research would be necessary to back up the intervention. Many of JP’s interventions are scripted so that the language of instruction can remain concise and consistent- just as we do with our children. The WHY of the intervention is essential so that teachers follow through consistently with implementing the change, and, because the goal of the coaching process is to make sure teachers understand why they are doing what they are doing. In this way, we make them engineers of instruction- knowing how and what to do to make their most naïve students be successful.
