Coaching for Results: Strategies That Work
Return - https://go.mgpd.org/cfr
In this session, you explore several coaching models and how you can best use one to scaffold learning in the classroom.
You will see how coaching can support strategic technology integration in teaching and learning situations.
Participants will leave knowing how and when to apply evidence-based instructional strategies and amplify their effect with digital tools. What's more, participants will see how they can coach colleagues in the adoption of evidence-based strategies and digital tools to support student learning.
(Revised: 09/2022)
Topics
- Why Coaching?
“When schools lack a clearly articulated coaching model, confusion reigns and a precious resource is wasted.” -EL Magazine
A Better Question: Why Technology?
U.S. fourth-graders who report using tablets in all or nearly all of their classes are a full year behind in reading ability compared with peers who report never using tablets in their classes.
Internationally, students who report greater use of technology in their classrooms score worse on the PISA exam
High levels of technology use in the classroom tend to correlate with lower student performance.
One recent study found that over a third of all technology purchases made by middle schools simply weren’t used. And only 5 percent of purchases met their purchaser’s usage goals.
The Reboot Foundation says, "Our data suggest that technology may not always be used in a way that prompts richer forms of learning." Their findings make these points:
Schools and teachers should be more careful about when—and how—education technology is deployed in classrooms.
Moderate use of technology is often the most effective for younger students, and
Experts recommend limiting the use of devices for young children
Technology seems the least helpful for younger students learning to read, and non-digital tools work better for younger students who are mastering the basics of language.
Digital tools that provide immediate instructional feedback can show high impact, and technology can be particularly beneficial for promoting richer thinking among older students.
Evidence-Based Strategies
Evidenced-based practices are those “effective educational strategies supported by evidence and research” (ESEA, 2002).
When teachers use evidence-based practices with fidelity, they can be confident their teaching is likely to support student learning and achievement (source).
“How do you know if what you’re doing in the classroom is effective?”
John Hattie developed a way of synthesizing various influences in different meta-analyses according to their effect size (Cohen’s d). In his ground-breaking study “Visible Learning” he ranked 138 influences that are related to learning outcomes from very positive effects to very negative effects.
Hattie found that the average effect size of all the interventions he studied was 0.40. Therefore he decided to judge the success of influences relative to this ‘hinge point’, in order to find an answer to the question “What works best in education?”
“We have no right to teach in a way that leads to students gaining less than d= 0.40 within a year,” says John Hattie (Visible Learning, 2009).
Much of what we do in schools falls between low to medium effects. These are usually activities that move children along, but stop short of accelerating their growth. The Barometer of Influence (right) identifies the different types of effects.
Or, as Mike Bell puts it in The Fundamentals of Teaching, the question isn't what works (everything does).
Rather, "What strategies work well?" Finding out how strategies fit into the Magic Formula is what we're about as educators.
Want to maximize student growth? Select instructional strategies that work best for different phases of learning.
Foundation/Core Strategies
Strategies that you can use anytime, regardless of learning intention or what phase of learning your students are in.
Teacher Credibility (1.09)
Success Criteria (.88)
Teacher Clarity (.76)
Feedback (.64)
Example: Spaced vs Massed Practice + Retrieval or Practice Testing
Spaced vs Massed Practice has us space out over time the intervals when we study information. This ensures that significant learning occurs. Combined with retrieval practice, you can make long-term memory connections for new information. Flashcards, practice problems, and writing prompts can improve learning. Learn more here.
Surface Learning
Content focused. This is where students learn ideas/vocabulary/procedural skills, and explore concepts. Introduce students to concepts, skills, and/or strategies.
SOLO Taxonomy: Uni/Multi-Structural
Student has a lack of understanding or knowledge of concept. Or, student has an idea of what it is but not what to do with it or how it connects to other ideas.
Example: Vocabulary Programs
One of the oldest findings in educational research is the strong relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Word knowledge is crucial to reading comprehension and determines how well students will be able to comprehend the texts they read" (Source: Visible Learning for Literacy).
Frayer Model
Semantic Map
Concept Sorts
Deep Learning
Relationship in and among content. Students consolidate their understanding, applying and extending surface learning after building requisite knowledge.
SOLO Taxonomy: Relational Level
Student can link ideas together to see the big picture.
Jigsaw Method (1.20)
Classroom Discussion (.82)
Reciprocal Teaching (.74)
Concept Mapping (.64)
Metacognition Strategies (.58)
Example: Reciprocal Teaching
"A deep learning, instructional strategy which aims to foster better reading comprehension and to monitor students who struggle with comprehension. The strategy contains four steps: summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting.
It is “reciprocal” in that students and the teacher take turns leading a dialogue about the text in question, asking questions following each of the four steps.
The Reciprocal Teaching Treatment
Want to see dramatic results in your students? Use reciprocal teaching at least three times per week for three months.
The creators of the Reciprocal Teaching strategy, Ann Palincsar and Ann Brown (1984, 1986) for just 15-20 days, assessment of students’ reading comprehension increase from thirty percent to seventy to eighty percent.
All four strategies need to be used in each 15 to 30 minute session to obtain best results. Learn more.
Transfer Learning
Transfer of newly learned skills to novel situations or tasks.
SOLO Taxonomy: Extended, Abstract Level
Student can look at ideas in new and different ways.
Transfer Strategies (.86)
Problem-Solving Teaching (.68)
Service Learning (.58)
Peer Tutoring (.53)
Example: Strategy to Integrate with Prior Knowledge
"The argument is that readers who establish more connections between a text and their prior knowledge produce stronger situation models, or cognitive maps of a given state of affairs. This situation model, in turn, is aimed to improve comprehension and recall." Gain these benefits when encouraging students to 1) Acquire, record, organize, synthesize, remember information; 2) Skim, identify relevant information, take notes; 3) Study materials for a test
Ready to see other digital tools and how the align to high-effect size instructional strategies?
Explore some of the key ideas in this session in this SketchNote. Amazing!
Mike Bell's The Fundamentals of Teaching
Two Questions To Remember
- "What will YOU as the teacher do?" This involves mapping out what ONE instructional strategy you are going to use.
- “What will you and your students be doing in the lesson?” Carefully select and define what strategy your students will be engaged in.
Remember to match the strategies you choose to the learning intention.
2. Coaching for Strategic Tech Integation
Weston Kieschnick defines "strategic technology integration" as the blending of high-effect size instructional strategies with digital tools. He does this through a five BOLD step process. You can find his original steps online. Below is an adapted version inspired by his efforts. Any errors, misunderstanding are mine.
-Miguel Guhlin (@mguhlin)
Action Step #1: Develop and Pre-Assess Learning Outcomes
Focusing on learning outcomes enables both teacher and coach to develop student-centered goals. What’s more, focusing on learning outcomes lets you connect to standards-based goals. Weston suggests several questions. One of the important ones is What priority standards will you focus on? If you were going to write these as “I can” statements for students, what would they look like?
Action Step #2: Select Your High-Effect Size Instructional Strategy
In this action step, you will reflect on the academic standards and skills you want students to know. Weston suggests asking questions that are quite practical. For example, which specific HES instructional strategy will you leverage to meet goals?
Remember to consider these questions:
Where are your learners in their learning?
Where are they going?
How will they get there?
Action Step #3: Decide on the Digital Tool(s)
For ed tech advocates, the rush to select a digital tool is strong. So many tech tools are available now, it’s tempting to use as many as possible. However, focus on only ONE digital tool to use with students. Later, you can app-smash but it has to be in service of learning.
Action Step #4: Craft Your Lesson Procedure
“Plan your lesson, every activity, thinking through what your students will do.” Words of insight from a few years ago via a colleague. I was in the throes of planning out a workshop that strained complexity. Whomever your audience for lesson design, put yourself in the place of your students.
Action Step #5: Post-Assess Student Learning and Reflect
What student data will inform teacher instructional practices? For many educators, learning to analyze state assessment data as a team is familiar. Others may find they need more personalized data. For this, they may rely on a variety of assessment tools, many of which are available online. Some are tech-based, but others can be paper-and-pencil or other.
The goal of these assessments is to gain insight into what students know before instruction. It is also to gain insight into what they have learned after instruction. Use assessments to adjust instruction as well to meet the needs of students
"Coaching means side-by-side planning and working together with the same end goal in mind - Learning!"
-Dr. Dawn Wilson
Explore Coaching for Results
Wish you could learn more about the essentials of coaching for results? You will want to read the Coaching for Results blog series. In this five part blog entries, you get what you need to know to be successful and begin. Grab and share the infographic to the right.
3. Coaching Models
It's amazing how many coaching models are available to you today. Here are some of my favorites for your consideration. Each face represents a wealth of fantastic coaching models and ideas. You can learn more about these and others in the Coaching for Results blog series at the TCEA TechNotes blog.
Jim Knight
Kim Cofino
Diane Sweeney
Elena Aguilar
Dr. Katie Alaniz
Want to dig deeper into these approaches? Here are FOUR approaches to coaching:
4. Tips & Tools
Get the ALDO
A tool for guiding lesson design for diverse learners. Use the choice board (right) to get you started on designing. It features four choices for each of the lesson design stages in ALDO.
Focus on a Coaching Tool: Diane Sweeney
A fantastic tool to use is Diane's Results-Based Coaching Tool. You can get your own copy of Diane Sweeney's Sample Coaching Tool via her blog below. Explore this blog entry on Coaching Labs to get a coaching conversation moving.
5. Resources
How do Jim Knight's Coaching Models and John Hattie's approaches go together?
On March 20, 2019, Jim Knight wrote an article for the Center for Research on Learning to explain how. It is a MUST-READ. Or, read My Notes on the article.
Also check out, Good as Gold series, Why We Focus on the Wrong Drivers in Education
Try It Out - Coaching Scenarios
Are you using a coaching model in your district? Maybe you are a digital coach or instructional coach, and you do this every day. Or, not. Why not have fun and give it a try?
Dice Debrief Activity (Optional)
Instructions
- Pair Up
- Roll The Dice using one of these free services:
- Share what your dice debrief is in your group
- Discuss with each other
Tip #1: Scheduling Coaching Sessions
Want to enable your coachees to schedule meeting times with you on their own? Take advantage of one of these Google/Microsoft Calendar friendly tools to enable others to schedule themselves. Make sure that you schedule your time as well.
Don't forget to set aside time for travel, lunch, and office time. Once others know they can book you for just-in-time support, they will be eager to take advantage of you!
View video - YouCanBookMe
Confirmations and reminders: Customize confirmation emails. Reduce no shows with email and SMS reminders.
Customize your calendar events: Set up how new booking events appear in your calendar. Include information entered by customers at time of booking.
Automated follow-up emails: Send follow-up emails after your meeting to thank customers or outline next steps.
Time zones automatically detected: Time zones completely solved. We automatically detect time zones so everyone sees the right times.
Pricing: Free for one calendar and profile; Premium – $16 per month; Professional – $48 per month.
Main features include:
Flexible schedule and availability: Set up a regular weekly schedule or customize for every week. Complete control over when you want to schedule meetings.
Duration and appointment padding: Offer fixed appointment durations or give customers a choice. Add padding between appointments for preparation or travel time.
Assistant.to is a Chrome extension that integrates with Google Calendar, letting you schedule meetings right from your compose window.
It cuts out the back and forth between meeting participants, making it a fast, easy way to book meetings.
Pricing: Free
Doodle offers a wide selection of online solutions that radically simplify the process of scheduling appointments, ranging from the group event “poll” that doesn’t require registration to the professional appearance with own branding.
Pricing: Free but Premium available
Tip #2: Virtual Coachingwith Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams
Virtual coaching, or coaching at a distance, simply means that you and your coachee are in different locales. This could certainly be the case in large districts or when coaching needs mandate a quick session that can be facilitated via virtual means.
Some points to keep in mind:
Choose what’s right for the situation
Text-based tools work for conveying information but not much else. Video may work well but be distracting in certain situations. Audio works well
Find a place that is private and minimizes distractions so you can both focus
As coach, manage the time of the virtual coaching session
Tip #3: Make Sharing Lesson Plans Easy
Using Google Docs, Google Slides and/or Google Sheets
"I like to use Google slides and make one slide deck for each unit to host daily lessons with links to videos, hyperdocs and other resources. You can link it in a Google Sheet spreadsheet to be set up like your plan book."
Here's another example of a lesson plan in Google Sheets:
Using OneNote with Staff Notebook
See two examples:
Grab A Sample OneNote Lesson Plan Template
Use any type of content – text, pictures, audio, video, ink, embedded files, printed digital paper
Arrange any content type on the page any way you want, just like paper
Use Tags to highlight important points, questions, or create your own custom tag
Collaborate with other teachers in a shared notebook as you build your lesson plans
Use OneNote to record and embed audio to guide the lesson
Use OneNote drawing tools to add visual elements to your lesson plan
Use digital ink to enhance, annotate and be creative with your lesson plans
Change the digital paper type of OneNote to college-ruled, graph, or a custom page template background
Organize and save your various digital resources easily from the Web as you create your lesson (Source)
Final Tip, #4: Discover Your Observational Note-Taking Strategy
All instructional coaches script what teachers and students are saying. Later, those notes are discussed with teachers. What approach do you take to organizing and sharing notes? Let's explore some approaches (Source).
Planning Ahead
Before adopting an approach, or using all of them, consider inquiring as to the teacher's description of the lesson to be seen. The teacher might want to identify a particular goal or strategy that more feedback is sought for to focus post observation conversations.
Approach #1 - Wows, Wonders, and Tips
The coach scripts out everything the teacher is doing and how the students are responding
Leave the room and write feedback for the teacher observed
List "Wow" moments
Write "wonders" in question form (e.g. "I wonder how we can facilitate group collaboration with hyperdocs?")
List suggestions or tips to address questions
Approach #2 - Connect the Dots
Make a T-Chart to record teacher and student comments to facilitate reflection on pacing and time management
Note connections on the right side of her paper
On the left side, she connects what she's seeing with what it means to her
Approach #3 - Looking for Evidence
The coach scripts out everything the teacher is doing and how the students are responding
Identify a particular goal
Meet with the teacher to review notes with the particular goal in mind to highlight evidence of that goal