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Coaching to Improve Teaching
Mentoring and coaching are of vital importance when it comes to education. New teachers are essentially thrown in with the wolves their first year of teaching. Sure, they all have gone through countless college classes to receive their diploma, but until you walk into your own classroom that first day, you are essentially going in blind. In today’s schools across the country, mentors and coaches are being utilized to help guide these new teachers. Mentors and coaches have valuable knowledge and understanding into how to manage a classroom effectively, how to engage students, and how to meet the needs of all students in a classroom. These insights should be shared with new teachers as they progress through their beginning years of teaching.
The book, The Impact Cycle by Jim Knight (2018) states, “...I have come to believe that it is better for instructional coaches to know a few strategies well than to know a lot of strategies superficially.” (p. 101). In keeping with that theme of instructional coaches focusing on certain strategies, I’m going to highlight three strong approaches that coaches and mentors can use when working with new teachers.
Instructional Playbooks
One of the most influential coaching methods are instructional playbooks. Instructional playbooks are similar to playbooks you may see coaches use in sports. They are gameplans for new teachers that focus on certain strategies they can use in their classrooms. These can highlight many different types of instructional strategies, as long as coaches don’t overwhelm their mentees with too much information. The playbook not only lists the different types of instructional techniques, but should also give a quick synopsis of what that technique entails and how to use it effectively in the classroom. Below you will find a great professional development video on how coaches can use these playbooks to help new teachers find their footing in their classrooms.
Checklists
Checklists are one of my favorite methods for organizing my thoughts and ideas. Checklists can be a valuable tool in a new teacher’s arsenal when their instructional coach or mentor guides them through the checklist process. Knight (2018) states, “Coaches can be precise by systematically going through a checklist line by line with their collaborating teachers. They can be provisional by frequently by asking teachers whether or not they want to modify the checklist and change how they will teach the strategy in their classroom.” (p. 111). They believe that checklists can be both precise and provisional. Checklists are not an obligation, but further a choice where teachers can pick and choose what strategy works best for their unique classroom needs.
Modeling
Modeling is one of the first teaching strategies that children are exposed to, without parents even realizing it. Parents model how to tie a shoe, use a fork, throw a ball, etc. Modeling is an effective tool for instructional coaches to use in mentoring new teachers. Modeling can be done in a number of ways, the most efficient simply having a new teacher sit in on an experienced teacher’s lesson. This can also be done through video, where they watch recordings of effective teaching strategies in play. Steve Barkley, an education consultant, mentions this technique when saying, “Modeling provides the learner with a picture of the successful outcome as well as the process leading to success.” (Barkley PD, 2020). When a teacher not only reads and learns about a teaching strategy, but actually sees it in action, they are more likely to feel comfortable using that strategy in their own classroom. Below you will find a great video from the Department of Education in Pennsylvania.
References
Barkley, S. (2020, March 1). Instructional strategy: Modeling. Barkley PD.
https://barkleypd.com/blog/instructional-strategy-modeling-why-how-and-why-not/
EMedia Workshop. (2012, September 17). Teaching matters: Teaching modeling.
[Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvEcYOMl65Q
Gold EDU. (2023, September 20). Instructional playbook. [Video]. Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyVOhoc5vPs
Jocson, W. (2024, March 19). 7 things to avoid when using a digital checklist.
[Infographic]. Maintain IQ.
https://maintainiq.com/7-things-to-avoid-when-using-a-digital-checklist/
Knight, J. (2018). The Impact Cycle. Corwin Press.
Laura,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your breakdown of what is in an instructional playbook. When I first read about and explored this tool, I thought it was such a great way for coaches to communicate teaching strategies with teachers. I would have loved something like this when I taught in the general education classroom. Instructional playbooks make it easier for teachers to see a clear path forward, especially with complex strategies that could feel overwhelming at first. Having a concise guide that provides the “what” and the “how” is so useful to a teacher needing guidance on implementing teaching strategies.
I also found Knight’s checklists to be helpful for teachers. I liked Knight’s (2018) concept of making checklists “precise and provisional” because it’s a reminder that teachers should have the freedom to adjust these tools based on their unique classroom contexts. As Knight (2019) explains, checklists can break down instructional strategies into manageable steps, making it easier for teachers to implement them effectively while still allowing flexibility for customization. I believe that when teachers are encouraged to personalize a checklist, they feel more ownership and are more likely to implement strategies effectively.
-Tanishia Smith
References
Knight, J. (2019). Instructional coaching for implementing visible learning: A model for translating research into practice. Education Sciences, 9(2), 101. https://doi-org.ezproxy.montevallo.edu/10.3390/educsci9020101
Knight, J. (2018). The impact cycle. What instructional coaches should do to foster powerful improvements in teaching. Corwin.
Laura, thanks for sharing the additional resources on Instructional Playbooks, Checklists, and Modeling. I found all of these approaches quite effective in helping teachers. I found that many of my teachers are more open to checklists because they are so short and easy to reference when trying out new strategies. Knight (2018) mentions that checklists boil down strategies to their most essential moves. Putting together these checklists requires coaches to really possess a deep understanding of the strategy and how it can be applied to a specific situation to meet the goals of the teacher.
ReplyDeleteI also find it interesting how many other professions utilize checklists to ensure desired outcomes. For example, in medicine, hospitals use checklists in their operating rooms to ensure procedures are carried out safely and accurately (Kumar, 2024).
References
Knight, J. (2018). The impact cycle: What instructional coaches should do to foster powerful improvements in teaching. Corwin, A SAGE Company.
Kumar, P. I. (2024). The checklist protocol. IJVES Case Reports, 2(1), 1–2. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijcr.ijcr_3_24