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Asking questions is a valuable coaching move, the centerpiece of the GIR model.   Questions can provide just enough support to push a novice teacher to consider new approaches or to nudge an experienced teacher forward in her thinking. But if questions are our first communication during a conference, they may put the brakes on the conversation rather than inviting contemplation.   To encourage productive discussion, listen and then “take up” a teachers’ story.   Tom Newkirk describes this “taking up” as a contingent response and says uptake is “a demonstration of connectiveness” (Newkirk, 2017, p. 83).   A coach who is skilled at uptake makes a teacher feel attended to; the teacher feels like her comments matter. There may be a tendency for coaches to say, “That reminds me of…..”   Such a response, however, shifts attention away from the teller.   Instead, we want to make a teller-focused comment.   We might say, “It sounds like you…..” or “You must ha...

Stacy is an experienced coach working with a teacher, Sarah, who at first seemed aloof and self-confident. Later, Stacy realized Sarah’s distance is a cover for her self-doubt, that her assurance masks uncertainty.   Like many of the students she teaches, Sarah is a vulnerable learner who sometimes responds defensively when recommendations are offered.   This week, when Stacy reviewed the lesson plans Sarah had shared via email, she was careful to couch her recommendation about the lesson focus within positive comments about other aspects of the planning. Still, when she met Sarah the next day, Sarah emphatically threw her papers on the table saying, “I changed the whole thing.”   Rather than tweak the lesson as suggested, she had dumped it and started over.   Stacy felt it was a shame that a lesson with so many positive aspects had been scrapped because her recommendation had not been received as intended.   We pondered together how such situations could be avo...

If you know four notes, teach someone who knows three. Dan Berkowitz Sharing our repertoire is the common lot of coaches. We recommend based on what we have seen, read, and experienced.   When teachers lack knowledge and experience in an area where coaches have expertise, recommending can be an effective move. Using a mental checklist of “3 C’s for Recommending” can improve the impact of recommendations. As you purposefully plan for feedback conversations, seek to be c lear, c oncise, and c onversational. Be Clear Although there are times when questioning to prompt or probe is effective, if there is a suggestion you plan to make, say it.   Don’t make a recommendation disguised as a question , and don’t rely on buzzwords.   Describe what it is you think could happen in concrete, actionable terms. What will it look like when the suggestion has been implemented? For recommendations, target something that can make a short-term, noticeable difference. Of course, it has to be i...

Shari Frost’s memory of a student encounter of the hilarious kind got me thinking again about how helpful it is to listen before speaking.   Shari tells about a first-grader who, in the middle of a small-group discussion, asked, “Mrs. Frost, how do you make babies?” While Shari’s mind raced about how to respond, another student provided with the needed answer, “Change the y to i and add es .”   Thankfully, Shari hadn’t jumped in too soon with unwanted information!* In this blog, I’ve often extolled the habit of listening before speaking, and Shari’s story was a good reminder.   During a meeting with coaches last week, a seasoned coach made a similar recommendation to the group.   “Ask the teacher what she thinks she needs to work on,” she said.   Listen before speaking. So I tried it this week as I met with seven novice teachers.   After observing in their classrooms, I met with these teachers and asked what they felt went well in the lesson.   Then...

This week, I was talking with a group of teachers about the constraining practices they are being asked to use – scripted, whole-class phonics instruction that doesn’t account for the individual differences of their first graders – some of whom read abundantly and others who cannot yet name all of the letters.  I heard myself whispering the words, “Close your door and teach.”  While this seemed, in some ways, to be an appropriate response to the situation, I realized at once how hypocritical I was being.  Isn’t coaching, after all, about opening our doors? There is so much value in going public with our practice.  When we open our doors, we see teaching as a professional interaction, not a solitary exercise.  Sharing our practice can have an immediate, productive impact on pedagogy.  As we open our doors and teach, and then reflect with others, we learn through the complexity and messiness of our real context.  As we talk with another, we think about w...

As Roland Barth, author of Improving Schools from Within , has said, “ There is no more powerful way of learning and improving on the job than by observing others and having others observe us” (Barth, 2006, p. 11).   Modelling a lesson in a teacher’s classroom provides the opportunity for observation.   Whether only one teacher observes or you invite the whole team, observations are an experience ripe with prospects for instructional improvement. Pre-Observation: Laying the Foundation for Teacher Learning Effective observation starts with wondering.   As you prepare for the lesson, ask about not just teacher needs, but also student needs.   Get together before the observation lesson and elevate the questions that guided your planning.   Tell the teacher(s) what you are wondering about now. Will students grasp the concepts as intended?   Will they have success with the mini-steps leading up to that concept?   Will they find the work interesting?   ...

This week, I am writing about mindful observation – observing with increased awareness and presence.   Let’s start by being present in this moment , wherever you are, while you are reading this blog.   Breathe in slowly.   Breathe out slowly.   Pause.   Center yourself.   Now notice.   What do you see? Look around.   Pause.   What do you hear? Any subtle smells?   Do you feel your back against the chair? Your feet on the floor?   Intentionally raise your awareness of your senses and pause before reading on.   How do you feel? When teaching, the onslaught of sounds, movement, and decisions bombards us, with little time available to process.   Observing, however, provides an opportunity to mindfully attend to what is going on in the classroom.   Jon Kabat-Zinn* defines mindfulness as “the awareness that emerges through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of an exper...