Turning to One Another -- Learning from Margaret Wheatley

I recently reconnected with Margaret Wheatley’s book, Turning to One Another: Simple conversations to restore hope to the future. I’m so glad I reencountered this lost gem and was struck by Wheatley’s message more today than the first time I read this book.
She writes, “It is an increasingly dark time. It is difficult to do good and lasting work. It is seemingly impossible to create healthy change. But people are basically good and caring. We may feel distressed, overwhelmed, numbed, and afraid. But beneath these feelings, we still desire learning, freedom, meaning, and love.” She goes on to explain, “The intent of this book is to encourage and support you in beginning conversations about things that are important to you.”

This week I used Wheatley’s thoughts on understanding one’s beliefs with a group of coaches in Parkway, MO. Her work helped us unpack our beliefs and consider how this impacts our work with others. We also explored some of her thoughts about meaningful conversations and had several meaningful conversations of our own.

In these challenging times, it was refreshing to think about some of these more heart-felt concepts…a ready change from the frenzy of our daily work in schools and maybe something you would like to take on yourself.

Highlights from the National Literacy Coaching Summit

I just returned from the National Literacy Coaching Summit at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. It was co-sponsored by the Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse and the University and it was a terrific conference. A few highlights:

- In her keynote, Nancy Shanklin shared the latest research in literacy coaching. If you are interested in some recent studies, visit the clearinghouse website at www.literacycoachingonline.org.
- Rita Bean shared some considerations for coaching in her luncheon keynote.
- Many other thoughtful educators shared their work in the field, K-12.
- I presented on student-centered coaching.

It was a terrific conference that specifically targeted coaches. I plan to attend again and would encourage anyone involved in coaching to consider it as well.

Getting to a Student-Centered Coaching Focus

If our goal for coaching is to improve student learning, then we have to focus our coaching work directly on student learning too. No brainer right? The challenge is that many times teachers request a teacher-centered focus for coaching. In these cases, it is up to the coach to help the teacher take a step back to discover their goals for students. The following conversation is an example of how I help teachers shift the focus towards a more explicit goal for students.

Sample Coaching Conversation: Focusing a Coaching Cycle on Student Learning (Elementary)

Coach- I noticed on your survey that you are looking for help setting up guided reading groups. Can you tell me a bit more about this?

Teacher- I came from a different district and we used a strict reading program. I know I’m supposed to be doing guided reading groups, but I’m not sure how. I have all of these books to use, but to be honest, they haven’t left the boxes because I’m really not sure what to do with them.

Coach - Let’s talk a little bit about your students. How would you describe them as readers?

Teacher - They are across the board like most second graders. Some are reading and others are barely able to recognize common sight words. It’s overwhelming.

Coach- What are your hopes for your students as readers? What do you want them to master by the end of the year?

Teacher - I’d really like to see them comprehending whatever they read, no matter what level reader they are. I know that inferring is an important standard, and that is a goal I have for my students.

Coach-That makes a lot of sense. How would you feel about focusing on inferring, and we can do that in the context of guided reading? That way we can work together to set up guided reading groups, dive into your materials, all with a goal in mind that you have for your students. We can even do some pre and post assessing to see if we are on the right track.

Teacher - I love that idea because it feels doable but also like we are taking on something that I’m supposed to be doing.

Coach- Terrific! Our next step will be to figure out how we will pre-assess your students to see how they are doing with inferring, and then we can plan instruction that will incorporate guided reading. Why don’t we meet at the same time next week?

Teacher - Thanks!

Sample Coaching Conversation: Focusing a Coaching Cycle on Student Learning (Secondary)

Coach- I see that you would like to participate in a coaching cycle. What do you have in mind?

Teacher- To be honest, it’s my 3rd hour algebra class. The kids’ behavior is really challenging. I thought you might have some classroom management ideas that could help.

Coach- Let’s talk a little bit about that course. What are you working on now in terms of mathematical skills?

Teacher- We are focusing on order of operations. But that’s really not what I need help with since I’m following the district math program, and the rest of my classes are doing fine and learning the material. I need help with classroom management.

Coach- OK, I hear you on that. What sort of positive behaviors in your other classes would you like to see in the 3rd hour?

Teacher- We do a lot of sharing of thinking on the SmartBoard and I’d like to see the kids listening to one another and asking questions to clarify their own thinking. I’d like to see them treating each other with more respect. And, I’d like to be sure that they take responsibility to learn the material.

Coach- It sounds like a big goal for this class would be being learners that are accountable for their own learning as well as the learning of others.

Teacher- Yeah, I guess so.

Coach- How about if we focus on those behaviors with the class? The ideas you listed were a great start on a rubric we could design, maybe even with the kids, that would be how we would assess their progress. Then at the end of our coaching cycle, we can see how they’ve progressed in demonstrating these behaviors.

Teacher- I think it would really help to work with you on this. It sounds like we may come up with some good ideas.

Coach- I agree. We’ll get started when we meet in a few days.

What teachers bring as topics for coaching varies greatly. Elementary teachers typically focus on teaching programs or practices that they would like to implement in their classroom. Secondary teachers are more often interested in issues around student engagement, classroom management, and sometimes on specific teaching practices. I often advise secondary coaches to view student behaviors as rich topics for student-centered coaching. Of course this differs from teacher to teacher, school to school, district to district and it is up to the coach to design a conversation that uncovers the teachers’ goals for students.

Coaching Labs in Missouri

I just spent a few days with a wonderful group of new reading coaches in Missouri. They are a lovely group of committed and professional educators. In our work together, I was reminded how complex the process is for getting a coach established in this new role. At moments, I felt overjoyed and at others I felt overwhelmed, and I’ve been doing this for over 10 years! We used a Coaching Lab model for our two days together and it was incredibly supportive and valuable.

Coaching labs provide coaches with the opportunity to meet with a small group of colleagues and observe a fellow coach who acts as a lab host. The goal of the lab is to provide coaches with an observation of practice as well as time for rigorous reflection. Participating coaches walk away with new ideas and tools for their work and get a time-out in their busy professional lives to reflect on their practice. The labs require a host who is not necessarily viewed as an “expert”, but rather as a learner who is willing to bring something s/he is grappling with to a group of peers. They also require a lab facilitator who understands how to support both the host as well as the observers. Finally, labs require a small group of approximately 5-8 observers.

Last week we were able to observe a coach collaborating with her principal. We benefited from hearing the two of them work side-by-side to grapple with issues related to school culture. The other observation was of a coach as she planned with a teacher. This was her first coaching cycle and she wanted to be sure she was on the right track. The differences between the conversations reminded us of the broad scope of a coach’s work and the importance of providing support for each of these areas.

It was such a thrill to be with coaches in their own school setting as a group of supportive, caring, and dedicated professionals. Not only did the host coaches take away important new thinking, so did the coaches who observed. What a great way to support dedicated educators in a difficult job!

The "Big Money" Question

That teacher you have been trying to get into coaching finally comes to you and asks you for help in the classroom. You ask, “What is it you are thinking about working on?” And she responds, “I need help getting my first graders going in guided reading.” Your head swims with possibilities, after all, you taught guided reading for years and this is an area that you feel comfortable with. But then it hits you, there are too many possibilities…where should you start? You hold back from throwing out a thousand ideas and ask the “big money” question, “What is it that you want your students to be able to do as readers?” Suddenly the conversation shifts, and you are on your way to a focused and clear conversation that is about student learning.

Modifications for Secondary-
The same conversation takes place but replace “guided reading” with any of the following “classroom management, student engagement, or rigor” and you are in the same coaching place. You ask the same question, “What is it that you want your students to be able to do?” and you are off and running.

If I were to suggest having one vital question in your back pocket this would be it. As you get into a cycle, this question can be changed to any of the following, “What are we seeing that the students are doing?” “What do we still hope for among our students and what have they accomplished?” The bottom line is focus questioning on students more and on the teacher less.

Coaching Cycles vs. Drive-By Coaching

Coaching can feel scattered and superficial at times and this feeling makes the coaches I work with feel nervous. They aren’t sure there will be any noticeable outcomes from their work with teachers and this leads them to worry about issues around their own efficacy. A wonderful group of coaches in St. Joseph, MO coined the term “drive-by coaching” to describe the crazed coaching they were finding themselves doing most of the time.

To address this concern, we worked together to implement coaching cycles which I describe as:
- In-depth work with a teacher or pair of teachers, lasting approximately 6-9 weeks
- The focus of a cycle is determined by the learner (the teacher) rather than the coach
- The focus of the cycle comes from examining either formal or informal data and is ideally student-centered rather than teacher centered
- Coaching cycles include regular planning sessions, such as a 30-50 minute planning session per week and 1-3 times per week in the classroom for co-teaching, modeling instruction, or observing the teacher
- Coaching cycles are not predetermined by a school leader or coach, this fails to allow the teacher to engage in the cycle and it encourages the attitude that the coach is there to “fix” teachers
- Coaching cycles are a portion of a coach’s work. In addition to cycles, coaches facilitate small and large group learning for teachers, gather resources for teachers, informally plan with teachers, etc.

If you are a full-time coach, you can most likely take on no more than 3-5 cycles at a time, this leaves you lots of time to manage your other duties and also continue with some informal coaching conversations. If you are a part-time coach, than that number may have to be scaled back.

In future postings, we’ll discuss how to get teachers to participate in a coaching cycle.

I’m Worried About Becoming the “Assessment Queen”

So I was talking with a friend about whether or not coaches should be doing tasks like reading inventories, ELL assessments, etc. in the first days or weeks of school…after all, everyone is busy and coaches usually have time in the first few days of school. After some back and forth, we decided it’s just like eating ice cream… it’s about moderation. There is good stuff in ice cream like calcium, but you just don’t want to go overboard and eat it all day, every day. So, set limits. Offer to do a few assessments and be helpful, but let folks know that you have another role as coach and this is a short term offer of assistance. My friend also suggested that when the year is up and running, you should make it clear that you won’t have time for that and will be focusing on your coaching work. That way you are holding your role sacred but also building relationships and supporting your colleagues.