Assertive Coaching: - PowerPoint Presentation

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Assertive Coaching:The Essential Alternative to PD

Steve

Leinwand

American Institutes for Research

NCSM Boston 2015

sleinwand@air.org

www.steveleinwand.com

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Let’s be honest:We are building and flying the coaching place at the same timeand

Most of our passengers (colleagues) don’t have a clue why they are even on the plane!Slide3

Consider:Tutoring vs. TeachingProfessional Development vs. Coaching

Your choice:

A 4-hour PD session with me.

OR

A 4-hours of co-teaching – observation, discussion, co-planning, debriefing, action-planning.

It’s a no-brainer if we are to make change!Slide4

So let me start to lay a foundation for assertive coaching:Slide5

Question #1Why would you tell a teacher whom you are coaching to differentiate,when you could be modeling differentiation in his/her classroom? (“who got the same answer in a different way?)Slide6

Question #2Why would you tell a teacher whom you are coaching about missed opportunities (“why?”, a chance to probe, a representation),w

hen you yourself could have done that during the lesson?Slide7

Question #3Why would you talk about using representations in the abstract,w

hen you could have drawn a bar model or silently gone to

Desmos

?Slide8

Question #4Why would you ever observe an entire lesson,And not provide oral and written feedback, an opportunity to discuss the lesson, and begin to craft an action plan ?Slide9

Co-teaching without co-teachingInterjecting myself into the class without being a distraction

“85”: The perfect moment, from the back of the room for: “Really, why is that?”, “Hold it a sec, can you convince your partner that it’s 85? [PAUSE] Go ahead and try it.” (becomes great folder for discussion about missed opportunities and reasoning and alternative approaches)Slide10

Co-teaching without co-teachingInterjecting myself into the class without being a distraction

While students are explaining or teaching is talking away abstracting, slide up to the board or the computer and capture the explanation with a picture or a diagram. You rarely need to do anything else to get the discussion focused on what you’re written or drawn.Slide11

Co-teaching without co-teachingInterjecting myself into the class without being a distraction

2 and 2/3: [and from the back of the room:] “Cool. Did everyone of you do it that way? No? Can you come up and show us another way? Anyone else?Slide12

For example:What is 8 + 9? Vs.

Convince me that 9 + 8 = 17.

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8 + 9 =

17 – know it cold

10 + 7 – add 1 to 9, subtract 1 from 8

7 + 1 + 9 – decompose the 8 into 7 and 1

18 – 1 – add 10 and adjust or double - 1

16 + 1 – double plus 1

20 – 3 – round up and adjust

Who’s right? Does it matter?

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What do you see?Slide15

What do you see?Slide16

Versus

Identify three things you see.

Convince us.

On your white boards, A triangle is:

Compare to google/

wikipediaSlide17

What is a triangle?a plane figure with three straight sides and three angles. "an equilateral triangle"

a thing shaped like a triangle.

"

a small triangle of grass"

a situation involving three people or things, especially an emotional relationship involving a couple and a third person with whom one of them is involved

.

noun:

eternal triangle

; plural noun:

eternal triangles

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It’s never good enoughDo it.Now do it well.

Now do it even better.Slide19

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For example:

Using models and representations

Siti packs her clothes into a suitcase and it weighs 29 kg.

Rahim packs his clothes into an identical suitcase and it weighs 11 kg.

Siti’s clothes are three times as heavy as Rahims.

What is the mass of Rahim’s clothes?

What is the mass of the suitcase?Slide20

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The old (only) way:

Let S = the weight of Siti’s clothes

Let R = the weight of Rahim’s clothes

Let X = the weight of the suitcase

S = 3R S + X = 29 R + X = 11

so by substitution: 3R + X = 29

and by subtraction: 2R = 18

so R = 9 and X = 2Slide21

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Or using a model:

11 kg

Rahim

Siti

29 kgSlide22

Tell your partner three things you see here.Slide23

Which glass has more soda? What

is your guess? Share your guess with your

neighbor.

and justify your guess. Slide24

What information is important here?

How would you get it?Slide25

5.5 cm

7 cm

3 cm

10 cmSlide26
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A Formative Assessment:Now draw two glasses with different diameters and show the heights of equal amounts of liquid. Explain your reasoning.Slide28

Your turn:Slide29

So?Order from smallest to largest and justifyWhat is the height of Glass 3?

What is the volume of each?

If Glass 1 has volume V, express volume of Glasses 2 and 3 in terms of V

When Glass 1 is ½ full, the height of the liquid is 3 cm. What are the heights of the liquid in Glasses 2 and 3 when they are ½ full?

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So what I’ve learned and advocate:It’s about the kids, not egos or thin skins

Of course we need to build “relationships” and trust, but “that wasn’t good enough” and “here is what is looks like” are often hard but necessary

Coaching as co-teaching

Written action plans with specifics are non-negotiable parts of the debriefSlide31

PAUSE:A Perspective and Some Coaching Frames

o

r

Why Coaches are IndispensableSlide32

A Progression of InsightsWe are charged with making math work for a much greater proportion of students.But typical instructional practice of showing, telling and practicing to get “right answers” only works for about 1/3.

To complicate matters, today’s world requires reasoning, solving problems, constructing viable arguments (SMPs).

Thus math classes must reflect a different set of instructional practices – productive struggle, alternative approaches and multiple representations, discourse, explanations, conjectures and justifications (MTPs).

But, this is different, difficult to do, requires time and risk-taking.

Which is why we must have collaborative structures and coaching to support envisioning, practicing and providing feedback as we raise quality and impact.Slide33

So there it is:Coachingand

Collaborative Structures

(about what?)Slide34

A Coach’s Field of Activity

The heart of ensuring instructional quality and producing high levels of student achievement includes four key elements:

A coherent and aligned

curriculum

that includes a set of grade level content expectations, appropriate print and electronic instructional materials, with a pacing guide that links the content standards, the materials and the calendar;

High levels of

instructional

effectiveness

, guided by a common vision of effective teaching of mathematics and supported by deliberate planning, reflection and attention to the details of effective practice;

A set of aligned benchmark and summative

assessments

that allow for monitoring of student, teacher and school accomplishment at the unit/chapter and grade/course levels; and

Professional growth

within a

professional culture

of dignity, transparency, collaboration and support.

(What, how, how well and with what support to do it better)

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People won’t do what they can’t envision,

People can’t do what they don’t

understand

,

People can’t do well what isn’t

practiced

,

But practice without

feedback

results in little change, and

Work without

collaboration

is not sustaining.

Ergo: Our job, as

a professional,

at its core, is to help people envision, understand, practice, receive feedback and collaborate.

What

we know

(but too often fail to act on)

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Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All

Mathematics Teaching Practices

Establish mathematics

goals

to focus learning.

Implement 

tasks

that promote reasoning and problem solving.

Use and connect mathematical

representations

.

Facilitate meaningful mathematical

discourse

.

Pose purposeful

questions

.

Build procedural

fluency from conceptual understanding

.

Support productive

struggle

in learning mathematics.

Elicit and use

evidence

of student thinking.

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The You-We-I Instructional Sweet Spot

Tell (Do Now)

Discover Show

* STIMULUS * Explore

Practice * FOCUSED Q’S * You-We-You

I – We – You

Think/Talk/Share

Record/Display

Mult

Reps

Discuss Alt Aps

Task Try Out/Check

Problem

* DEBRIEF *

Claim

(Exit Ticket)

Graph

Etc

.

Guided by: Why? How do you know?

Convince Us? Explain that please?

How can you picture that?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

OUTCOMES: Empowering Productive Struggle

Engaging Problem Solving

Learning Reasoning

Constructing Viable Arguments

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PD that models instructionStimulusFocused Q’s

Think/Talk/ Share

Record/

Discuss

Try out

Debrief

Co-taught mathematics lesson observed by entire department

Overall reactions; What appeared to work and why? What adjustments or changes would you suggest?

Record answers on flip chart

Which comments, insights, suggestions are most important and why? Public reactions

What two actions will you now take?

In summary, what did you learn as a result of this activity?Slide39

So let’s focus in on coaching:Slide40

My coaching touchstonesWas there opportunity for the students to learn? Why and why not?What evidence was there that the mathematics was in fact learned?What worked and was worthy of praise?

What didn’t work and why?

What opportunities were missed?

What growth nugget can I end with or leave with the teacher?

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My coaching frame:The four key elements of an effective lesson:

The Math: leaning goals, appropriateness, the big ideas, connections, common errors and misconceptions.

The Tasks: that is the tasks, problems, activities and their richness, alignment with the goals, their appropriateness, their sequencing.

The Instruction: how the tasks are orchestrated and conveyed: directions, grouping, who is doing the work, scaffolding, reviewing and debriefing.

The Assessment: the evidence that is gathered to determine how well the learning goals were met.Slide42

Pre-lesson planning:What’s your goal? Let’s be clear and specific.What tasks will support that goal?

Who will do what, when and how?

What evidence will I collect to inform me about student learning?

What are the big ideas, common errors, misconceptions?

What

to focus on and what to

skip and how to deviate

How to chunk

How to connect

Other ____________

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Coaching Debriefing Discussion QuestionsWhat I really liked was…. What was really impressive is when…

So tell me what your learning goals were for this lesson?

What your plan for meeting these goals? (that is what activities, problems, tasks, questions)

How well do you think your goals were achieved?

What would you do differently?Slide44

And based on this discussion:A clear action plan that is roughed out orally at the end of the discussion:

No more than three items

Based on the identified needs (the math, the tasks, the instruction and/or the assessment

For example:

You talk less, expect students to talk and work more

You work on on-going cumulative review to launch lessons

You identify stronger tasks and I’ll help you

You start employing exit slips

You read…… (that I’ve attached) and we’ll talk about this next time

A follow-up e-mail:

Thanks for letting me observe and discuss your lesson yesterday.

As I said, I was really impressed by or pleased that you….

So we have a record, there are 3/2/1 things we agreed constituted our action plan and what I’ll be looking to see when I next see you.

Thanks again for remembering that we do all this hard work to make a more positive impact on our students’ lives.Slide45

So let’s observe and critique Steve and EddieViewing lens: What did I do effectively. What would you do differently? Why?Slide46

The follow-up e-mail:Slide47

Mini-dialogue #1Coach: Have you considered trying ________?Teacher: Yes, I tried that, but it didn’t work.

Coach: ________________________Slide48

Mini-dialogue #2Coach: Have you considered trying ______?Teacher: I already do that. (conversation over)Coach: ______________________Slide49

Instructional EffectivenessMy Bug-in-the-ear experience last week:pictures,

graphics (parallel # lines)

contexts

(ramps and supports for similar triangles)

estimating

(more than 10 or less than 10)

student engagement/talk

debrief/evidence of learning

vocabulary – see, show, picture, ask

Big Ideas vs. answers and skills

Planning

(flow of problems, tasks, activities)

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AssessmentShifting our focus from how well was it taught to how well was it learned!You try it – white boards, clickers

Pause, question, answer, display

Exit slips

Common errors and misconceptions

Warm-ups

Quizzes and unit/chapter tests as basis for selective reteaching

Awareness of state test strengths and weaknesses

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Questions1. What is your greatest challenge as a coach?

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Questions1. What is your greatest challenge as a coach?2. What changes would allow you to be more effective?

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Questions1. What is your greatest challenge as a coach?2. What changes would allow you to be more effective?3. What do you do to address the need for your own professional growth and development?

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Questions1. What is your greatest challenge as a coach?2. What changes would allow you to be more effective?3. What do you do to address the need for your own professional growth and development?

4. From your unique perspectives, what actions would most help improve the teaching and learning of math in Tacoma.

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Next steps: Taking Risks

It all comes down to taking risks

While “nothing ventured, nothing gained” is an apt aphorism for so much of life, “nothing risked, nothing failed” is a much more apt descriptor of what we do in school.

Follow in the footsteps of the heroes about whom we so proudly teach, and TAKE SOME RISKS

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Thank you andthank you for the indispensible work you do.

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