Key Action II.5

Determine the Plan for Coaching

What is the goal?

The triangle of teacher support includes three pillars: training, collaborative planning, and coaching. The resource Three Pillars of Teacher Support is a summary of how these three pillars work together to support instruction. You started this planning in Key Action II.4: Determine Expectations for Use and Collaborative Planning by determining your systems for supporting planning. The goal of this key action is to organize the plan for coaching, including all observation and feedback structures.

Why this key action is important

Feedback and coaching can have a significant and positive impact on teaching and learning. Teachers want helpful feedback and support—but they want that feedback to truly come from a place of help and to give them concrete ideas that will make a difference for their students. There is no faster way to undermine teacher confidence in new materials than to give teachers feedback that conflicts with the design of the materials. There is also no faster way to lose teacher trust than to judge their choices without understanding their perspective.

Explanation of language

We use the word coach throughout to refer to anyone who provides teachers with feedback and support. This could be someone with the job title of teacher leader, coach, assistant principal, or principal. All of these individuals—and anyone who supports their work—need to be on the same page about what they are looking for in classrooms. We use the term walkthrough tool to describe what you look for on a daily basis when you observe instruction. We include questions about evaluation structures (how a teacher’s performance is evaluated) in this key action because the core intent of evaluation is improvement. We know that these are loaded terms and structures and that they can vary from district to district.

steps

guiding questions

notes & resources

  • 1.
    What structures do we currently have in place for coaching?
  • 2.
    Who receives coaching? How often?
  • 3.
    Who does the coaching?
  • 4.
    What do coaches currently look for when they go into classrooms?
  • 5.
    How do teachers get feedback from coaches? What is the focus of the feedback? What do they do with it?
  • 6.
    How are coaches currently trained and coached?
  • Coaches can include individuals with that title, assistant principals, principals, or teacher leaders.
  • The answers to these questions may vary from school to school.
  • You can use this exercise as an opportunity to understand what your teachers believe the expectations to be and survey them on what they experience their coaches and evaluators to be looking for based on the feedback they receive. The resource Teacher Survey on Coaching Experience is a survey that you can send to teachers.
  • Those who are in coaching roles have a wide range of responsibilities, and there is no given path for training and certification for these roles. The answers to these questions may vary from coach to coach.
  • 7.
    What do we currently observe as part of teacher evaluation?
  • 8.
    What do evaluators look for when they go into classrooms?
  • 9.
    How do evaluators provide feedback?
  • 10.
    How are evaluators trained and supported?
  • Your evaluation instruments will anchor a significant amount of the feedback given to teachers across the year, and it is worth the time to make sure they support the vision of instruction in your new materials. Knowing and naming the potential areas of tension are the first steps.

 

  • 1.
    What about the design of this curriculum matches our coaching and/or evaluation framework?
  • 2.
    What about the design of this curriculum does not match our coaching and/or evaluation framework?
  • 3.
    Does the curriculum developer make any recommendations for what to look for in observations?
  • Most coaching and evaluation frameworks are broad enough to match well with all curricula, but sometimes features of a curriculum (the way grouping is suggested or the way students discover the meaning rather than the teacher presenting it) can lean toward or away from certain indicators. Identifying these leanings allows coaches and evaluators to be aware of the design compatibility and establish a common approach to the evidence they should look for in observations. Sharing what you have done to ensure the coaching framework aligns with the curriculum will invest teachers; however, not thinking through these tensions and sending mixed signals will disinvest teachers.
  • 4.
    Given our vision and the design of the materials, what should coaches look for in observations?
  • 5.
    What should coaches do with the feedback?
  • 6.
    Who will get coaching? How often?
  • 7.
    Who will provide the coaching?
  • 8.
    Given our vision and the design of these materials, what should we look for in our evaluations (or what evidence do we want to focus on)?
  • Evaluation instruments can be hard to change, and it may not be necessary to do so. Adjusting the evidence look-fors or clarifying what evaluators should consider when reviewing indicators can allow for coherence. Aligning Evaluation and Curriculum gives an overview of how to ensure that evaluation and curriculum support each other.
  • 1.
    What do coaches need to know about the design of the materials before conducting an observation?
  • 2.
    What do coaches need to do after each observation to prepare for the coaching conversation?
  • 3.
    What resources, support, and feedback will coaches need to do this work well?
  • 4.
    How will we provide that support to coaches?
  • It is hard to conduct a good observation of a teacher using strong materials without studying those materials prior to the lesson. This is often a change in habit for coaches and evaluators. Help launch this practice early. The resource Coach Curriculum Training outlines topics for coach training and support.
  • Coaches will need to think about how to give curriculum-specific feedback to teachers. The best way to make sure that teachers are getting great feedback is to make sure that your coaches are getting feedback. Don’t overcomplicate this—and look for ways to bring people together to learn from each other. Leverage the capacity you have (or the capacity right near you). The resource Coaching Support outlines best practices for coaches giving feedback and support to teachers and for leaders giving feedback and support to coaches.
  • 1.
    What are the next steps that we need to take to set up our coaching work based on the decisions we made together?
  • 2.
    What can we add to our roles and responsibilities tracker based on the work we outlined for coaching?
  • Go back to your Implementation Plan to track your next steps and add to your roles and responsibilities tracker.
  • 3.
    What training or key information will all teachers using this curriculum need prior to launching the materials in order to be ready to engage in coaching?
  • 4.
    What training or key information will all coaches and leaders supporting this curriculum need prior to launching the materials to be ready to support coaching?
  • Throughout Phase II, you will track the training needs at the end of every step, and in II.6: Determine the Plan for Training Teachers and Leaders you will prioritize and sequence these needs.
  • Remember to track all of the needs as you go in your Implementation Plan.
  • 5.
    What additional resources (e.g., time, materials, personnel) might be needed to carry out the work we outlined in this key action?
  • 6.
    How do we plan to proactively communicate this information? What questions do we expect we will get? How will we answer them?
  • When thinking about communication, many people found it helpful to think about the three support pieces (i.e., training, planning, and coaching) together so that stakeholders are getting all the information they need in one communication. Key Action II.7 provides an opportunity to do so. Thinking through communication needs around coaching here will prepare you for that step.
  • Add notes to the communications section of your Implementation Plan.
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Workbook

This workbook is designed to help a school or system leadership team work through the implementation process together. Assemble your team, print or download the workbook, find your starting point, and dig in together.

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