Week 9- Part Three- Strategies 8-12 and Part Five-Profiles 1-6

Part Three- Strategies 8-12

Part three in EPL is geared toward Small-Group Coaching toward the Common Core and explores four (of the five) coaching strategies coaches can use with small groups of teachers. Here, grade-level teams are coached and asked to develop implementation guides which will be used to determine what should be taught, what materials should be used during certain lessons, what should be expected from their students in order to they may address the learning objectives of the Common Core Standards in both their weekly and monthly instructional plans. It is important to note that teachers must collaborate with each other to create this guideline and as a result they must be patient, a great listener, is able to provide and take feedback and most of all a team player. As a coach it is your duty to guide these teachers through the entire process. It may take more than one try but when they have the idea of what to do, then they are able to work on their own when it comes to implementing other standards. On page 92 an example of what an implementation guide for a grade one class was made/shared.

Have you ever made an implementation guideline with your grade-level colleagues? How was the process and what did you learn from the experience? If not, what type of grade-level teamwork have you been involved in?

Looking at strategy 9 and 10, it is evident that they can go hand in hand as they focus on student assessments for planning instruction as well as using them to reflect on instruction. Strategy 9, which talks about reviewing assessment data for plan instruction and strategy 10, which discusses examining student work are important traits effective teachers should possess. As indicated in our text, the process of reviewing assessment is becoming more and more complex and challenging for teachers, especially because they have to focus on teaching with the standards in mind. However, when literacy coaches are a part of these teams, whether data or grade-level, they are able to provide support for the teachers as they learn to use the data for planning and reflection.

When examining student work (for reflection), teachers may grade it or collect data for themselves to help with future instruction. As indicated in our text, in order for students to be successful after collecting the data, teachers must work together within or across grade-levels to become more aware of their students’ work, thus making their instruction better.

The text shares some reasons why teachers examine students’ work (p. 104). How often do you intensely examine student work and do you have a form to follow (p. 108) that was provided by your team? Why do you examine students’ work and how does it assist you for future instruction?

The last two strategies (11 and 12) focus on reviewing units of study and the implementing of a lesson study respectively. Reviewing a unit allows teachers to see how well their students have done as it relates to meeting the learning standards of that unit. In addition, when they have conducted a review, teachers are also able to see what changes need to be made, if any, to better their future lessons. When this review is done collaboratively, improvements can be made across grade-levels in teaching and learning. Last, when conducting a lesson study in a small group, teachers work together to not only examine instructional practices but also student achievements as it relates to the standards.

Have you ever been a part of a lesson study? What do you think about the four phases and as a literacy coach what do you think your job will look like during this time?

Part Five- Profile 1-6

In part five, we get an in-depth look into six profiles as it relates to some challenges literacy coaches may experience. The include, establishing and maintaining administrator support, getting into the classroom, working with hesitant teachers, staying the course, embedding coaching into other assigned duties and organizing for success. Each section provides useful tips and resources that can assist you in combating the challenges mentioned above as it relates to literacy coaching. On pages 197 and 198 in particular, I really appreciated the ideas shared in figure 1. and form 1 respectively. This goes back to last weeks’ discussion about pre-made charts and how they can be very useful to busy teachers. As a new literacy coach these two forms will be of great assistance as you try to show your support to all teachers. The charts on page 206 also present some very useful information as you try to embed coaching into other duties.

As a literacy coach which profile(s) do you think you will need keep close by because you are experiencing or will experience these challenges the most, and why?

As we continue to work on our PD plans please elaborate on how far you have come and what questions you may have. I am still in the beginning stages of creating my PD plan but hope to have a draft for you all soon (I think we said by Thursday right). As an alternative for my coaching practice, I had to create a few scripts and videos about coaching. I have worked really hard on these and the final product will be shared soon. I won’t say either of them were hard to complete but I will say that the work of preparing the scripts and videos were tedious and for the PD plan I just wanted to make sure everything was cohesive and appropriate so maybe that’s why it took me a bit longer to complete it.

Which activity do you plan to go in detail with and how does it relate to your grant proposal?