Practical Coaching: Mini Coaching Cycles & High-Impact Strategies, ep. 296

Practical Coaching: Mini Coaching Cycles & High-Impact Strategies, ep. 296, Instructional Coaching with Ms. B Podcast

Chrissy (00:01.772)

Hey, and welcome to episode 296 of Instructional Coaching with Miss V. Today we are talking about practical coaching, mini coaching cycles paired with high impact strategies. This is part of my Coach Tober series. It’s one of my favorite months of the year, and we love to focus on coaching cycles and coaching strategies during this time. And so many of these strategies come from my book, Expand Your Coaching Toolbox, which is available for pre-order with ASCD right now. You can head to buzzingwithmissb.com/slash toolbox.

Last week I dug into why coaching cycles might seem so difficult to make happen at your school. And we talked about some of the limitations and the challenges coach and coaches face, as well as some of the preconceived notions we have about coaching cycles, what makes them effective, what they need to be to quote, count, right? And today we’re going to take a separate look at a mini coaching cycle, why it might be a good fit for you, and how to use it.

to create big change in classrooms using high impact strategies with a very simple, simple model. So if you have been a coach for any length of time, you know that if you propose, it feels like proposing, right? A six week relationship to a teacher.

Watch them stress out immediately. They’re like, in six weeks, I don’t even know what I’m gonna be doing in six weeks. I don’t even know what I’m doing in two weeks. I don’t know what I’m doing tomorrow. And I’ve and I’ve gotta commit to this that you’re gonna be in my room three or four times a week and you’re gonna observe me and feedback and constant meetings and what is that even gonna look like? And they just start to spiral. And it’s a very stressful situation. And I don’t blame them. They are full of things that they already have to do. And then this can feel like one more thing when it doesn’t come up authentically and organically and and

make it feel and it doesn’t feel like it’s gonna fit into their teaching life. So one of the stories that I’d like to share is once whenever I was working with a teacher, we were doing some planning during a PLC meeting. We were doing some collaborative planning around some vocabulary that we were going to work with. And the standard we were working on was about prefixes, suffixes, and root words. And we were like, okay, how are we gonna address root words? We know that what, you know, we know what’s been done in the years past and and we have kind of seen

Chrissy (02:13.773)

How that’s gone. Kids have done okay, but they don’t really they’re not internalizing the root words, their meanings, and using them to read and write, right? So we were like, okay, how are we gonna do this? And we also have to teach dictionary skills. I mean, yeah, we could give kids a list of words to look up, but is that gonna do anything for anybody? No, it’s not. So what could we do differently? So we kind of tabled it in our PLC meeting because it was like, we we’re gonna figure this out, just not today. We have other tasks that we have to figure out.

And this one is gonna be something that’s gonna take us some time. So let’s come back together at another time. This was for the whole fourth grade group. So afterwards, I went to the teacher who seemed most interested in figuring out a way to do this that was engaging, hands-on, and memorable because we know kids remember what they spend time thinking about. So she wanted really for kids to use that vocabulary block block to spend some time thinking about these words and working with them and manipulating them and applying them. So I went by her room and I said, Hey.

I know you’re trying to figure out what to do for that vocabulary section of our lesson plans that we’ve been working on. do you have any thoughts about that? And she was like, you know what? I don’t I I just really know that I want it to be more hands-on. We have to integrate dictionary skills. How can we do it? And I said, This is essentially the pre-conference, guys, by the way. This is the pre-conference. I said, Well, what if we did

Like if we identified the most frequently used root words, and there were some listed in our standards, but there were more than that that are very frequently used. What if we identified the most frequently used root words? You know, make a little list and we kind of work through them over the next few weeks and we develop a process that kids use every time they get a new root word that helps them integrate it, like helps them reflect on how it’s used and under and like r connect it to other words for comprehension, for meaning and for writing. And then

also, you know, start to use those words in their writing and we move them forward in that process every time we add a new word. And so we kind of played with this idea for a little while and came up with a little sequence of instruction where we said, okay, why don’t we do a we’re building like little root word trees, right? But every every week the kids get a root word, or I think it was like every two days.

Chrissy (04:32.353)

The kids get a root word on an index card. It has the word and like the part of word the word and it has the meaning underneath. And then they have to go to the dictionary and use dictionary skills to hunt for other words that include that root word. And then think about the definition and how it connects to the meaning of that word. So they have I think actually we had to infer, I’m sorry, we had to infer the word, didn’t have the meaning.

They had to infer the meaning of the word. So they got the root word, they went to the dictionary, hunted for other words to add to other index cards like a little web. And then they were like, okay, for based on this, what do we notice about all these definitions? What can we infer the meaning of this root word is? So they would make an inference about the root and really draw a conclusion about the root word. And then the teacher would confirm it or or clarify it and say, yes, you’re right. VIS is referring to, you know, something you can see, like vision, visual, visible, etc.

And then they would add little sketches to all of their words that reflected the meaning of the root word, with which was in this case VIS. So they would do this process. It took two days, because then they would add them to their little notebooks and things like that. And they would repeat this process, right? That was our plan. So I said, Can you whenever you try it out next week, can you let me know? And she said, Yeah. So I went to her classroom and I observed the next week whenever she tried out this.

Lesson. Now, in the meantime, she had some space for independence, right? She went to the one of the dyslexia teachers and borrowed her big giant book of word parts and identified the root words that she wanted to focus on and created a sequence of instruction, right? So she was a very efficacious teacher. And so I thought it was important to make sure that she had opportunities to just try things. So she did that. She came back, she set up her lesson, she chose the one she was gonna start with. I observed. Afterwards, I was like, What do you think? And she said.

Yeah, I think it went really well, except I think we need to do the pictures before the kids infer the meaning of the word because I want them to notice the quality that it’s all related and all similar in all of those words. And the picture I think will help them do that. Excellent. Maybe then afterwards, after we confirm it, we can go through and highlight that part of a picture with a little highlighter to show how it’s related to the root word. Perfect. So she did that. We went through another round based on the discussion that we had. She tried that out and then eventually shared it with her colleagues.

Chrissy (06:51.027)

As a method for teaching root words and dictionary skills in conjunction. It was a very natural thing. It didn’t have to be a very formal process. And that is the beauty of coaching cycles is if we are thoughtful about how we are implementing these cycles and we are responsive to teachers’ needs, we can support a lot of teachers without feeling like, I have this really heavy thing I have to do. I’ve got to like put them through all this checklist and everybody has to be on rotation. It’s really stressful.

All you have to do is say, I’d love to help you figure something out for that. Can I come by tomorrow during your conference or after school? Or is Tuesday better, right? Give them choice, offer to move forward. And the responsibility for moving that relationship forward is on the coach. You are initiating that conversation that’s going to lead to the pre-conference, which is just a meeting, right? About what’s going to happen. So here’s the mini coaching cycle structure to help you have a framework for how this can work and how you can use it at your school.

The mini coaching cycle structure is simply a pre-conference with a teacher. You’re going to identify the goal that you’re working on together and the learning target. You’re going to do a little lesson planning and figure out what your classroom work is going to be, what strategy you’re going to use. And I’m going to get to that in just a minute. Then you’re going to choose your do your classroom work. Could be the same day, could be a different day, like the next day or two days later.

And then you’re gonna have a post-conference, ideally same day as classroom work or a day or two later. You don’t wanna get too far away from it because then people kind of forget what it was they wanted to talk about and they it’s not as relevant anymore. The six strategies that you can put into that classroom work section in the middle, because you’re picturing like a little hamburger, right? So you’ve got your top bun, your pre-conference, your classroom work is your little meat patty, and your post-conference is your bottom bun. The middle bun, nope, there’s no such thing as a middle bun. I guess there is a doesn’t Burger King do something like that?

The meat patty in the middle is your classroom work. This is where teachers are either teaching or seeing something in action. It’s got to be tied to a classroom. These are the six strategies that you can put into that classroom work section, and I detail them in my book, Expand Your Coaching Toolbox. Observation, modeling, and co-teaching are the first three that we always think of, right? These are three very common strategies that are used and recommended for coaching cycles. However,

Chrissy (09:05.643)

The three that I want you to add to your toolbox if you haven’t already. In-the-moment coaching, video coaching, and visit a colleague. Those three strategies can change the way you work with your teachers inside of a coaching cycle. So let me tell you a little bit about each one of these high impact strategies and how you can use them. Observation is whenever the teacher teaches and you observe. You’ve already planned the lesson, right? You already know what’s gonna happen, but you see how it goes. Like I did in my my example, right, with my fourth grade teacher doing her root word.

Modeling is whenever you teach the lesson and the teacher observes. And then you have this conversation afterwards about what they notice and what they can implement or change. Co-teaching is when you both teach the lesson together. Now I dig into each of these strategies thoroughly and give you a step-by-step process for using them and any handouts that you would need as well in the book. But I wanted to give you an overview so that you have an idea of where they could fit, like which teacher might this be useful for, what situations might this be useful for.

The next three are the three I want you to add that might be new. In the moment coaching is a version of co-teaching. But in the moment coaching, you’re not teaching alongside the teacher. You are coaching the teacher in that moment. So the teacher is teaching and you’re taking a step back from co-teaching. And instead of teaching alongside, you’re observing, you’re noticing, you’re asking the questions, you’re saying, Do you think that this would be a good time to do this? You’re saying, Hey, remember we’re practicing the the wait time skill. So let’s use a timer.

Let’s set the timer for one minute to make sure they all have enough wait time. Let’s all use a timer on the next one and I’ll flag you when it’s time to go. Or you are also saying, what do you notice? Are you seeing how many kids are prepared to move on? Are you seeing how many kids are struggling? Which kids do you think you should pull into a small group? You’re asking the thinking questions. It’s also called whisper coaching or real time coaching, sometimes even in the ear coaching, which is whenever teachers and coaches, like the coach uses a microphone and the teacher has a little like a headset.

So those are that’s a way to use in the moment coaching. The teacher is teaching, the coach is having small, short sides with the teacher, helping them think through their teaching, or you’re using a signal. Like if it’s just about wait time, when they ask a question, you hold up your wait time card from the back of the room and they go, yeah, I gotta give them one minute here. Video coaching is fantastic for the teacher who is trying to improve but can’t see anything wrong or can’t figure out what’s going wrong.

Chrissy (11:30.155)

In a in video coaching, you record five to 12 minutes of the teacher’s lesson. They can do it themselves, you can help them with it. Everybody has a phone now. It’s easy. But you do have to be cautious about your district policy, about student faces, et cetera, in terms of media. Just be aware of that. You and the teacher watch the video separately and record your noticings on paper with timestamps. At two minutes and 21 seconds, you said this, student did this, right? You want to see the interaction and the reaction from the teacher to the student.

Then you come together and have a dialogue about the observations that you see and you can that you that you both have noticed. Maybe you provide feedback the teacher didn’t see, they say something that they noticed, and then you move forward in your coaching work from there with an understanding of what’s happening. You can pick something to adjust. Video coaching is a beautiful way for teachers to see things. Try recording yourself, for example, in a coaching conversation or when you do a model lesson, you notice a lot.

It’s it’s sort of wild how much we don’t see in the moment because there’s so much information we’re processing, but video coaching can help us become aware. Visit a colleague is the last strategy. And I’ve talked about it so much on this podcast because it’s one of my favorites. It’s such a good strategy because you don’t even have to do that much. As a coach, you tell the teacher, okay, you want to see this in action. I know this teacher who’s really good at this, right? And you say, I

can set up a meeting or a time for you to go observe this teacher, teach this lesson, and then we can have a conversation about it. It’s not about providing teacher, the the guest teacher giving the host teacher feedback. It’s about the guest teacher learning how to do something from the the host teacher. So you go meet with the host teacher, you coordinate the times, you decide the logistics. I give you a step-by-step process for this in the book, of course. And then you go back to the guest, you say, okay, this is the day we’re gonna go. We’re gonna provide classroom coverage by doing this.

And or it’s during PE recess, conference, et cetera. And we are going to go observe this teacher, record our notes, has ask some questions and have a conversation about how we can apply what you took away into your own teaching. This is a beautiful strategy for teachers who are like, I don’t want you to come in here. I don’t want you to be in my room. Not in so many words, but just more by action. If they are pushing against you being present in their space, if they are like, you don’t have anything to offer me, that’s okay.

Chrissy (13:47.858)

from somebody else. Go see somebody else, even somebody they want to see, and that they will walk away with something and you can have a conversation that continues that current coaching relationship and furthers you getting into that classroom. So a couple of practical takeaways I want you to have. The first one is listen for those opportunities. Like I mentioned in that PLC meeting about planning and we were looking at root words. That was an opportunity. I could have let it go, but instead I went by the teacher’s room and I was like, hey, you know, what can we, what can we do here? I’m sure we could figure something out.

That’s the always be coaching mindset. Every interaction that you have with a teacher is a possibility to further your coaching relationship towards more impactful coaching work. The second takeaway is that the mini coaching cycle has a three-part structure. You can use as many or as few of these as you need. So you’ve got pre-conference, classroom work, and post-conference. That classroom work section includes six different high-impact strategies that you can use to be responsive, which leads me to my third takeaway. Be responsive to the teacher’s needs.

Don’t force them to do a video coaching, whenever it’s just not gonna happen at that time. Start with something that’s more palatable and you can always move in that direction over time. But if you try to jump in, I’m gonna observe you three times this week and I’m gonna be if you try to jump into something that’s too stressful, they’re gonna push against a relationship and they’re not gonna get the best of the work out of it. So start with something that that makes sense to them that you think would actually be supportive by giving them a couple of options and then really listening to what they tell you.

Instead of throwing yourself into this really rigid structure, listen to what your teachers need and respond from there. If today’s episode resonated with you, I think you’re really gonna like what’s coming and expand your coaching toolbox. This whole book is built around the idea that coaches need more than one strategy to meet teacher needs because all of our teachers are different. So why are we applying a cookie cutter teaching model to coaching? It doesn’t work, right? We know it doesn’t work for kids either, it doesn’t work for teachers.

So inside of this book, I share 20 practical coaching approaches from relationship building conversations to building alignment and knowledge to high impact strategies for classroom skill building and instruction so that you can meet your teachers where they are and make every interaction count. And that is actually out for pre-order with ASCD. You can also pre-order it on Amazon, and it will be available for release in November. So I’m really excited to share that with you.

Chrissy (16:06.854)

Next week, I have some of my favorite coaches, Nicole Turner and Gretchen Bridgers, are joining me for a fun little coaching panel on our favorite coaching strategies. And we’re going to continue our Coach Tober theme with that episode. And until then, happy coaching!