Supporting Awareness and Objectivity

Uses a variety of prompts as needed until the practitioner provides an objective description of events. This would occur prior to making judgments or moving on to solutions or next steps (i.e., describing what happened without the “why” it happened)

• Definition: The coach uses different prompts to help the practitioner objectively describe an event or interaction. The purpose of the prompts is to help the practitioner fully describe the event or interaction before the coach makes judgements about the situation, offers solutions, or suggests next steps. Why is this step important? Coaches can help practitioners uncover the “full story” of what transpired and piece together all of the details to uncover the full picture. Without doing so, judgements, solutions, and next steps may not be fully accurate or complete.     
  • Examples of prompts that a coach can use:
    • “Talk me through what you did at the start of your lesson.” 
    • “Who was there? When did it happen? Where did it happen? What did you say? What did they say?” 
    • “Give me the full picture. Where did you sit? Where did the children sit? Where did you place the materials?”  
    • “Describe to me what happened when you had the children sit down for your small group session.” 

Prompts the practitioner to provide evidence that children were engaged or unengaged during the interactions and instruction that are the subject of reflective conversation

• Definition: A coach can use a series of prompts (e.g., open ended questions, verbal cues) to help the practitioner think about and describe how they knew children were engaged or unengaged during specific interactions and/or instruction. The coach is helping the practitioner to use child signals as a way to understand the effectiveness of the interaction and/or instruction.
  • Examples of prompts that a coach can use:
    • “What are some kinds of child signals of engagement and disengagement?” 
    • “How were the children responding when you did that?”
    • “How were the children interacting with the materials you provided?”
    • “Where were the children focusing while you were modeling?”
    • “What did the children walk away with? How do you know?”
    • “Do you feel that your children were successful with the lesson/activity? (Why or why not?)”
    • “Were your children engaging with you/each other in a way that you expected?”
    • “What did you notice about the children during this activity?”

Uses cues to orient the practitioner to child signals during instruction to increase the practitioner’s ability to recognize children’s current level of engagement and understanding

• Definition: A coach may use verbal or nonverbal cues (e.g., gesturing) to focus the practitioner’s attention on specific child signals as a way to cue the practitioner about how the child is responding to the instruction. The level of instruction may be too easy or difficult, or perhaps even confusing. This may prompt the coach to cue the practitioner to pay close attention to how children are engaged with and understanding instructional content.