Build Your Skills

When guiding reflection with teachers, coaches are helping teachers to engage in a conversation about an area of practice. Typically, the reflection and feedback conversation is related to a previous opportunity to practice a specific goal. The practice opportunity is documented in some way for later review—for example, through detailed notes taken during an observation or a recording of the practice session, classroom or student-level data, or even a draft of a key document. We refer to these types of documentation as a “practice artifact.” The practice artifact ultimately serves as a helpful focal point for providing feedback and guiding reflection, both of which are powerful ways to help teachers see where they are in meeting their goals. Incorporating practice artifacts consistently in focused conversations can be a powerful way to support a teacher. Practice artifacts help to bring the teacher back to something that is relatively objective and not solely based on memory.

Teacher:

• Specific Teaching Competencies
• Adapting Instructional Approach Based on Student Response and Individual Need
• Reflection on Implementation Fidelity

As coaches, you may help providers with planning and/or designing an approach in order to meet specific goals. The goals may be related to students’ learning goals or professional goals. Examples include planning a new child assessment approach, planning activities or lessons, planning the rollout of a new curriculum, designing or implementing a new family education program, or designing improved indoor or outdoor environments. 

The goals for assisting with planning or designing is to help teachers to understand all of the elements that are needed for successful implementation. Essentially, these types of focused conversations help teachers to fully understand anything and everything that is required for the teacher to be successful in meeting the goal at hand. 

This strategy is considered intermediate to high intensity because it may require multiple touchpoints with teachers to see the final plan or design come to fruition.

Teacher:

• Daily Schedules and Lesson Planning Across a Variety of Domains
• Support with Child Progress Monitoring/Screening and Referral
• Building Own Professional Competency

Administrator:

• Curriculum and Lesson Planning

One way the coach may support the teacher with lesson planning is to share and discuss a targeted video exemplar. After reviewing the exemplar with the teacher, the coach can help the teacher to articulate specific action steps that are in alignment with their lesson objectives.

A learning exemplar is a brief, focused resource that provides a snapshot of quality in a specific area. Examples include exemplar videos of lessons or teacher-child interactions, templates for documenting and planning, or photographs of classrooms or learning environments. It is important to select a learning exemplar that is targeted to a specific practice. In this strategy, coaches use a learning exemplar to (1) build teachers’ understanding about a quality standard and (2) guide teachers to self-reflect on whether their practice aligns with the exemplar, and why that may be. By engaging in this reflective exercise, coaches and teachers engage in collaborative problem solving to understand any barriers to meeting quality standards. 

Using learning exemplars may be an appropriate strategy when:

• The coach can share a video of the classroom instruction/interactions when the coach is unable to model in the classroom with the teacher
• Can share a template of a lesson plan to support a teacher learning how to create intentional lessons

Coaches can use a learning exemplar in a structured one-on-one setting or with a small group of practitioners, who may benefit from hearing the perspectives and challenges of their peers. Coaches could utilize exemplar videos and documents from various sources when implementing this coaching strategy. 

Teacher:

• Highlighting Specific Evidence-Based Instructional Practices
• Improving Classroom Environments
• Review and Discuss Planning Templates

Coaches may need to use this strategy when they observe limitations in important content or pedagogical knowledge that creates a barrier to applied practice. This strategy can be useful when there are teachers across classrooms and/or programs in need of building knowledge and understanding in the same content areas. A coach can bridge specific gaps in knowledge to support practice improvement through conversations with teachers versus. requiring teachers to attend a training or workshop. In comparison to a training or workshop, a focused conversation can include specific or concrete applications to the teacher’s classroom context (e.g., reference individual students, awareness of classroom materials). If a coach has multiple teachers to target on a specific learning gap, a professional learning community (PLC)format can provide a forum for group discussions to fill  gaps in knowledge or content. 

Coaches can even consider incorporating some of the other strategies (like Using a Learning Exemplar) to demonstrate specific content knowledge. This strategy often requires time to develop the training, coordinate scheduling and recruitment of attendees, develop follow up activities, and deliver intentional connections built into the conversations. 

Teacher:

• Bridging specific gaps in content knowledge to support practice improvement
  • Increasing Domain-Specific Knowledge
  • Increasing Knowledge of Age-Appropriate Child Outcomes
  • Increasing Knowledge of Instructional Formats
  • Increasing Knowledge of Individualized and Differentiated Instruction