BUILD YOUR SKILLS:
Daily schedules, lesson plans, and variations in instruction type are all areas of teaching that require pre-planning. Planning with teachers is a crucial step in setting the foundation for effective instruction.
During these focused conversations, the coach should prioritize planning lessons or activities in areas that need attention. This may be based on the teacher’s skill levels and/or children’s learning needs. Coaches can reference and incorporate learning standards and relevant learning guidelines to support the alignment between activities/lessons and key child outcomes. This can even help teachers to see how the instructional activity or lesson targets specific child-directed goals across an appropriate developmental sequence.
Competencies you might use include:
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- The coach uses content-focused language that refers to key learning objectives during feedback conversations (coach has to use domain specific language)
- The coach incorporates conversations about learning standards into reflective discussions to help the practitioner think about how their lessons and interactions align with key child outcomes
- Refers to relevant national, state, or program learning guidelines during feedback conversations (e.g., Infant, Toddler, and Three-Year-Old Early Learning Guidelines; Texas Rising Star Standards for Family Involvement).
- The coach shares and discusses targeted video exemplars as an alternative to in-class demonstration to show rather than simply tell the practitioner about new practices
- The coach supports the practitioner with articulating specific action steps (e.g., lesson adaptation) that are in alignment with their reflections on or conclusions about events and interactions
Mentoring Prompts
- “Based on your assessment results, let’s focus on planning a lesson around [x]. Let’s clearly define your objective.”
- “Does your objective align with the learning guidelines?”
- “What components of the lesson cycle are you struggling with?”
- “What kinds of things are you already doing that fit well with our focus for this plan? How can you improve them?”
- “Now that we have revised your lesson, what do you think is working well about your current plan? Is there anything you would like to improve or modify?”
- “I noticed here there is an opportunity to include [x] (providing actionable feedback). Does that feel feasible to you? Let’s talk through how it could work.”
- “What are some things I can help you with as you start implementing this new lesson plan?”
- “What’s working about the new lesson plan? What’s not working? Let’s problem solve.”