As an education researcher focused on professional learning, I have learned that there are many important elements of a successful relationship between a coach and a teacher. Conversations with and observations of coaches and teachers have made many of these relationship attributes apparent to me. There’s no question it isn’t easy, and the coaching relationship must be based on mutual respect and trust. The teacher must feel heard and understood, and the relationship must be driven by the teachers’ needs. Plus, the relationship needs to be supported by school leadership and provided the time and resources needed to improve instruction. Effective instructional coaches help teachers track progress and measure success, which motivates teachers to implement the best practices they learned during coaching sessions.
Effective coaching partnerships are also grounded in a framework of instructional best practices and actionable strategies that help teachers connect their own growth to that of their students. The HMH Coachly coaching framework is designed to support this and includes five instructional domains:
- Assessment and progress monitoring
- Differentiation and small-group instruction
- Discourse and questioning
- Learning disposition and behaviors
- Planning and pacing
Assessment and Progress Monitoring
Coaching should be focused on curriculum and assessment so that teachers find it relevant to the daily work in their classroom. Ideally, coaches support teachers in designing and implementing different types of assessments that consider the needs of individual students (e.g., learning tendencies, learning preferences, language proficiency) to improve equity (NYSED, 2019). They work with teachers to review informal and formative assessments of students’ social, emotional, and academic development. They help teachers collect evidence of student learning from multiple sources that align with standards (Aspen Institute, 2018). Teachers can then use this student data to evaluate their mastery of the standards beyond traditional standardized tests.
Differentiation and Small-Group Instruction
Teachers and coaches can work together to use these informal and formative assessments to help with differentiation, as they allow teachers to assess not only students’ skills, knowledge, and abilities, but also their interests and learning mindsets. Coaches help teachers consider students’ individual learning dispositions, learning preferences, and levels of readiness and then help design equitable lessons that meet the needs of all students (Tomlinson, 2017). Small-group instruction that considers the full range of student attributes helps students feel safe and supported in the classroom. Because effective differentiation and small-group instruction require additional teacher knowledge and prep time, coaching is essential to its success (Weselby, 2022).
Discourse and Questioning
HMH coaches help teachers provide feedback on small-group and peer-to-peer discourse, which can help teachers improve students’ discourse and deepen their understanding of the material. Coaches can help teachers develop a learning culture in the classroom that values discourse and questioning by modeling asking questions and leading discourse that is designed to deepen student understanding (Kanold, 2019). Coaches can help teachers improve both the quality and quantity of classroom discourse through careful planning. A study of classroom discourse found that as teachers focused on increasing student discourse, the way that they planned for discussions also changed (Kavanagh et al., 2022). Coaching partnerships allow teachers to discuss and ask questions about instructional practices and can be used to practice new roles and model new patterns of discourse in the classroom (Shepard, 2019).
Learning Disposition and Behaviors
Another way that coaches can help teachers engage their students is with meaningful examinations of multilingualism and multiculturalism rather than surface-level explorations of other languages and cultures. Classrooms with these deep, meaningful conversations are more likely to engage students and help them develop positive attitudes toward school and learning. Centering students’ multilingualism through literature and discussions in the classroom treats their linguistic backgrounds as an asset to be explored rather than a deficit to be fixed. This approach can help to engage students who might otherwise be left out in a monolingual classroom (Ghiso & Animashaun, 2021). Deep learning requires incorporating new knowledge, which is more easily achieved in a safe and respectful classroom where students feel comfortable sharing or demonstrating their current knowledge (Shepard, 2019). Coaching emphasizing equity should help teachers implement instructional strategies in which students integrate new knowledge into their existing sociocultural context.
Planning and Pacing
HMH coaches ensure teachers center equity when planning lessons by considering the range of student abilities and including multiple opportunities for teachers to check that the pacing of the lesson is appropriate. Teachers can use their time with coaches to investigate challenges faced by groups of students and assess the impact of the instructional practices they implemented to address those challenges (Aspen Institute, 2018). I have heard from both coaches and teachers that insufficient planning time is a blocker for instructional improvement. Partnering with coaches who do not have other responsibilities and are available on-demand can help ensure that the teachers’ and coaches’ time is well spent on those coaching activities—including co-planning and giving feedback—that are most likely to improve student outcomes (Ravenell, 2019).
HMH coaches are true partners who work with teachers to determine their instructional goals and choose an aligned instructional domain that will be the focus of the coaching cycle. This framework establishes a shared approach to setting and measuring progress toward goals and ensuring teachers implement research-based instructional strategies. An approach that works well, and one that HMH Coachly uses, is to first choose an instructional domain. Then, teachers select an instructional topic and high-impact teaching strategies that are customized for the teacher’s classroom. As teachers implement and assess the teaching strategies, they can reach out to their coach through direct messaging and self-scheduling to ask questions, get feedback, and celebrate successes. The HMH Coaching Framework gives coaches and teachers structure to set schools up for success!
References
Aspen Institute: Education and Society Program (2018). Developing a Professional Learning System for Adults in Service of Student Learning. The Aspen Institute; Washington, DC. https://www.aspeninstitute.org/publications/developing-professional-learning-system/
Bancroft, S.F. & Nyirenda, E.M. (2020). Equity-focused K–12 science teacher professional development: A Review of the Literature 2001–2017, Journal of Science Teacher Education, 31(2), 151–207, https://doi.org/10.1080/1046560X.2019.1685629
Ghiso, M.P. & Animashaun, O. (2021). Creating multilingual classroom worlds through children’s literature, The Reading Teacher, 75(3), 373–377.
Kanold, T. (2019). Getting into math: Facilitating small-group student discourse. HMH Shaped Blog.
Kavanagh, S.S., Danielson, K. A., & Gotwalt, E.S. (2022). Preparing in advance to respond in-the-moment: Investigating parallel changes in planning and enactment in teacher professional development. Journal of Teacher Education, https://doi.org/10.1177/00224871221121767
New York State Education Department (2019). Culturally responsive-sustaining education framework. http://www.nysed.gov/crs/framework
Ravenell, A. (2019). Trends across instructional coach experiences: A Tennessee educator survey snapshot. Tennessee Education Research Alliance. https://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/TERA/files/Survey_Snapshot_Instructional_Coaches.pdf
Shepard, L.A. (2019). Classroom assessment to support teaching and learning, The Annals of the American Academy, 683, 183–200.
Tomlinson, C.A. (2017). How to differentiate instruction in academically diverse classrooms, 3rd edition. ASCD.
Weselby, C. (2022). What is differentiated instruction? Examples of how to differentiate instruction in the classroom. https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/examples-of-differentiated-instruction/
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