Assessing and celebrating growth, whether the result was modest improvement or complete achievement of the goal
Assuming that improving teaching and learning is an ongoing process, the cycle repeats throughout the school year and throughout the teacher’s professional career.
The coaching cycle, supported by a model of instruction and universal coaching, is the foundation of the coaching model described in this book. Upcoming chapters will explore the coaching cycle in more detail, as well as individual strategies and schoolwide structures that support the use of the coaching cycle. This book seeks to help coaches and administrators build or modify coaching programs so that they are strong and effective in helping teachers improve their professional practice.
Summary
Chapter 1 discussed change, why it is so hard to accomplish, and how coaching can be the vehicle for change in the classroom. This chapter also introduced models of instruction, universal coaching, and the coaching cycle. Coaching can create positive change in the teaching and learning environment and may be the best approach to getting better. Change is difficult, but coaching ensures progress for professionals as they acquire new skills to improve their teaching. Unlike other professional development formats, coaching provides situational practice and supports teachers as they add strategies to their repertoires that they will continue to use in their teaching. Chapter 2 will provide a detailed look at each of the steps in the coaching cycle.
Chapter 2
The Coaching Cycle
When coaches work with teachers, there is a cycle of events that help the teachers add skills and strategies to their repertoires. This cycle is the foundation of coaching and the foundation of this book. The cycle is simple enough. It starts with assessing the teacher’s skill level across the spectrum of the district’s model of instruction (establishing a baseline). From this assessment, a specific element of instruction becomes the focus for improvement (setting a goal). The coach and the teacher plan specific actions and opportunities for the use of the strategy or skill in the classroom (planning). Time for using and practicing the skill in the classroom allows several—many—iterations of refinement (practicing). During the practice phase the coach can leave the teacher alone or provide many levels of support as needed. Finally, the coach and the teacher reassess the teaching and learning environment to determine progress toward or achievement of the goal (assessing and celebrating growth); this step also includes a celebration of the change. Figure 2.1 shows a graphic representation of the cycle.
Figure 2.1: The coaching cycle.
This chapter will first briefly describe each step to provide a concise overview of the entire cycle. We will then explore each step of the cycle in greater detail, including options on how to accomplish each step and key points to keep in mind.
1 ESTABLISHING A BASELINE
Firstly, the coach and the teacher should determine what practices the teacher is currently using. This is the teacher’s baseline performance. Given the extant model of instruction, each teacher has his or her own set of commonly used skills and strategies. Each teacher has skills that he or she is good at, some that are weak, and some that go unused. Different curricular applications may require a specific subset of all available skills and strategies. That said, all teachers and students benefit from the teacher having and judiciously selecting from a broad spectrum of skills and strategies. And so, determining weaknesses or deficits and developing a planned program to strengthen them is always a benefit to teaching and learning. Usually the coach and the teacher complete this step with a short list of the teacher’s strengths and weaknesses.
2 SETTING A GOAL
The teacher and the coach then need to determine which change (from the list generated in step 1) the teacher will implement to provide enhanced learning for the students. Notice the word change is singular. When a teacher tries to change more than one element at a time, the effort lacks focus and little actual change occurs. If there are multiple areas to work on, the coach should have the teacher work on them consecutively rather than concurrently. When a teacher is doing poorly and there are many skills to change, it is tempting to really push him or her to accomplish significant progress immediately. However, patience is the watchword. The change must be doable. This approach is professional and provides support to the teacher without overwhelming him or her.
3 PLANNING
The teacher and coach then develop a plan so that it is clear what constitutes successful execution of the new skill or strategy. The skills and associated strategies need to be listed in words that describe what it looks like when the teacher uses them effectively with students—both what the teacher does and what the students do and understand in terms of their learning. In addition, this step frequently requires a concrete implementation plan. A lesson plan works well as a model for the implementation plan as teachers are familiar with it and the new skill utilization often requires teaching the students a new procedure, how it will affect what they do, and how it will enhance their learning. In other words, things are going to change in the classroom, so the teacher begins by developing a lesson plan to teach the students what is coming, how it will improve the classroom, how to access the change, and how to incorporate the new opportunity into their own learning processes.
4 PRACTICING
Practice gives the teacher time to implement the change and master the new skill. This typically takes several iterations. Some changes are easier than others, and some are easier or more difficult depending on the setting. For example, a secondary mathematics teacher who teaches five sections of algebra can practice up to five times each day and assess and modify the implementation over the course of twenty or so iterations in just one week. A primary teacher, on the other hand, may be able to practice during his mathematics time only once a day, for a total of just five times in a given week. In addition, some people are very flexible and acquire new skills with ease. Others proceed with more caution and require more time. In many situations, the students also need to practice and acclimate to the change.
5 ASSESSING & CELEBRATING GROWTH
Assessment of the change measures both the change in skill level and its effect on learning. This step of the cycle also includes the opportunity for celebration. If the school or district’s model of instruction includes rubrics (like those included in Marzano’s [2017] and Danielson’s [2013] models), it is easy to apply the rubric associated with each element to measure growth. Most evaluation tools used as a model of instruction (including the Stronge [2018] model) have scoring levels which can be used similarly. The teacher and coach can compare the teacher’s current performance to the baseline to determine growth. They can then celebrate growth toward the goal or accomplishment of the goal.
Once all five steps have been completed, the cycle begins again. If the initial establishment of baseline performance identified multiple areas for improvement, the teacher and coach can select the next goal from that list. While the five steps in the cycle comprise a simple model, each step can be quite complex in terms of the decision making involved. Keeping it simple requires selection among variables as each step unfolds. We provide guidelines for these choices in the upcoming detailed discussion of the cycle. Here are four general points to keep in mind.
1. Strategy and skill appear in the singular: The focus needs to be on a specific skill; if we attempt more than one change at a time, the change almost always fails. The cycle is
