The Instructional Coach Academy

“Students need to read like writers and they need to write like readers.” ― Kelly Gallagher

The current craze in education is around giving students choice in what they read in an attempt to get them excited about reading again. This idea as basic as it has “lit” a fire in teachers in demanding that students have a variety of texts to read in (and out) of class. As a teacher and avid reader, I understand the thrill of loving a book and being able to emulate that feeling with students.  The intense joy of putting a book in the hands of a reluctant reader and them not only devouring the text but asking for more books that they see themselves in is what all teachers crave.

However, while the conversation of choice in reading is one that must happen in K-12 classrooms across the world, there’s one missing piece from this conversation that continues to get lost- the lack of books in schools.

In order to have a culture of reading in a building, schools must be willing to invest in books for all students to read. I’m not talking about a small donation from parents or the occasional gift of 10 copies of a popular chapter from the school PTA/PTO, or those times when kids go out and buy books they love, but I’m talking about something more.

Something such as principals and Central Office officials restructuring their budgets to make buying books for schools a requirement- not an option.

As a former Literacy Coach and Coordinator, I’ve been in hundreds of classrooms around the Southeast and one of the most pressing issues inside classrooms focused on improving literacy is that there are simply not enough books for the students to read. This fundamental flaw underlies most of the problems in the classroom because when students don’t have something they love in their hands, instances of misbehavior increase, and gradually students become more and more apathetic toward school. To make matters worse, schools invest a large part of their budgets on standardized testing- the antithesis of what research says helps students. Specifically, in 2012, standardized testing cost states upwards of $1.7 billion a year overall, according to a  report on assessment finances.

That’s $1.7 billion dollars that could be spent on not only more books for students, but would allow students to have reading corners in their classes, or even expose them to communities and situations that only literature can make come alive. Instead, I’ve been in far too many classrooms where not only are the classroom libraries barren, but any new books they have been blessed with have the highest restrictions possible- that would make the most voracious reader not want to read- so that teachers can keep their novels sets readable because they know it’ll be years before they get replacements. Or, instead of novels, teachers are given textbooks that prescribe the same literature to a new group of students every single year until they fall apart.

In one classroom I recently visited, the novels were in such disarray that students could no longer distinguish the title of the books. The teacher tried to work her magic by going to the local thrift store to find titles, but to her frustration, the titles she found were far from what interested her students.

In another class, the classroom library was a little better, but the teacher sheepishly admitted to me that she only had classroom sets of the text so students could only read in class and that if they wanted to check out books, she had to tell them no, because if they didn’t return them she would be charged for them at the end of the year. She lamented that students were forced to use outdated (and culturally dead) textbooks that made them HATE reading even more.

As I listened to her plight, all I could think was, “when did we get to this point?” When did everything else (test prep, exorbitant salaries of the high-ups, senseless programs that no one will ever use, etc.) become more important than making sure our schools were literacy-rich centers of learnings around books? When did our school libraries become victim to budget battles leaving them barren to the memories we have of our childhood of walking into our neighborhood library and being immediately mesmerized by the sheer amount of books? Even though I can’t pinpoint the exact breakdown in the love for literature, the solution is clear- books must be put in the hands of teachers/students at every chance.

As we think about this shift in budgeting, it’s critical to know that our purchases should reflect the diversity found in the world with titles such as The Hate You Give or American Street so that we can help make our student’s worlds bigger. Also, there should be less of an emphasis on our students and their reading levels and connect them to a text that they identify with and want to read.

It’s not an easy choice. Principals and school officials may have to make some hard decisions, but putting books in the hands of students can never be a bad decision. So start with these solutions:

1. Help the principals examine the consumables that are spent each year by departments. We all know that with the belief that schools must perform on standardized exams schools spent a notable amount of funds on test-prep materials. Before “signing off” on their purchase, really ask your teachers if they will help students become better readers or are they a band-aid for the problem of students not reading enough. If it’s the latter, then students don’t become better readers through test-prep practices, instead, they become better readers by reading.
2. Ask each department/grade level in your school to find texts that can make their content more accessible. Give the teachers flexibility in that there may be a great graphic novel on 3D Instruction that your science teachers may want- buy it for the students. Also, remember that texts don’t necessarily mean novels sets- it can mean magazine subscriptions, comics, etc.
3. Kids can’t access technology properly if they struggle with reading- so for every technology request, order more books. Involve your principal PTA, Amazon Wishlist, and your local thrift store to get more volume in your kid’s hands. Have summer fundraisers where stakeholders donate books. Enter contests all with the intent of putting more books in the hands of your students.

So as we ‘inch’ towards the end of the year, ask your principal and other district officials to examine their school budgets and for every “test prep” item, we ask that they fill those with books for students and continue until their schools are truly epicenters of literacy.

This year I did what many teachers fear the most,  I went over to the dark side of school administration in the form of being an Instructional Coach. As  I transitioned into this role, I thought surely that this would give me more time to reflect and “cool my heels” -things that I rarely was able to do as a teacher. Working with new and older teachers was not anything new, I had always unofficially “coached” teachers on effective classroom practices, but what would be new was the idea of not having a classroom to dictate my time on a daily basis.

As I readied for my first day in this role, I knew the type of  Coach I wanted to be- one who went above and beyond in supporting teachers in all aspects of teaching especially being able to give immediate feedback. As a classroom teacher I can remember people coming into my room with clipboards and walking around examining not only what I was doing in class, but inspecting my Word Wall, Quality Student work and the other things on the standards-based classroom list. They would only stay for a while, but I was always confused because rarely did I receive feedback. When I happened to receive feedback it was so general that it was of no use to me and my teaching practices.  According to Teaching in Focus,  the appraisal and feedback that a teacher receives is just one of the many factors that can influence his or her feelings of self-efficacy. However the content of the appraisal is equally important when provided feedback on certain aspects of their teaching, teachers can directly target portions of their teaching where they are less confident.

Consequently, giving teachers timely feedback is crucial for both veteran and newer teachers in further honing their educational practices.

So as a Coach, how can you give effective feedback when your time is pulled in literally twenty directions? Follow these simple tips to guide your practice of giving teachers quality feedback:

1. Visit classrooms for varying amounts of time each visit. Visiting a classroom is an integral part of being a good Instructional Coach, but what about the time that you visit in each classroom? At the minimum, when I visit classrooms I stay for at least thirty minutes in a ninety-minute block. This gives me time to see the direction of a teachers lesson and have time to interact with students and their learning. If I come in for anything less than thirty minutes then I’m looking for specific things such as a lesson opening and/or closing, grouping or use of guided practice.  In addition, I always make sure to visit teachers frequently so that I have a clear picture of what my teachers are doing in the classroom. In addition to visiting classrooms often, I try and go at different times during the day to make sure I’m getting a clear picture of the class loads teachers have during the day. While it’s important to visit multiple classrooms throughout the day, it is equally important to give timely feedback to teachers. As a rule of thumb, I give feedback within 24 hours of me visiting the class.

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Originally posted on The Educator’s Room

By Katie Sluiter

Many teachers consider themselves to be coaches rather than just instructors. We are not just imparting knowledge, but we are there to mentor our students and develop them into becoming better thinkers, writers, readers, doers.  We don’t bark orders, rather we kneel down and workshop papers and assist in labs and calculations. It is reasonable to assume that teachers would want to be the best coaches possible for their students; however, demanding schedules of lesson planning, assessment-creation, grading, and data digging leave little time for teachers to engage in seeking out resources or new strategies. This is why instructional coaches are becoming valuable in the districts that provide them.

The junior high where I teach in a Title 1 urban district in West Michigan decided to allocate some of our Title 1 Grant funds to providing four instructional coaches (one in each core area: math, science, English language arts, and social studies). Our coaches, who are all participating voluntarily, are all current veteran teachers in our building who have a history of strong educational practices.

I’ve brought up the idea of instructional coaches in other educator circles and was surprised that there was pushback and misinformation about the role they play in helping teachers be better at what they do in the classroom. From my admittedly limited perspective of working with our coaches during the first semester, I have seen many advantages to bring Instructional Coaches into the classroom.

Collaboration

In our school, our instructional coaches get an extra release hour on top of their planning hour to work on instructional coach responsibilities. This means they teach four classes (we are on a six-hour-plus lunch daily schedule), have a prep for their own teaching responsibilities and an additional hour for coaching. All four of our instructional coaches cite collaboration with their department and other departments as the number one thing on which they spend their coaching time.

From personal experience, I have been working with our ELA coach to develop curriculum for the 8th grade ELA classes. We’ve created fun activities like Book Tastings and World Read Aloud Day activities, as well as brainstorming better ways to assess our standards. I have also worked with our math coach on how I can better incorporate math in my classroom because one of our district goals is math across the curriculum.

Our ELA coach has worked across disciplines (specifically with the Health and PE teachers, but also in conjunction with Social Studies) to boost writing across the curriculum, and our science coach is devoted to working with her department on the new Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and what that implementation will look like. Our Social Studies coach has worked with some of our newer staff on creative and engaging ways to make history come alive as well as how to create more relevant assessments. Our math coach has even worked with one of our band directors on a collaboration of creating a “Music and Math” class for next year.

Research and Resources

I have often heard teachers complain that while they know there are really good ideas and resources “out there,” but they simply do not have the time to find and vet them. Instructional coaches do! Weekly we get emails from our coaches about internet resources and research that supports our best practice strategies.

When the 8th-grade team decided to try a Book Tasting Event with our students, it was our instructional coach who found the resources, reserved the Media Center for us, and created the materials we would need.

Our math coach provides her department with resources for state test prep, using questioning strategies related to their “8 standards for mathematical practices,” and the most innovative teaching and technology strategies that relate to math instruction.

Observation & Feedback

All of the instructional coaches have stated that one of the first things they did was get into classrooms to see firsthand the practices that were going on already in our building. They were very eager to share all the good things they saw that largely go otherwise unnoticed since teachers don’t tend to toot their own horns. Our math coach, for instance, could specify something awesome every single teacher in her department was doing.

Some teachers balk at the idea of having a coach observe them, feeling that they are being scrutinized. That is understandable given the trauma of judgment teachers often have to endure from the public and even from well-meaning administrators and the evaluation systems that are in place. However, in my experience with coaches, I have found that they are not there to “catch you,” so much as to get an idea of the great things that are already happening and be an outside observer of something you choose to have them coach you on.

Sometimes it’s behavior management, but more often it’s actual instructional practices. Our ELA coach has been invited into numerous classrooms to observe and then collaborate on lessons focused on the writing process and close and critical reading.

Our science coach is also observing what is currently being done in science classrooms so she can help teachers adapt their units when the NGSS rolls out next year.

Demo Lessons & Teaching Strategies

Sometimes the observations lead to a quick meeting or email giving feedback, but in some cases more in-depth collaboration occurs. One of the most specific examples of this comes from our ELA coach. She was able to observe one of our newer Health teachers and discuss the class’s paper on Character Values. She worked with him on how to make the assignment more relevant, then did a demonstration lesson to his first hour. After that, he taught the rest of the day–writing with the students and modeling how to cite sources in MLA format. Student writing was the best it had ever been for him.

There are so many other ways our coaches spend their time: developing new assessments and modifying old ones to be more relevant while maintaining rigor, mapping curriculum for the department, assisting our new teachers, and finding the latest and greatest strategies and resources for their subject area.

This is just our first year with instructional coaches and I can already see the benefits multiply as more and more teachers take advantage of the goldmine that we have available to us.