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CHAPTER 2

The Eight Goals of the Observation and Feedback Cycle

Before outlining the full process of observation and feedback for bilingual and dual-language classrooms, it’s important to establish a common definition of the goals of an effective observation and feedback cycle. The goals fall into two categories: (1) goals that work to increase coaching effectiveness and its impact on student success, and (2) goals that work to build teachers’ capacity and competence to embrace and implement best practice for bilingual and dual-language learning.

A great deal of research has been devoted to coaching teachers. It is a topic of interest for experts from the broader educational world (Aguilar, 2013; Eisenberg, Eisenberg, Medrich, & Charner, 2017; Fox, Campbell, & Hargrove, 2011; Knight, 2007). While some of these experts’ research most adequately addresses coaching practices that exist in every kind of classroom, many such studies exclude the additional, unique needs of bilingual and dual-language classrooms, teachers, and students.

Instructional coaching researcher Jim Knight (2014) advocates for instructional coaching because “most people don’t know what it looks like when they do what they do” (p. 138). When I see recordings of presentations and professional development workshops I’ve delivered, I still feel shocked to hear my own voice. Much in the same vein, bilingual and dual-language teachers rarely have the opportunity to see their teaching and what student learning look like as they conduct the complex combination of steps that take place at any given moment in their classrooms.

This is why bilingual and dual-language teachers need an outside perspective or point of view. They need someone else willing and able to look at their instruction and decision making because they are so involved in teaching that they can’t see everything happening or perceive how students are responding (DeWitt, 2014). Coaches are better able to see those blind spots, or those areas teachers can’t see, because they are too close to know what they look like in the moment. Much like in sports, coaches who serve bilingual and dual-language classrooms can help teachers reflect on the decisions they make in the moment, provide feedback about the effectiveness of those decisions, and practice ways to incorporate and develop automaticity around new learning.

Author and speaker Peter DeWitt (2014) suggests that coaching focus on the following four fundamental goals: (1) ensure each encounter helps teachers improve, (2) connect colleagues’ successes, (3) provide an outside perspective, and (4) use multiple observations to obtain concrete data on student progress. My experience serving bilingual and dual-language teachers prompts me to add four additional goals: (5) achieve equity, (6) incorporate culture, (7) gather accurate evidence during the observation, and (8) embrace best practices.

The following sections discuss each of these eight goals of effective coaching in bilingual and dual-language classrooms in detail.

Goal 1: Ensure Each Encounter Helps Teachers Improve

The core of any observation and feedback cycle should be a laser focus on student learning. Programmatic alignment is important, but the feedback coaches provide must move beyond mere fidelity to a program model, initiative, or new textbook adoption. Rather, each encounter between coaches and the dual-language and bilingual teachers they serve must be guided by the systematic data collection from authentic assessments that provide meaningful insight into student learning across all program goals. A range of assessments is a vital resource that can guide coaches as they offer teachers a road map of supports aimed at improving student outcomes, and ultimately in evaluating teacher improvement. The key is that both teachers and coaches have access to authentic assessments that (1) are differentiated to match students’ language proficiencies and cultural background, and (2) use side-by-side rubrics for content and language.

Are Differentiated to Match Students’ Language Proficiencies and Cultural Background

To be effective educators, bilingual and dual-language teachers must shift their thinking about assessment from what they might have used it for in regular classrooms to the specifics of using it in multilingual classrooms. To support these teachers, coaches must first help them find focus in both content and language during the assessment process. If teachers are not intentionally planning for content and language growth, then sadly, they are planning for student failure.

A second but related area of support is helping teachers create assessments that are differentiated for language proficiency. Educational methods expert W. James Popham (2010) states that “there is no such thing as a valid test” (p. 19); rather, we define validity by our interpretation of the test results and what those results mean regarding student learning. This is the irony of the bilingual and dual-language classroom. By their very nature, these classrooms contain students at a range of proficiency levels, many of whom may not have developed the language abilities they need to interact with grade-level content. Most unit-based and teacher-created tests, however, rely on language development levels that teachers already know students don’t have. These types of one-size-fits-all tests simply tell teachers what they already know: there is something students didn’t understand—maybe the content, but most certainly the language of the test itself. Bilingual and dual-language teachers must, therefore, come up with a better means of collecting, interpreting, and using data about the areas in need of improvement in their classrooms.

Coaches must help teachers adapt assessments to match the level of all students’ language proficiency, especially those early in their language journeys. This is easier than it sounds. Simple adaptations like shortening the length of sentences, decreasing the complexity of verb tense, and eliminating slang unfamiliar to non-native speakers can have a huge impact on the readability of a question or set of directions. Additional adaptations help reinforce learning and give teachers more tangible evidence of what students are learning. Adaptations can include giving definitions of nonessential and low-frequency words and providing annotated texts, illustrations, realia, and even tasks that rely more heavily on hands-on experiences and integrate rigorous thinking skills like classifying, sorting, and critiquing.

Teachers must move beyond the once-per-year, state-mandated language proficiency assessments and incorporate varied formative assessment tools (Dunne & Villani, 2007). Educators must have access to real-time data to inform instruction for bilingual and dual-language students if they are to meet the demands of the Common Core State Standards and other next-generation standards. Formative assessment is a key method for obtaining such data. Teachers can use the data from these assessments to focus on the complex needs of bilingual and dual-language students; assist them in mastering grade-level content, concepts, and skills; and help them develop the academic language required to communicate learning. Doing so is the only way to ensure that all students receive the support they need to be successful.

In designing formative assessments for bilingual and dual-language learners, teachers must ensure that their assessments implement the following objectives.

• Promote student learning and application of content and language goals using tasks that are culturally relevant to students.

• Elicit evidence of learning through a variety of tasks (Shavelson, 2006; Shavelson et al., 2008).

• Change the role of teachers, as they learn what students can do. As students show their teachers the expertise they’ve developed, teachers better know how to help students apply that learning and what additional supports may be needed (Heritage, 2011).

• Use learning progressions to anchor learning goals and monitor learning progress (Heritage, 2008; McManus, 2008).

• Provide meaningful feedback and adjustments that improve instruction for language learners (Heritage, Walqui, & Linquanti, 2012).

• Enable students to become self-regulated and autonomous learners (Hattie & Timperley, 2007).

Figure 2.1 offers a list of ideas for formative assessments that coaches can use collaboratively with teachers.

Figure 2.1: Formative assessment ideas.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/EL for a free reproducible version of this figure.

Use Side-by-Side Rubrics for Content and Language

Rubrics must account for the combined content, language, literacy, and cultural goals that make up students’ daily experiences as language learners. Bear in mind, too, that students have greater motivation to learn when they see the finish line or goal as something they can attain.

Side-by-side content and language rubrics offer equitable assessment for all language learners. Side-by-side rubrics describe the success criteria of two separate but interdependent learning objectives. One side shows the success criteria demonstrating the extent to which students master rigorous grade-level learning. The other side shows the success criteria for the complexity of language students use based on their language proficiency levels. The side-by-side rubrics in figure 2.2 (page 28) demonstrate how language learners might need different side-by-side rubrics at various points in their language learning journey.

Coaches need to help teachers develop these side-by-side rubrics so teachers receive support in how to maintain the rigor of the standards while having reasonable expectations for student language use. Many teachers are clear when discussing content mastery but not as clear when determining what students need to master a goal that makes sense for where they are in their language journey. The use of side-by-side rubrics helps communicate to students that you know they’re still growing, but you expect them to practice the level and complexity of language that they do have. Teachers can differentiate rubrics by changing what they expect from students’ language production based on their language proficiency levels.

Figure 2.2: Example side-by-side rubrics.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/EL for a free reproducible version of this figure.

Goal 2: Connect Colleagues’ Successes

The goal of curating and connecting educators’ successes may seem odd to some coaches who embrace and welcome their shared responsibility to bilingual and dual-language teachers and the students they serve. However, connecting successes should be a goal for all coaches for a number of reasons. First, all learning requires some level of social interaction. We need to discuss and problem solve areas that aren’t quite clear and make sense of learning in light of prior beliefs that may no longer hold true. These social interactions often take much longer than coaches have for any one teacher. Not only that, but connecting successful teachers with colleagues who need support opens the possibility for those teachers to ask for help when they need it the most. Connecting a more successful colleague with one who is struggling has the added benefit of empowering teachers to solve problems without relying on just the observation and feedback cycle as their sole system of support.