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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 intended to take approximately one month. Some skills can be implemented more quickly, but some may take longer. This pace may seem too slow to create significant change, but consider: When is the last time you or any of your colleagues gained ten new strategies in a school year? Over the course of a thirty-year career, that would be three hundred!

2. Coaching is about change: Teachers teach and students learn in a broad array of styles and situations. There are innumerable factors that lead to high-quality learning. Students bring with them rich backgrounds and sets of physical, social, and emotional skills. Teachers bring the same. The possible effects on learning are endless. It is the teacher’s professional responsibility to control the variables at his disposal, and to improve his ability to do so throughout his career. This is difficult to do alone; hence, the collaboration between the coach and the teacher allows the best chance for positive change.

3. All teachers can get better: New teachers need to develop broader skillsets. The best teachers can (and should) get better. The Teacher of the Year can get better and is likely the Teacher of the Year because of his or her dogged work on the craft of teaching and learning. Educators will never run out of new methods: models of instruction contain hundreds—maybe thousands—of elements, skills, and strategies on which a teacher can work. Having and using a larger skillset is always helpful to the learning environment. The goal of professional development is better teaching and learning. Indeed, getting better is the only thing.

4. Coaching is teaching, not doing: A coach should model and co-teach, but the intent is to have the teacher gain and independently use the skill. In curricular coaching, a coach may develop the first one or two lessons plans or assessments, but must also teach the teacher how to develop them. In instructional coaching, the coach may (and should) demonstrate a skill or even go into the classroom and use the desired skill with students, but the goal is that the teacher learns and uses the skill with automaticity.

These, again, are the five cyclical steps of coaching and being coached that are crucial in creating positive change in the teaching and learning process.

1. Establishing a baseline

2. From the baseline, setting a goal

3. Planning for the change and its implementation

4. Practicing the new strategy, with time for the teacher and the students to make the change

5. Assessing and celebrating growth appropriately

The remainder of this chapter goes into detail about each step of the coaching cycle.

Establishing a Baseline

As described previously, the first step of the cycle is establishing a baseline. The coach and the teacher need to take stock of current performance in order to make decisions about what specific change will have a positive effect on teaching and learning. There are several ways to determine which instructional techniques, when enhanced or added to a teacher’s repertoire, will improve instruction and, subsequently, student performance.

There are important pros and cons with any method of determining a teacher’s baseline performance. Teachers are often insecure about their performance and, while getting better is a laudable goal, they are already working hard and change seems to add to the burden. Positive language by supervisors and the coach will help. Knowing the pros and cons of each of the options should provide knowledge for both the teacher and the coach so that they can together maximize the pros and mitigate the cons. While there are several options to determine what the teacher is doing on a day-to-day basis, four are common: (1) observation, (2) teacher reflection, (3) teacher evaluation documents, and (4) student data. To help coaches select from among these options, each section includes a list of pros and cons.

Observation

Often a coach will schedule a time to observe the teacher in his or her classroom. During the observation she will take notes which she will review with the teacher at a later time. After some discussion the teacher and the coach may come to a consensus about what was happening and why. Most educators are very familiar with this process as it is usually used for teacher evaluations. Another variation of observation is for the coach to create a video recording of the teacher’s instruction. This has the added benefit that the teacher and coach are able to review the video together. Video observation is also a useful solution to scheduling conflicts—if the coach has difficulty finding time to observe a teacher in person, he or she might record a video of the class instead. The use of video as an observational tool is discussed in depth in chapter 3 (page 48).

Whether observation takes place directly or on video, the result we are looking for here is an annotated list of elements and strategies that the teacher is good at, as well as those that are ripe for improvement. The coach can refer to a list of elements from the school’s model of instruction, whether it is Marzano (2017; see appendix, page 108), Danielson (2013), or an evaluation instrument. Figure 2.2 displays an example of a coach’s observational notes, which will serve as a starting point for the conversation about what and how to change.

Figure 2.2: Observational notes.

There are pros and cons to be aware of for both the teacher and the coach.

Pros

Cons

• The coach is not teaching and can view the classroom from a different perspective. She can watch a particular student or group to see what they are focused on. She can listen and watch to see how students receive the lesson. • The coach has background knowledge from seeing many teachers teach. This broadens the coach’s repertoire and provides the opportunity to see the effect of a strategy on student performance. • The coach can focus on unique aspects of the classroom. She can determine if off-task behavior is momentary, intermittent, or constant. She can see if students are using resources during the lesson. • The coach can see the classroom from the point of view of a student. Many good coaches do the lesson along with students: keeping notes, doing the activities, working the problems, and so on.

• The observation covers only a slice of the teacher’s performance. • This format is commonly used for teacher evaluation. It may make the teacher feel as though he is being judged or evaluated, both during the observation and during the later discussion. The teacher may get anxious, especially if he makes a mistake or things do not go as planned. • The teacher may prepare and present differently because he knows that he is to be observed. We all want to show our best selves, but this is counterproductive to determining what to improve in a given classroom. • The presence of the coach may affect the students as well. The students wonder, “Who is she and what’s she doing here?” The presence of a second adult in the room may change student behavior (for the better or the worse). • The teacher and the coach are observing from different points of view. The teacher should be observing student behavior for signs of learning or the lack of it and for positive or negative behaviors. He should be monitoring the lesson to ensure students are progressing and he is within an appropriate time frame. The coach is evaluating the teacher’s strategies and techniques to determine what the teacher might do differently to better meet the learning needs of the students. These different perspectives can bring conflicting understandings.

On the whole, observation is a key tool for establishing a baseline because it provides the coach with recent, firsthand evidence.

Teacher Reflection

Teachers have increasingly been encouraged to reflect on what they are doing, how students respond, classroom assessment data, the classroom environment, and other factors in order to solve problems and to grow. Many are asked to reflect and comment on their own performance as part of the evaluation process. It is important to note that the quality of the reflection is dependent on the teacher’s knowledge. To provide comprehensive thinking, it is good practice to have the teacher review the school’s model of instruction and compare each element with her thoughts about teaching and learning in her own classroom. Becoming a Reflective Teacher (Marzano, 2012) is a great guide for this process and includes reproducible pages to guide the reflection process. As with observation, the result is a list of elements and strategies that could benefit from improvement. It is easy, then, to have the teacher (with some strategic questioning from the coach) categorize or prioritize the list, which will help direct the choice of which change to focus on. A teacher reflection worksheet that coaches can provide during this stage appears in the appendix (page 110). Additional material for reflection can be found in The New Art and Science of Teaching (Marzano, 2017) and the Marzano Compendium of Instructional Strategies (Marzano Resources, 2016b).

As always, there are pros and cons of reflection as a method of determining what to coach.

Pros

Cons

• Teachers have full knowledge of the totality of their performance over time. They can think critically about a particular class, type of student, or area of curriculum with which they struggle. • Teachers have comprehensive knowledge of students’ backgrounds, abilities, motivations, social skills, and so on. They may know about families, student work outside of school, and other factors that affect student behavior and learning. • Using a model of instruction as a guide, teachers can reflect comprehensively. They can think about each element and strategy, when they use or don’t use it, and how successful it is with their students. • Teachers can take time to fully review all aspects of their teaching prior to meeting with their coaches. Good, honest reflection takes time. • Reflection increases teachers’ buy-in by centering their own thinking. Most teachers come to good conclusions about what changes will enhance student learning.

• Teachers may be biased about their work or unaware of some attributes of their teaching. • Teachers may be unaware of some of the things students are doing during instruction (which itself may be an opportunity for coaching and improvement). • Teachers may misinterpret cause and effect. For example, students may be acting out due to frustration or boredom with instruction, but the teacher may write them off as inherently “bad kids.”

Teacher reflection, while it has its limitations, is a powerful strategy that gives the teacher more agency in the coaching process.