Get Your Whistle: Coaching Styles for Teachers in Personalized Learning

A few weeks ago I had the honor of presenting at The Convening for Personalized Learning up in Milwaukee, WI with  Kirstin Murphy and Elsa Glover.  When we were preparing for our presentation I was thinking alot about how the teacher becomes the coach in personalized learning.  I kicked off one of my portions of the presentation with this slide:

This reflection made me realize how relevant that it was that I shared with you my new find.  I am currently reading Differentiated Coaching: A Framework for Helping Educators Change by Jane Kise.  In personalized learning, we are not asking you to let the students do whatever they want.  We are asking you to coach them; to get them ready for the next step and those game time moments in life.  

As a district, we have started with the student profile to get our students to be more reflective learners and begin to talk about how they learn.  Differentiated Coaching: A Framework for Helping Educators Change can help in the way that we look at our students.  Kise writes, “There are no resistant teacher, but rather only teachers whose needs during change have not yet been met.” Change the word “teacher” with “student.”  Isn’t this what we believe? All students have the ability to grow and succeed. It is our job as teachers to set those expectations high and have the conviction that all of our students can reach them.  It is why “teacher estimates of achievement” ranks first on Hattie’s list of effect sizes.

The day in, day out of this expectation can look very different compared to the simplicity of stating the belief.  It is no easy task to reach every student and help them find his/her potential for growth. We have talked for years about learners and identifying if they are kinesthetic, auditory, visual, or tactile.  We were taught how to differentiate our lessons based on these modalities. What if we need to go further? I am sure that this is no shock to most of you :). Kise goes further.

I decided a good place to start is with coaching styles.  These four approaches defined by Kise may help you identify learners in your room and the way they may want to be guided for success. I am going to look at these from the lense of a teacher and student relationship.  Below each coaching style you will see a generic description of what that coach provides, the core requirements for that type of coaching, and some indicators students may display that would indicate they would respond best to this type of coaching.

 

1) The Useful Resource

Definition: A facilitator that has a large amount of resources and can readily hand the student something to move them forward on a goal.

Core Requirements: bag of tricks, multiple methods, ability to tailor methods for specific subjects and situations

Student Indicators: hands on learner, needs an example before they can move forward, needs structure to begin, concrete thinker, needs to see impact quickly, detail oriented

 

2) The Encouraging Sage

Definition: A facilitator that can give a lot of in the moment feedback.  

Core Requirements: time, enthusiasm, and the ability to evaluate and give in-the-moment suggestions and encouragement

Student Indicators: asks for continuous feedback during class, selects to sit at the teacher table and talk through ideas/assignments, small obstacles can quickly detour student, too many options overwhelm the student, loves the “I do” (teacher does) portion of a lesson (modeling)

 

3) The Collegial Mentor

Definition: A facilitator that can stand back and let the student run.  The student will need them as a sounding board throughout their growth.

Core Requirements: open-mindedness to alternate pathways, patience, and listening skills

Student Indicators: likes to “do it on their own” and then check later, can often get to the “right” place but takes a different route, may come up with multiple ideas before moving forward on anything, big picture thinker and will work out the details as they go

 

4) The Coach as Expert Continue reading

Personalized Learning, a Journey with Many Paths

We are immersed in Personalized Learning.  The honeycomb, learner profiles, proficiency based progress, pathways, standards based grading, learning targets, and I can statements.  For some educators this is invigorating, for others it is overwhelming. It is important to recognize that although we are all in a different place, we are taking steps to shift our practices so that they are student centered.  That in itself is a celebration.

After working with a variety of Kaneland teachers embarking on this personalized learning journey and networking with educators in other districts, I have witnessed and learned about a plethora of different approaches to personalization.  Without ranking or comparing where each journey starts and ends, one common strand stood out: student discourse,  student choice, and student voice.

Student Discourse

I readily admit, this is one area where I can continue to improve.  Simply, I enjoy the interaction with students immensely and I have to remember that their interactions with others can be just as impactful.  As teachers, we often take the time to paraphrase what has been said in our class discussions. A simple move of asking another student to restate an answer from a peer in their own words shifts the learning back to the student.  The following discourse moves are from a STEM resource, but can be used in any content area.

 

The following prompts are excellent for teachers to reflect on the discourse in their classrooms.  The Association for Middle Level Education has shared some excellent tips on how to be sure teachers are including critical thinking opportunities for students.

  • Is the emphasis on giving the right answers rather than processes and strategies?
  • Do the verbal interactions follow the teacher-dominated initiation-response-evaluation pattern?
  • Is discourse carried by the voices of a few where the others are reluctant to contribute?
  • Do you often provide opportunities for students to lead the discourse?
  • Do you model and insist wait-time be used as a key component of dialogue?
  • Do you send non-verbal signals to students based on your perception of their ability to give a quick or correct response?
  • Does your lack of comfort with content lead you to pose more close-ended questions?

Student Choice

Choice motivates students, there is no question.  As we move from choice menus to allowing students to propose how they will show their learning, the possibilities are endless.  By creating and implementing learning targets and having a clear understanding of what proficiency is, students have the opportunity not only to be more involved in constructing knowledge, but to attain life skills.

 

Just this past weekend, I had a long list of what I needed to accomplish.  Each day the tasks I completed were based on multiple factors related to what was happening around me, my energy level, and interest.  Is it possible for students to have choice in this manner as well? Absolutely. Time management is such an important life skill that can be practiced at a young age.  Author Nancy Sulla discusses this in detail in her book Students Taking Charge: Inside the Learner Active Technology Infused Classroom. She gives suggestions for elementary students through high school students and breaks down how to get started.  Just this past month, she released a second edition of her book with a 

Student Voice

After interacting with students while visiting classrooms this past month, one thing is clear.  Students don’t hesitate to explain why having choice matters in their learning. Students appreciate the ability to work at their own pace, whether it is slower or faster than the norm.  More emphatically, students appreciate the ability to support and mentor one another rather than sit quietly.  They are eager to share their reflections on their learning and are developing their learner profile as they begin to advocate for themselves.  I witnessed kindergarteners asking to work alone at a table so they can concentrate and a fourth grader advocate for change in a learning situation where she didn’t feel that her needs were being met.  It is a celebration that our students are learning to advocate for themselves.

As we continue to give our students rich opportunities for discussion, choice throughout their day, and clear learning expectations, we are well on our way to personalized learning for our students.  We can’t use a GPS, Maps or Waze to get there; there is not an optimal route. Some of us find that frustrating!  What matters is that we are learning along the way, and adapting to what works best for our students. Enjoy the journey and don’t hesitate to reach out to an instructional coach to travel alongside you.

Is Spelling Not Transferring into Writing Workshop? – – If Not, What You Can do to Help

As our Professional Development Norming Meetings on writing have wrapped up, another recurring question that kept arising was spelling — why does spelling not transfer into the students’ writing? Many blog posts and books from teachers and professionals have attempted to tackle this issue. A sampling of their beliefs and strategies to this issue are summarized below.

1. Multitasking is Hard! – As we know during writing workshop, students are multitasking continuously. They are generating ideas, planning, writing, be it by hand or by computer, and trying to spell.

How Can we Help:
• break spelling down into smaller portions
• remind students of specific spelling patterns they recently studied
• focus on just one pattern

2. Opportunity – Students should have time for writing workshop each day so they can practice what good writing is.

How Can we Help:
• If students are writing each day, they will have more opportunities encountering words where they can apply their new spelling patterns to.

3. Do Students Really Understand Why Spelling Matters? – Students don’t understand why spelling matters. They are taught rules, and we all know they just can’t follow every rule – – Yes, there are 31 of them. Saying to students “You should fix the spelling on this because that just a thing that writers do,” will not work with them.

How Can we Help:
• Make sure students know who they are writing for — they need to have a purpose and they need to have an audience.
• Ask them can they read their writing easily?

4. Word Walls –
• A large word wall allow students to quickly access the high frequency words that are familiar with your word study instruction. Have the students aim for automaticity with high frequency words. Have it prominently displayed in the classroom.
• If you notice that a majority of your students are spelling specific words incorrectly in their writing make a writing word wall list. Select just three words and place in the room were all students can visually access. Explicitly teach the students how to use this resource. Once students have mastered these words, change them up, and select the next three that are frequently misspelled. Remember, this is exclusive to your students writing.

How Can we Help: – a writing word wall or a personal word wall.

Writing Word Wall

• believe
• friend
• beginning

• A personal word wall can work with students too and is differentiated and particular to each student. Here is a link of an example of what a personal word wall could look like. http://bit.ly/2yRBWrk

5. Place a spelling strategies anchor chart in your classroom with strategies that have been explicitly taught. Always refer to this so students become accustomed to using this. An example of one is below.

Spellers Use Strategies!

🌟 Hear and spell sounds

🔴 Use a word you know

🔷 Think about the meaning

🔳 Use a mnemonic

⭐ See the word inside your head

🌠 Get close, circle, correct

6. Part by Part Spelling – teach the students to spell words by breaking them down into smaller parts. Here are some prompts to use:

• Say the word, part by part.
• Clap the syllables?
• What letters will spell the first part?
• Write that part down.
• What’s the next syllable you hear?

7. Spell as Best You Can – Remind your students when writing in their notebook or drafting on paper, to spell their words as best they can; when editing time comes around they will not have as many corrections to make.

8. Question and Phrases – Listed below is a list of some questions and phrases you might want to put into your back pocket to use when conferring with your students on spelling during Writing Workshop:

• Is your writing as easy to read as it could be? What could make it easier to read?
• Checking for ________ spelling pattern will make your writing easier for ______ (name an actual person) to read.”
• “Your story will really make people laugh! (Or think, learn, cry, etc.) But when it’s hard to read, it’s harder for people to see how funny/interesting/beautiful it is.”
• “When people read, sometimes they can get distracted by a spelling mistake – then they aren’t thinking about what you wrote anymore.”

Strategy # 6 and 7 above, are from Jennifer Serravallo’s,“The Writing Strategies Book,” but know that she has an entire chapter (8) dedicated to spelling.

Finally, let us not forget that there is a need for us to look at the flip side to this issue. Yes, spelling does matter, but so does our approach with our students. In a recent tweet from Pernille Ripp she states “When students share their truths with us and we take it as a chance to question their grammar and spelling skills instead of listening to their words, we are once more complicit in the killing of student voice and engagement with school – that’s on us, that’s a choice.”

If you have any questions or would like to work with an Instructional Coach on this, please fill out the Coaching Request Form.

 

Works Cited

Moore, Beth “How to Use the Word Wall” TWO WRITING TEACHERS,
Oct. 8, 2016, twowritingteachers.org/
Moore, Beth “Three Reasons Spelling Lessons Aren’t’ Transferring into Writing Workshop”, TWO WRITING TEACHERS, Oct. 11, 2018
Ripp, Pernille, October 26, 2018, Tweet
Serravallo, Jennifer. The Writing Strategies Book: Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Writers with 300 Strategies. Heinemann, 2017.
Weakland, Mark. Super Spellers: Seven Steps to Transforming Your Spelling Instruction. Stenhouse Publishers, 2017.