Where Great Teaching Begins- A Book Review

I was handed the book Where Great Teaching Begins by Anne R. Reeves (ASCD, 2011) while working in an elementary school in Wentzville, Missouri. The principal, Doug Holler, shared that the principals were reading it and thought I would like it. I read the whole thing on my plane ride home that night.

This book tackles the simple topic of planning instruction in a way that leads to deep understanding and mastery. The author draws on what we already know about backward design and frames it in a practical and manageable way. She also identifies ways to assess learning in a way that isn’t overwhelming or too complex.

One of my favorite parts of the book is a section that focuses on thinking beyond classroom activities. This resonated with me because it is something I work through time and again with teachers. She explains that ‘deep design’ is less about what students are doing and more about what they are learning. She writes, “Making this mental shift from during to after can be difficult, especially for novice teachers (or novice planners), who tend to fall back onto the common practice of describing objectives for classwork rather than objectives for the learning that students will acquire from the lesson” (p. 19).

It’s an easy-to-read book that is written in a conversational way and is full of examples and resources. I’d suggest this book for principals, curriculum designers, coaches, and teachers. There is something in it for everyone. Enjoy!

© Spark Innovation, all rights reserved.

Learn more about Diane Sweeney and Spark Innovation by visiting www.sparkinnovate.com

Choice Literacy Podcast

Check out my podcast on Choice Literacy. That was fun and I truly appreciated Heather Rader's amazing interviewing skills. Choice Literacy does such awesome work!

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/1795.cfm

Video of Session on Student-Centered Coaching

Last week, I visited the PBS station outside of Little Rock, AR to film a session on student-centered coaching. As soon as I got used to the three camera guys, lighting, and staging, I had a lot of fun talking with over 400 people from across the state of Arkansas about how to establish student-centered coaching in their K-12 schools.

The video and handouts are available on line for no charge. Thanks to the great work that the Arkansas Department of Education is doing to promote coaching in their schools!

http://ideas.aetn.org/commoncore/videos/leadership-2-1

© Spark Innovation, all rights reserved.

Learn more about Diane Sweeney and Spark Innovation by visiting www.sparkinnovate.com

What Should I Be Reading?

Whenever I get the chance to pick the brains of my educator friends, I ask, “What should I be reading?” When I asked a friend this question recently, she suggested Kim Marshall’s book, Rethinking Teacher Supervision and Evaluation (Jossey-Bass, 2009). I ordered it that afternoon and am so glad I did.

In Rethinking Teacher Supervision and Evaluation, Marshall identifies what is broken when it comes to teacher supervision (a lot) and proposes new theories and practices for making it better. He does this in a very readable text and honestly shares his own progression as a principal in a Boston school. His perspective reminded me of how hard it is to be a principal, but also gave me hope that by designing strategies to hold teachers accountable and de-privatize instruction, things can get better.

After reading the book, I was excited to attend the author’s session at the Learning Forward Annual Conference in Anaheim. He did not disappoint. In his session, Marshall emphasized the following key features of effective teacher supervision and evaluation:

- Designing a system of unannounced mini-observations, in which the principal spends approximately ten minutes observing instruction. Mini-observations occur frequently so that teachers become accustomed to them, and so the principal can gather a large volume of information about the teaching and learning that is occurring in classrooms

- Providing feedback, he suggests in person, following every mini-observation. When providing feedback the principal notes what went well and areas where there is potential for improvement

- Engaging in collaborative curriculum development in which teams work to ensure that the right curriculum is being taught at the right level of rigor

- Sessions in which teams design interim assessments that accurately determine whether students are where they should be

- End-of-year teacher evaluations that are based on rubrics that outline the most important domains of teaching and learning

Though Marshall has made a name for himself in his work with mini-observations, this book makes the case that a multi-faceted approach is necessary. Mini-observations are a definite take-away for the reader, but aren’t presented as a silver bullet. If anyone understands the true complexity of supervision, it is a former principal like Kim Marshall. I give this book 5 stars!

© Spark Innovation, all rights reserved.

Learn more about Diane Sweeney and Spark Innovation by visiting www.sparkinnovate.com

Student-Centered Coaching in Action

I am regularly asked for videos of student-centered coaching, and I realized that YouTube could be a terrific vehicle for collecting and sharing glimpses into our daily work with teachers. A friend and coach in Wentzville, Missouri took the following videos of a conversation with a fourth grade teacher as they talked through an interim assessment they had recently given to students. She simply asked a friend to video tape and let the camera roll.

Watch them at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScSqE28m7-w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMo-RydR8AA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgMtDJEvv0k

If you are practicing student-centered coaching, would you be willing to add to this collection? If so, just post to YouTube and save as Student-Centered Coaching #__.

And of course, a huge thanks to Amanda for sharing this video. It is such a gift to watch the power of coaching in action.

© Spark Innovation, all rights reserved.

Learn more about Diane Sweeney and Spark Innovation by visiting www.sparkinnovate.com

Is My Coaching Making a Difference Whatsoever?

Susanna has wondered why she agreed to make the switch from teacher to instructional coach. As a teacher, she had a clear sense of what she was there to accomplish. As a coach, she’s not so sure.

Her principal isn’t quite sure either. Kathy is in her second year on the job and is still working to gain trust among a cohort of teachers who are dedicated to their students but are somewhat reluctant to shift their practices in the direction the district is moving. Mostly she has been working to create a culture of learning and collaboration among the teachers—a process that is proving to be slow-going. The school has recently slipped on the state test and Kathy has many questions about how to ensure that the students’ needs are being met.

The district left it up to Kathy to figure out how to implement coaching in her school. At first she thought she would use the coach to help a few struggling teachers. But as she reflected, she was concerned that this approach might create resistance towards the very culture of collaboration she was trying to foster. Then she considered making coaching voluntary for any teachers who were interested, but she worried that this approach would fail to create a broad enough impact across the school. When she considered student-centered coaching, Kathy felt it had the best odds for impacting more students and would be better received by the teachers. Susana liked the idea too. She had spent her teaching career thinking about how to better meet the needs of her students, and this felt like something she could do as a coach.

They moved forward to design a coaching effort that had the following characteristics. It would be:

- Driven by a goal for student learning

- Organized into ongoing coaching cycles

- Anchored in student work

- Progress is measured through formative and summative assessments

- Led by the school leader

Instead of suggesting that Susana’s role is to help struggling teachers, Kathy set the expectation that every teacher has students with needs, so every teacher is a candidate for coaching. Teachers gradually began engaging in the process and found it to be beneficial to themselves and to their students. Word spread and coaching took root. Now Susana is happily doing the work she had hoped for when she left the comfy confines of her classroom—and she is making a difference.

© Spark Innovation, all rights reserved.

Learn more about Diane Sweeney and Spark Innovation by visiting www.sparkinnovate.com

What is Student-Centered Coaching?

Student-centered coaching is in place in over one hundred K-12 schools across the U.S. It’s about a teacher and coach working together to set specific targets for students that are rooted in the standards and curriculum, and then working collaboratively to ensure that the targets are met. Rather than focusing on the acquisition of a few simple skills, impact is measured based on student evidence and formative assessment data. The coach and teacher collaborate to close the gap that Wiliam and Black (1996) refer to when they write, “In order to serve a formative function, an assessment must yield evidence that, with appropriate construct-referenced interpretations, indicates the existence of a gap between actual and desired levels of performance, and suggests actions that are in fact successful in closing the gap.”

Traditionally, coaching has often centered exclusively on the actions taken by the teacher—making the assumption that if we improve the teaching, then student learning will improve as well. There is some logic to this approach, but an unintended outcome is we’ve spent so much time thinking about what teachers should be doing that we’ve lost touch with the most important people in our schools . . . the students.