Your Coaching Strategy Toolbox: Building a Collection of Differentiated Coaching Strategies

Outline

3 mins: introduce objective for session & quickwrite: make a quick list of coaching strategies participants have used
2 mins: partner share: which supports have been most impactful with teachers?
2 mins: Introduce Coaching Strategy Toolbox: a collection of strategies designed to meet teachers’ needs and provide differentiation
5 Strategy card sort: Low impact vs. Medium Impact vs. High impact strategies
6 mins: Introduction to Low Impact Strategies and why they’re valuable
2 mins: Partner Share: What Low Impact Strategies will you provide teachers with this year?
10 mins: Introduction to Medium Impact Strategies
2 mins: Partner Share: What Medium Impact Strategies will you provide teachers with this year?
10 mins: Introduction to High Impact Strategies
2 mins: Partner Share: What High Impact Strategies will you provide teachers with this year?
4 mins: Table Share: How can these varied strategies be used to differentiate for teachers?
10 mins: Coaching Scenario Cards: In partners or threes, coaches read the scenario on the cards and discuss the next strategies they could offer to the teacher to meet needs and continue moving towards more impactful coaching work
2 mins: Closing commitments: Partner share.

Outcomes

After this session, participants will be able to identify the coaching strategies available to them at any moment. They will use strategies of differing impacts for different purposes, in order to meet teachers’ needs. They will also choose an appropriate strategy to offer for coaching situations and scenarios in order to leverage the interaction into future coaching work.

Supporting research

Behfar, K., Cronin, M., & McCarthy, K. (2020) Realizing the upside of venting: The role of the “challenger listener”. Academy of Management Discoveries, 6 (4), https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2018.0066

Deussen, T., Coskie, T., Robinson, L., & Autio, E. (2007). Coach” can mean many things: Five categories of literacy coaches in Reading First. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education.

Ficke, Susan B., "Teachers’ perceptions of the observation, coaching, and feedback cycle" (2020). All Theses and Dissertations. 322.

Gibbons, L. K., & Cobb, P. (2017). Focusing on teacher learning opportunities to identify potentially productive coaching activities. Journal of Teacher Education, 68(4), 411-425.

Hasbrouck & Michel (2022). Student-focused coaching: The instructional coach’s guide to supporting student success through teacher collaboration. Paul H. Brookes Publishing.

Jay, A. B. (2012). Coaching the inflexible teacher Annemarie B. Jay and Mary W. Strong. Promoting Quality Assurance in Literacy Instruction: The Preparation, Inquiries and Practices of Literacy Professionals, 66.

Pfeffer, J., & Sutton, R. I. (1999). Knowing “what” to do is not enough: Turning knowledge into action. California management review, 42(1), 83-108.

Woodward, L., & Thoma, J. (2021). Perspectives on literacy coaching: defining roles and expectations. Teacher Development, 25(1), 68-84.