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Coaching Strategies
This document provides coaches with a description of the strategies that might be used when providing live coaching support to individual teachers. A critical function of the coach is to provide support to teachers as they examine and reflect on current practices, develop new skills and competencies with feedback, and problem-solve challenging situations.
Observation Strategies
A basic strategy for coaches is to observe the teacher and take notes about the teacher’s implementation of action plan goals or instructional practices. The strategies listed below might also be used by the coach during an observation.
Side-by-Side Verbal or Gestural Support: The coach delivers verbal prompts or cues to remind teacher to use specific strategies or uses non-verbal visual or gestural support to prompt/remind teacher to use a strategy. This action can also be used to acknowledge the appropriate use of a strategy.
Examples:
The teacher is beginning to use a 5-minute countdown glove for transitions. Coach says to teacher, “Let Caleb pull off one of the minute cards from the glove.” The coach nods her head to confirm with the teacher the successful use of open-ended questions during small group time. The coach might tap a watch to indicate that 20 minutes have passed since the start of literacy groups.
Problem Solving Discussion: Verbal interaction between the coach and teacher designed to lead the teacher through a systematic process involving exchanges and questions in order to: 1) identify the problem;
- brainstorm and generate options; 3) decide on a possible solution; and 4) implement and evaluate the solution. In an observation, one or multiple steps of the problem solving process might occur.
Examples:
Identify the Problem - The teacher and coach might have a brief discussion as children transition to small groups, “Do you think Sam knew where he was supposed to go?” Generate Options -The coach asks the teacher “Do you think the white board would work for his schedule or should he have something more personal?” Deciding on Solutions -The coach can ask questions for clarification, “Do you think Sam would respond to a first-then board?” Implementing and Evaluating -The teacher introduces a new mini-schedule into the daily routine for Sam. While the teacher is implementing use of the schedule; the coach observes and takes data on Sam’s behavior.
Videotaping: The coach videotapes an activity or teacher interaction for later review and discussion with the practitioner.
Modeling:
After the teacher and coach have jointly agreed to use this strategy, the coach might
demonstrate how to implement specific strategies or instructional practices.
Examples:
The coach demonstrates how to use an individualized direction or visual schedule by working with a child during a classroom activity, routine or transition.
The coach demonstrates how to ask questions of varying difficulty during story
time.
The coach demonstrates how to extend children’s’ play schemes during choice
time.
The teacher and coach notice a group of children having a difficult time at the computer. The coach makes eye contact with the teacher to get confirmation that she can go ahead and model and then prompts the children to use materials to problem solve (e.g., “why don’t we see if the solution kit might help”).
Other Help in the Classroom:
The coach assists with classroom activities in classroom activities not directly related to
the implementation of Action Plan Goals. Coaches might assist the teacher in an effort to strengthen the coach-teacher relationship. This is a strategy that should be used infrequently and only for the purpose of relationship-building or providing needed assistance in an emergency.
Examples:
The coach might help serve snack The coach might facilitate the play of a group of children while the teacher responds to a child in distress
Debriefing Strategies
The debriefing session offers a time for the coach to guide teacher reflection, provide
information, discuss the observation, engage in problem solving discussion, and other
actions that will support the teacher with implementation. The strategies below are often
used by coaches during debriefing meetings.
Problem Solving Discussion: Verbal interaction between the coach and teacher designed to lead the teacher through a systematic process in order to: 1) identify the problem; 2) brainstorm and generate options;
- decide on a possible solution; and 4) implement and evaluate the solution. During debriefing, one or multiple steps of the problem solving process might occur.
Live Demonstration: In a live demonstration, the coach enacts the teacher’s role and provides an example of how to use specific strategies.
Video Demonstration: The coach shares a short video clip that shows implementation of strategies that are related to the teacher’s action plan goals.
Helping with Environmental Arrangements: Coach assists teacher with creating and/or adapting the environment to support participation from all children. This might include preparing or developing materials, making changes in the classroom, or rearranging the physical space.
Examples:
The coach might take pictures of the housekeeping area to help create center labels. The coach helps create/arrange a visual schedule.
Graphing:
The coach assists the teacher to display, analyze, or interpret data. Assistance might
include creating a graph with the data, interpreting the results of the graph, or teaching the practitioner how to interpret the graph.
Example:
During debriefing, the coach helps the teacher create a graph based on behavior incidence data that the teacher collected. The coach might explain to the teacher how to interpret the graph.
Providing Materials: Coach offers additional items that might help the teacher learn more about specific strategies and other recommended practices, or the coach might provide materials that might improve implementation of specific strategies.
Example:
The coach brings an article to read related to the target teaching strategy.
The coach helps the teacher access an appropriate NCQTL 15-minute in-
service video related to his/her goal.
The coach prepares job aids or visual reminders of ways to facilitate
children’s’ play.
