Chapter 6 Homework Students will examine strategies for working as or with an adult coach with special

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Chapter 6: Coaching to Connect Curriculum, Assessment & Teaching

Summary

Meeting the expectations of current early childhood state, national and professional standards

(NAEYC & NAECS/SDE, 2003) requires that teachers of our youngest children are able to

Outline

The chapter supports your growing capacity to coach teachers to

• understand choices to observe, gather information, & document learning;

Learner outcomes

• Students will be able to compare and contrast the characteristics of a mentor and a coach.

Coaching to

Connect

Curriculum

Assessment &

Teaching

EVALUATE&

celebrate a

project

3. DEVELOP

curriculum

plan

APPLY to

teaching

strategies

REFLECT

make

meaning of

documentation

OBSERVE

understand

assessment

choices

Suggested teaching activities

1. Introductory Mini-Lecture:

Review with participants that this book, and much of the early childhood profession, often use

the term mentor to include common strategies, activities and purposes associated with both the

_____________________________________________________________________________

Definitions: Give participants these two definitions to compare and contrast.

Mentoring: A relationship-based process between colleagues in similar professional roles, with

Coaching: A relationship-based process led by an expert with specialized and adult learning

knowledge and skills, who often serves in a different professional role than the recipient(s).

Next, draw two circles. Label one circle, “both roles” and the other circle, “coach”. Discuss

with participants and record common characteristics of mentor and coach in the “both roles”

circle. If participants do not state all of the following, add what is missing from their comments.

Real world use of the terms: mentor and coach

The most important difference in the common usage of the terms, mentor and coach, in this

author’s experience, is that coaches have special expertise in an area of early childhood

While Lutton differentiates between working with adults in similar roles (mentors) and working

with adults in different roles (coaches), in practice this distinction is often not used by

practitioners to differentiate the use of the terms.

Note: All of the following activities are centered on the role of the coach who works with an

2. OBSERVE: Coaching To Understand Assessment Choices

(A) Establish the value of observation, assessment and recordkeeping by beginning with the

suggestion for participants (who might someday be instructional coaches or who are currently

acting as coaches) to ask the following open-ended questions of early childhood care and

education teachers they know:

(B) Ask participants to guess what teachers they know might say. Then give an ‘out of class’

assignment to interview two teachers, one with more assessment experience, using the questions

here. Ask for journaling about what attitudes toward observation and assessment were conveyed

‘between the lines’ or explicitly during the conversations.

An assistant teacher, with a year of early childhood community college courses, has asked you to

help with ways to plan curriculum for her preschool class. She wants the planned experiences to

fit the interests of the children but does not know where to start. A lead teacher in the same

classroom is excited about planning for in-depth projects and is encouraging the assistant

Now ask the participants in the small groups to discuss the following question:

How might beginning with the following questions for the assistant teacher, help to reduce her

anxiety and focus her on planning for observation before planning for curriculum and teaching?

What other ways have you encouraged teachers to observe or collect information before

planning for a project with children?

• What do you already know about this group of children?

After 10 minutes, bring all the groups back to one large group and conclude by reading this

teacher recollection:

Oh yes, I remember when I thought the toddler Maureen was just a very bossy child—until I

stopped and observed her at the sensory tub. She started dumping and pouring water into a

water wheel, when two toddler boys came to the table. As soon as she saw them, she screamed,

Share that one way a coach might let a teacher know what they already know about observation,

curriculum and teaching is to take a teacher recollection, like the previous one, and diagram the

teacher’s comments into the following categories:

Observation

Curriculum

Teaching strategies

Narrative notes on the

interactions at the toddler

Goal: Support parallel play

at the water table. Materials:

Discuss dumping and filling

with the children, and map

Journal assignment

Share these directions for a journal assignment: Observation and assessment can intimidate

early-childhood teachers who have never had formal education about its purposes, methods, and

uses. Considering the coaching principle of always starting from the strengths of the teacher,

how might you begin to engage a teacher in authentic assessment as an ongoing process to

inform his or her instruction and other program plans? Use the text for information on frequently

used assessment or observation tools and methods. See Table 6.1 in the text and comment on

what knowledge you need on assessment before coaching anyone else?

Purpose: To help participants to gain skills in dialoging with teachers about the importance of

3. REFLECT, DEVELOP AND APPLY: Coaching to make meaning of documentation

and planning for curriculum and teaching strategies

Read this scenario to participants: Imagine that you are a coach who is supporting a teacher in

the beginning of the school year, to document the words and actions of children in her program

during small group activity time. The teacher records a lot of dialogue of the children arguing

about “the rules” for putting away materials. You then ask the teacher to identify a question of

interest to both her and the children based on what she learned from her documentation. The

question she decides on is, “What are the rules in our classroom?”

Demonstrate to the large group how you would dialogue with this teacher if you were the coach

modeling how to connect observational evidence with curriculum goals and plans for learning

1) The desired result for the children is to . . .learn classroom rules;

2) The observational evidence of the children shows . . . confusion about routines and interest in

Conclude by asking the participants to discuss how they would help the teacher in this scenario

know what actual child outcomes occurred due to her learning experiences. Would she take

Purpose: To help participants understand how to join with a teacher and connect the processes

of (1) making meaning of documentation evidence to (2) planning for goals and (3) learning

experiences for children.

Activity Extension for Experienced Instructional Coaches:

Experienced coaching participants may want to use the Chapter 6—Appendix A form with a

4. EVALUATE and CELEBRATE: Wrapping Up a Coaching Project

Both the teacher and the coach need to conclude projects and celebrate successes. The teacher

needs to join with the children and display, discuss and generally make visible their collective

learning though a variety of means. Ask participants to refer to the chapter or to their own

experience for ways to do this.

Documenting and Evaluating a Relationship-Based Coaching Process

Ask students to work in groups, and review this coaching documentation form. Does this look

like a form they would use during and after each visit with a teacher? What questions do they

have about the form? What changes would they make to the form so that they would use it?

Coaching Process Notes To Record For Each Visit

Teacher: __________________________ Coach:___________________________

Date: _____________________________

Today’s focus of inquiry, discussion or other strategies used

were:

Coach linked teacher to research based concepts from:

Today’s coaching strategies

were (circle all that apply

and/or describe):

✓ Observing teacher–child

interactions

✓ Information gathering

✓ Giving feedback on

observed teaching

(instructive, positive,

reflective)

✓ Promoting reflection

through open ended

questions and probing

conversations

✓ Demonstrating a relevant

strategy

Periodic Coaching Reflection on the Relationship Based Learning Process

To be used in reflective supervision conversations with other coaches and a supervisor.

• Is the coach forming a true learning partnership based on trust with the teacher?

• Did the teacher and coach negotiate and clarify their roles and responsibilities?

• Are goals for teacher learning at the center of the partnership?

Purpose: To document and reflect on general relationship-based mentoring practices and

specific coaching functions.

Summary

Conclude all of the activities with this brief summary and ask the participants what is one ‘take–

away’ idea that they want to implement when they act in a coaching role with another teacher.