By Patty Hagan, Teaching and Learning Coach, Karen Smith, Teaching and Learning Coach, and David Baker, Professional Development Coordinator
One of the underlying assumptions that we hold in St Vrain is that continuous learning and reflection lead to improved professional practice, job performance, and/or increased student learning. A challenge we continually strive to overcome is providing opportunities for thoughtful, consistent professional reflection in a district that encompasses 58 schools spread over 400 square miles.
We intentionally use video, coaching cycles, and frameworks, including SVVS Tier One Best Practices; STOIC (Classroom Management Framework from Safe & Civil Schools), MQI (Harvard Mathematical Instructional Framework), and the Colorado Teacher Quality Standards, as a foundation that allows coaches and mentor teachers the opportunity to accelerate reflective practices with our new teachers during the Induction process.
To best support reflective practices among all teachers, we have created a template that leverages and builds upon Jim Knight's Impact Cycle. This template integrates video, frameworks, and all three stages of the Impact Cycle to provide a deeper and more powerful means of fostering teacher reflection. Building mentors is a critical component in this process, as mentors provide daily support for Novice teachers in the Impact Cycle. This deliberate process impacts a teacher's future instructional decisions.
The three phases of this coaching cycle include Identify, Learn, and Improve. We embed video in all three phases of the cycle to enable teachers to observe for growth.
The first phase of Knight's Impact Cycle is the Identify stage. To launch this stage, teachers reflect on what proficient teaching looks like within a given framework. Teachers then watch their videos to assess current reality and how that compares with their vision of proficiency. This comparison drives the goal-setting process.
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In the first coaching cycle of the year, teachers observe for and reflect on classroom management and use Tier 1 Best Practices with a focus on "Classroom Environment: Student and Teacher Relationshps." While watching his video during the Identify stage, Dan Wolfe, a seventh-grade science teacher at Thunder Valley K8 in Frederick Colorado, noticed that students were not complying with expectations: "I need to be much more explicit in my redirection and also my expectations." He noted, "I am not as observant as I thought I was being and need to be in positions where I can quickly intervene and reinforce expectations."
To support this reflection, Dan used a three-watch protocol. The first time, Dan watched with the lens of noticing, overall, what happened in class. During the second watch, Dan focused his observation on student actions and behaviors. This allowed Dan to gather observable classroom data. Finally, during the third watch, Mr. Wolfe focused on his own behaviors and any decisions he made in response to student behaviors. The noticings and goals from the Identify stage were then shared with his assigned Instructional Mentor.
In the Learn Phase, the mentor provides strategies aligned to the teacher's goal and models these strategies through video, and the teacher views these video examples. During a reflective coaching conversation about management, Dan's mentor, Stacie Jordan, offered some suggestions that aligned with Dan's initial goal. Some of these suggestions included being very clear about warmup expectations, and using proximity and positive reinforcement when students are off task. Dan wanted to see her model her opening warm up process, so Stacie recorded her lesson start and shared it with Dan. Dan watched Stacie's video, using the same three watch process, noting that Stacie established a clean opening routine and was very quick with transitions. He stated, "Students clearly know what they need to do and that they need to do and that they need to do it in a timely fashion." With this new realization, Dan and Stacie collaboratively brainstormed adjustments Dan could make in his classroom to meet his goal.
In the Improve Phase, the teacher applies this new knowledge, makes adjustments, and videos to ascertain the impact these moves has on his/her practice. Again, we ask the teacher to engage in the three-watch protocol. After viewing the adjusted classroom practice, the teacher constructs new learning and commits to application. S/he then decides whether to keep the same goal or move on to a new goal. Dan noted, "I have learned that the population needs much more structure and deliberate management strategies than my previous experience... I am planning on implementing a Kerplunk-type strategy for positive reinforcement for all of my cores. This will give a strong/fun reinforcement, but will also provide me with direct evidence to tell if I am successful."
One teacher sums up the positive impact this process had on her professional growth last year: "My greatest area of professional growth revolved around Tier 1 Best Practices and diversifying my instruction. Our focus on Tier 1 in Induction challenged me to think in new or more focused ways, and my teaching followed suit." Our professional development team is confident that this sort of growth would not be possible without clearly focused coaching cycles that are rooted in in frameworks and video.
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Knight, Jim, Marti Eldford, Michael Hock, Devonna Dunekack, Barbara Bradley, Donald D. Deshler, and David Knight. "3 Steps to Great Coaching." Learning Forward Feb 15: 10-18. Print.