And yet, effective feedback can propel a person forward toward reaching his goals. In the world of sports, we see how coaches provide players with precise, on-the-spot feedback that can immediately improve their performance. Likewise, there are certain actions that a teacher can take that can immediately result in a change in what happens in the classroom; as a coach, we might see these possibilities jumping out at us and yet be unsure of how to communicate our observations in a way that the client will hear us. Delivering feedback is an art that takes coaches many years of practice.
The following are suggestions for giving feedback:
Assess for trust. First, don't give direct feedback until you are certain that your client trusts you. You also need to have a deep understanding of who your client is and how he might receive feedback. Some people respond well to direct feedback and appreciate it; others may feel defensive and may shut down.
Always ask for permission. This could sound like, “Can I share a couple things I observed that might help you address those issues you're raising?” Or “Would it be OK if I gave you some feedback on the interaction you just had with that student? My intention is to help you feel more empowered.” Always declare that your intention in giving feedback is coming from a place of caring and concern, and a desire to help the client move toward her goals.
Ground feedback in observational data. It can sound like, “I noticed that when Michael walked in the room, you said, ‘Take that hat off. I don't want to tell you this every day.’ Then your next interaction with him was when he asked to sharpen his pencil. You said ‘You need to come prepared.’ The next time you addressed him, you said, ‘Michael, what's the correct verb form here? Are you paying attention?’ Then he exploded and said, ‘You're always picking on me!’ At that point, you sent him to the office for being defiant. Can you see his perspective, given these were the only interactions you had with him in ten minutes? What might you have done differently?”
Restrict critical feedback to one or two key points. It's common to observe a teacher, for example, and note a long list of instructional or management practices that could be improved. We might have noted that the classroom was a mess, there was no system for students to turn in homework, there was no agenda or objective on the board, the teacher's verbal directions were confusing, the teacher gave students far too much time during the opening activity, students were off-task and messing around, the opening activity wasn't connected to a learning objective and seemed to be a time-filler, and so on. The first step is to look at the data we collected and determine which pieces are connected to the school or client's goals. For example, this teacher might be working on her organizational skills, therefore, those are the areas we will address when giving feedback. It always helps if the coach has some time between the observation and the debrief to be able to digest the observation and think through the debrief.
Find the phrasing. The language that you use with clients differs with each one based on what you know about how they will hear your feedback. Before a debrief, I think through and sometimes write out or role-play what I'll say. There are clients who respond well if I say something like, “You have got to clean up your room and post an agenda every day. You said you wanted to do that weeks ago and I still don't see it.” Others need to hear something like, “A few weeks ago you talked about wanting to clean up your room. You've said several times that your disorganization gets in the way of being able to be the teacher you envision. I noticed that along the back wall there were a dozen stacks of papers, books, and files. What do you think could be getting in the way of addressing this goal area?” In order to give effective feedback we must know how others will hear us.
Invite reflection. After we've shared one or two pieces of feedback with a client, we invite reflection on how the feedback was received and plan for next steps. We listen carefully to how someone responds to our feedback, noticing if the client becomes defensive, embarrassed, curious, relieved—there are a whole range of emotions that people can experience. It's our job as a coach to notice them and address them if necessary—if it feels like the client can't proceed to the next steps without processing them. Once it seems like the client can move on to the “what's next?” phase, we can support him in determining how he'd like to act on the feedback. For example, perhaps a coach observed a teacher trying to use small group structures and perhaps the students didn't engage with each other in the way the teacher had hoped. The coach has just shared that she noticed that out of five groups, only one followed the directions the teacher gave. The teacher might feel frustrated and disappointed. The coach might ask the teacher what she'd like to try next and what kind of support she'd like from the coach, or the coach can offer ideas. What's essential is that there are next steps. Especially when the feedback is critical, the client must finish the conversation feeling that she will be supported in some way to develop those skills and capacities that aren't where she wants them to be yet.
Specific Observation Tools: The Teacher-Student Interactions Tracking Tool
In order for kids to learn, they have to feel emotionally safe with their peers and their teacher; their affective filter has to be low. This shows up in many ways in a classroom and is evident in how a teacher interacts with individual students and the whole class on a moment to moment basis. There's a “magic ratio” that psychologists believe is essential in relationships—5:1—five positive interactions for every negative interaction (neutral interactions are fine). It can be very useful for a coach to pay attention to this relational dynamic in a classroom and school. Exhibit 12.2 offers a data collection tool for this purpose.
A coach should only enter this terrain with permission from the client. “Positive” and “negative” are subjective categories. As a coach, if we're gathering this data we'll be heaping our own judgments onto it in order to sort it into positive or negative. The conundrum, however, is that if you tell your teacher-client that you're going to look specifically at the quality of interactions—at whether they are negative or positive, then the data will be skewed. She will be so conscious of you sitting in the corner, judging her actions that she won't behave as she usually does. However, you also need to make sure you aren't violating the teacher's trust. You need to make sure your relationship is strong enough and that she trusts you enough to allow you to gather data on her relationships with students.
You might say something like this: “Thank you for being open to having me observe your classroom. I have a variety of tools that I use to understand the different dynamics in your room and it'll take me three to five observations to use them all. Afterwards, I'd like to share what I've learned with you and show you the tools and data. Would that be okay?” Then use the tracking tool in Exhibit 12.2 for three to five times, for 15–20 minutes each time. This tool is available on my website.
Exhibit 12.2. Teacher-Student Interactions: Tracking Tool
Teacher
P. Cruz Subject and Period
Science, fifth period Date and Time
May 11, 2011
12:37–1:00
Total Number of Students: 24 Number of Male Students: 8
Racial Breakdown:
African American: 3
Latino: 4
Other: 1 Number of Female Students: 16
Racial Breakdown:
African American: 3
Latina: 12
Other: 1
Another way to use this tool is in analyzing a video of a teacher. The teacher herself can do the analysis and discuss the results with you. After either watching a video, or your observation of the teacher, share the data results with her. Then ask some or all of these questions:
What do you notice in these data?
What surprised you?
What feels good to see? What's affirming?
Is there anything that raises questions for you?
What do you want to know more about? Is there anything you want me to collect more data on?
Is there anythin
g you might want to work on now that you've reviewed these data?
Modeling
Coaches can model lessons, record keeping, routines and procedures, facilitation of a meeting, or creation of an agenda. Hopefully, coaches were exemplary teachers—whenever appropriate, we should take the opportunity to demonstrate our skills and capacities as instructors and facilitators.
There are a few caveats to consider when modeling.
Before proposing this strategy, we need to consider how our client might experience observing us. If by modeling we intend to demonstrate a standard to which our client might aspire, we need to consider our client's zone of proximal development. Some elements of what we model need to be within that zone. If what we demonstrate is far out of the client's zone, observing a coach modeling a behavior or activity can be overwhelming, intimidating, and daunting. It's not that we don't model—but we need to be selective about what and how we model.
What we model is determined in agreement with the client. Perhaps a teacher wants to see a coach model questioning in whole group discussions or a classroom management strategy—it's essential that the specific behaviors a coach will model are identified and agreed on beforehand. If a coach offers to “model a reading comprehension lesson” this may be too broad for a teacher to identify any replicable behaviors. The coach and client need to be very clear about what will be modeled and what the client will observe. The goal is for the coach to demonstrate a few actions that the client can do by herself fairly soon.
Also agreed on ahead of time is what the client will do while the coach is modeling in order to anchor her learning. For example, a coach might model the use of questioning to deepen reading comprehension. During the lesson, the teacher agrees to script the questions that are asked as well as the student responses. Clients may need support in narrowing a focus when observing a coach model a strategy, and may need guidance on what to do during the observation. Ideally, we want to elicit this from the client in our questioning: “What might help you see the effects of the strategies I use on the students?” Or “What kinds of data would you like to gather when I facilitate this meeting? What might you notice or look at that would help you see whether my facilitation is effective?” But we need to be ready with suggestions as well. We need to set up the client so that what she observes is the action we're taking (the comprehension strategies, meeting facilitation, and the like) and the effect it's having on others—the students, staff members, and so on.
As a coach is modeling, she needs to mentally notice what the client might or might not notice. While we're skillfully delivering instruction, for example, we note the data that the client has agreed she'll gather—for example, on how students respond to questions. Afterwards, when we debrief with the client, we want to make sure that the client noticed anything we might have observed that was key.
When a coach models, a structured debrief should occur ideally within twenty-four hours. If the modeling has been set up with a clear focus and agreement about how data will be gathered, then the debrief can flow out of those points. During the debrief, we want to hear what the client noticed and engage in a conversation about the actions that we modeled and we want to explore how prepared he feels to implement the actions (provided, of course, that they were exemplary). A coach needs to make sure to break down the strategy modeled into a series of actions—because actions are replicable.
We want to avoid modeling our own personality or charisma—our clients can't be who we are. It's not uncommon for a client to say something like, “I could never do that. You did it so well; I can't be you.” If we hear this, we must deconstruct these perceptions and what's perceived as “style.” We need to help a teacher or administrator see that we implemented a series of actions, and we also need to affirm our client's personality. We don't want our clients to be us (sometimes coaches need to remember this); they can't be us.
Finally, in the debrief ask for the client's feedback on the practice we modeled: “Did you notice anything that I didn't notice? That I could have done better? That wasn't clear?” Although hopefully our modeling is exemplary, we can always learn more and clients can be insightful in their observations. It's also critical that coaches model being reflective, life-long learners who elicit feedback from everyone.
Modeling specific instructional or leadership practices can be very valuable for clients. Whether we're working with new educators or veterans, it's not uncommon to hear people confess that they haven't seen a lot of stellar practices in their career. However, we also don't want to overuse modeling. What's essential when using modeling is to keep in mind a gradual release of responsibility—modeling is a form of “direct instruction.” We need to intentionally plan what comes next—the guided practice—so that we are always working toward developing autonomous, self-directed educators.
Elbow Teaching
Administrators: don't forget that teachers often love seeing their administrators model lessons or elbow teach with them.
“Elbow teaching” can be a guided practice to release responsibility. In this approach, the coach can teach side by side with the regular classroom teacher and can model use of a strategy and then turn the lead over to the teacher. For example, a coach could model a think aloud strategy for solving an algebra problem while students listen and take notes. Then the teacher could model the subsequent problem, having just heard how the coach explains his thinking. This can be a useful strategy when content or curriculum is new to the teacher. Its impact also lies in the immediacy of the practice for the client.
Lesson and Unit Planning
Lesson or unit planning with a coach can also be a guided practice. While supporting the teacher to think through the steps of planning, a coach can model when necessary or explain his process. As with other guided practices, the coach needs to be sharply attuned to the client's needs—releasing when necessary, when she sees that the client can move forward successfully, or instructing and directing when the client needs support.
While engaging in any of these activities, it is critical that the coach keep two things in mind: how is the client emotionally experiencing this learning activity? And what is the client's ZPD? We need to be acutely aware of any anxiety that might arise for our client and we need to constantly gather evidence that the learning activity is within the client's ZPD.
When the client doesn't seem to make the kind of growth we hope for, when the learning falls flat and doesn't result in any real changes in practice, it is most often because one of these two considerations wasn't accounted for—either emotions surfaced that shut down the learning or we were operating outside of the client's ZPD.
On-the-Spot Coaching
Coaching on-the-spot is feedback in the moment. It can be very useful, but is also tricky. A strong trust between the coach and client needs to exist in order for this to be effective, otherwise the client can feel embarrassed. A coach should either have explicit permission or should have a very, very strong reason to believe that the client will be receptive.
Once permission has been established and the parameters for on-the-spot coaching are clear, the coach can offer the client feedback while he is teaching. As with all feedback, the content needs to be selective and narrow. For example, if a teacher is working on increasing student talk in the classroom, and the coach is observing a lesson in which the teacher seems to be calling on the most verbally proficient students, the coach might communicate this observation to the teacher. The coach might scribble a note saying, “You're only calling on English proficient students. Call on an English learner.” This is very direct, but it can be appreciated if the trust is strong and the feedback is something the teacher wants to hear.
There are a number of technical skills which teachers struggle with that on-the-spot coaching can help reinforce. These include things such as wait time after a teacher asks a question or checking for procedural understanding before releasing students into an activity. These are skills that a teacher can quickly acquire i
f she gets immediate feedback. Likewise, there are similar leadership actions that administrators need help to practice and internalize. It's important that the coach can distinguish between which behaviors are useful to name in the moment and redirect, and which are not technical adjustments. The coach needs to be sure that the suggested feedback is definitely within the client's ZPD—“call on English learners,” or “wait for five seconds,” as opposed to a suggestion like, “Ask a higher-order question” that requires more thinking.
Coaching on-the-spot can be shared on sticky notes, through quick verbal exchanges, or by using technologies that allow for the coach to communicate directly into the client's ear. Devices for direct translation can be used for this purpose and are barely noticeable to others.
What is essential is that the coach offers a discrete piece of feedback which is clearly within the client's ZPD. If the client receives a suggestion and acts on it, and immediately sees the effect on students, his trust for the coach will increase and he'll be more receptive to immediate feedback.
Field Trips
One way of determining which learning activity might be most helpful to a client is to ask him how he learns best. Frequently people say that they learn best by watching someone else perform the tasks they aspire to master. Although the client can observe the coach teaching a lesson, leading a meeting, or holding a data conference, for example, it can also be very helpful to observe others who are in the same role. It is critical that the coach accompany the client on the observation, the reasons for which will be clear as we consider the necessary steps for a field trip to be meaningful.
The Art of Coaching Page 27