The Art of Coaching

by Elena Aguilar

  Challenge: It's impossible to find time to meet with teachers. I observe their lessons, but we never have time to debrief.

  Lens of Inquiry. This is another very common challenge that coaches face, which again often stems from the fact that coaching is an evolving field. We can begin exploring this issue by understanding how coaching has been framed and set up at this school. In order for coaching to be effective, we must consider and analyze the conditions for it to be taken up. Who has defined the coaching work? How do teachers and administrators understand what coaching is and what it is supposed to do? How have these understandings been developed and communicated? What are the expectations for teachers to engage with coaching? How have expectations been communicated? How much of a priority is coaching and to whom? What can be done so that time is allocated and held sacred for this work?

  Because coaching is sometimes perceived as a “soft and fluffy” thing, and not as rigorous professional development, it's sometimes seen by administrators and teachers as optional. If a genuine commitment exists at a site or in a district for teachers to participate in coaching, then this commitment needs to be communicated and prioritized.

  If this is the case, and you still struggle to find time to debrief, then you might benefit by considering the state of your relationships with teachers—how do they view you? How much do they trust you? What do they feel about the debriefs they've engaged in? How have those been helpful or not? A coach might consider that there are other activities that teachers would find more useful. It's worth having a direct conversation about this and making some explicit agreements about time spent in coaching.

  The underlying area to explore is decision making: Who decides how time is spent doing what and based on what criteria? There will never be enough time and time is never the culprit. Whenever we hear complaints of “not enough time,” we need to dig fast and deep or we're caught in a trap from which there is no way out. The lens of inquiry can be instrumental in these situations.

  Challenge: At the end of each coaching session, the principal I'm working with agrees to do a number of things before our next meeting. But then she never does them, and I get so frustrated!

  Lens of Adult Learning. First, you'll need to start by addressing your own emotions. You need to work through them so you don't get frustrated, because that's not going to help anything. Release some attachment to outcome.

  Why do you think your client isn't following through? Have you asked? There could be a number of reasons: perhaps the tasks you agreed on are too challenging for this principal to do alone. Perhaps she agreed to do them, in order to please you, but isn't able to do so. Exploring the client's zone of proximal development could be a good place to start. How were the tasks determined? How did you know that she could do them independently? Use the lens of adult learning to make sure that the tasks are the right ones.

  If you feel like you have data indicating that your client is capable of engaging in the assignments independently, and if you suspect that it's a matter of will (why isn't she willing to do this?) then new questions open up to consider. What does this principal believe is the purpose and benefit to doing these things? How does she see them as connected to her goals? What does she hope to get from doing them? Who decided these were the things to do anyway? Was it the coach—or did they emerge from the client?

  Once you have thought through some of these questions, raise them directly with the client. You can frame this as, “I've noticed that you haven't done the things you agreed to do. This is a pattern. Can we talk about what's going on?” Explore what she thinks, feels, and wants. Find a way to be curious about what's going on rather than frustrated. It's a much easier stance to take.

  Conclusion

  Start measuring your work by the optimism and self-sufficiency you leave behind.

  Peter Block (2011)

  Peter Block's suggestion has become almost my singular aspiration in a coaching conversation—it's my main indicator of whether I did a good job. After a coaching meeting, the first thing I ask myself is whether I think my client is feeling more optimistic about what he can do. Does he feel more empowered? Did he reconnect with his vision, values, and abilities? This is sometimes a hard road to chart—optimism and self-sufficiency are challenging outcomes in our schools—and sometimes the journey is rough and painful. I don't always reach this end but I'm always aiming for it—and when I hit it, and I know I've reached it, it's been a good day of coaching.

  Chapter 14

  Reflection and Assessment: What's Next?

  Read this when:

  You want some strategies to lead your client through a midyear or end-of-year reflection

  Your client feels like she hasn't made much progress and you need to help her see her growth

  A Midyear Crisis

  Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.

  Peter Drucker (2008)

  Only three weeks had passed since the winter break and Ana was telling me that she couldn't go on. “I'm not going to make it through the second semester,” she said, “They'll have to find a substitute principal for the rest of the year. I just wrote my letter of resignation.” Her neck was covered in hives, her eyes were puffy, and her desk was piled with papers, books, files, empty coffee cups and shriveled apple cores. “I'm a terrible principal, I haven't done any of the things I wanted to do for these kids; it was a mistake to take this position. I wasn't ready for it. Tell them you tried coaching me but I couldn't do it.” Someone knocked at the door. “Tell them to go away,” she said to me. “I can't do this.” She burst into tears.

  Ana's administrative assistant stood outside the door, her eyes wandering behind me toward the slumped figure of her principal. “I think we're going to need a few uninterrupted hours,” I said to the older woman who had seen dozen of principals cycle through this high school.

  I tossed out the trash, stacked up the books, and sat down opposite Ana. “I've let them down,” she sobbed. “Do you know how that feels? They know I'm from this community, they thought I could do something about all the problems, and now they see that I'm a failure.”

  I let Ana talk for a while. I gave her space to cry and vent. Then I made a proposal: “I'm wondering if we could spend some time reviewing the work we've done together this year—going over the goals you established?”

  “I haven't met those goals,” she said. “I'm miles away from them.”

  “OK,” I said. “But I think we might be able to find some evidence that you're moving toward them. Let's just try it, OK? And then you can quit.” Ana smiled and nodded her head. Although I had been preparing for a midyear reflection, I was nervous that I wasn't quite ready. Oh well, I thought, sometimes you just have to trust that you're ready enough and it'll be OK. I knew this conversation needed to happen at that very moment if Ana was going to stop spiraling down.

  Start out by celebrating the best in the situation because it allows us to fall in love with it, which connects us to our passion and emancipates the energy.

  Dewitt Jones (2012)

  Over three years have passed since this day. Ana has led her school through a transformation that no one believed could have been possible given her experience and the reality at the site when she took over. She often points to that January reflection in her first year as a principal as a pivotal moment in her career. This chapter describes what happened in that reflection and how a coach can use reflections to move coaching work forward. This chapter also explores how applying a systems lens approach can shift coaching from an individual professional development strategy to a transformational endeavor.

  The Midyear and End-of-Year Reflection

  There are times when a reflective process can be used as an intervention—as a cathartic, catalytic, and confrontational coaching strategy. This is how I used it with Ana on the day she was poised to turn in her resignation papers. But a midyear and end-of-year reflection can also serve man
y additional purposes: it can provide critical feedback for a coach on where a client is in her learning and how a coach needs to adjust her approach, it can help to redefine goals and actions plans for the subsequent period of work, and it can help to surface systemic questions that need to be addressed. This kind of a reflection is just good practice in the work of learning. By engaging our clients in it, we are modeling a practice that principals can do with their teachers and that teachers can do with students.

  Administrators: You can also do midyear and end-of-year reflections with those you supervise. These steps can serve as a guide.

  Following are the five basic steps to reaching a healthy and satisfying midyear or end-of-year reflection:

  Review the work plan and coaching notes. The work plan (Chapter Three) is the starting point for these big reflections. A coach can prepare for this conversation by reviewing the client's SMARTE goals, the strategic activities that were intended to lead to meeting these goals, and the evidence and data that were identified as indicators of progress toward the goals. Throughout the months of coaching since this plan was created, the coach may have documented the journey in weekly or monthly reflections or reports. Ideally, the coach has a pile of notes that she can review to remember the details of what's happened and to look for indicators of growth. Exhibit 14.1 offers an example of a monthly report.

  Reflect. As the coach reviews the work plan and coaching notes, the following questions can support reflection:Which of the strategic activities did the coach and client do together? Which did the client and principal do alone?

  What were the results of engaging in the strategic activities? How did they change the client's practice?

  What evidence do we have of a change in practice?

  Can we anticipate that the client will see evidence of these changes in practice? Is there evidence beyond what might be the client's self-reported belief that she's changed her practice?

  Exhibit 14.1. Transformational Coaching: Monthly Progress Report

  Coach: Elena Aguilar Client: Teresa Phillips Date: March 31, 2011

  Total Number of Hours Engaged with Client this Month (include explanation if necessary): Six hours; Teresa was out sick one week during our scheduled time.

  SMARTE Goal 1: [Complete a separate reflection for each coaching goal.] To provide verbal and written feedback to all students on their writing assignments every other week within two days of submission of the assignment for the entire school year.

  Strategic Activities Engaged in This Month to Meet Goal [Include those from the work plan, as well as any others that were used.]Analyze student writing.

  Analyze writing rubric and identify lessons that could demonstrate the elements that students are struggling with.

  Coach models writing lessons on rubric elements that students struggle with. Teacher observes. Debrief together.

  Coach observes teacher giving student feedback; debrief and reflect.

  Progress toward Goal Teresa has made significant progress toward her goal. She has consistently given students feedback on their writing this year and she's starting to see how this feedback is resulting in their writing improving. This month we continued to analyze student writing together in order to identify which elements on the rubric were still hard for the kids. We categorized the students into groups depending on their results and Teresa created a plan to support those who are still struggling. I modeled one lesson on the rubric element “voice,” because Teresa had tried teaching some lessons on it but wasn't seeing the results she wanted to see in student papers. After I modeled the lesson, then the next day Teresa did a follow-up lesson and we looked at the work that students did.

  also observed Teresa giving students feedback as she regularly does during silent reading time. One thing I noticed, which I discussed with Teresa afterwards, was that she made some assumptions about her students' ability to use idioms. Given that all of her students are English language learners, we discussed that she may need to do some more direct instruction on idioms. In this conversation, Teresa became very emotional because she said she felt overwhelmed by how much she needed to teach her students to prepare them for high school. I used a cathartic approach to help her process these feelings. When reflecting on her goals, Teresa felt very satisfied with what she has accomplished.

  Evidence of Changes in Practice The number of students who needed reteaching on three elements from the rubric decreased from last month. This month there were only four who needed reteaching. Last month there were nine.

  Student writing from after Teresa did voice lessons—after she observed me model a lesson—showed that student were internalizing the learning. We found a number of specific pieces of evidence.

  Teresa's one-on-one feedback sessions with students are precise and quickly get to the points that she wants to share with students. I have transcriptions of these conversations from the whole year that show how her instructions get more precise and also that students demonstrate an understanding of what she's saying.

  Teresa was really hard on herself in the beginning of the year. It is getting much easier for her to recognize her own accomplishments and growth and to share those without feeling like she's bragging. My notes from our coaching sessions provide this evidence.

  Next Steps and Coaching Moves Teresa is feeling very confident about meeting her year-long goal. Next month she will teach a new writing genre and she's nervous about whether her students will be able to apply their newly acquired skills. She wants me to observe her a few times as she teaches mini-lessons. I suggested that we use video and that we debrief it together, but she's apprehensive. I think she's getting a little too dependent on my opinion, even though I try not to give it, so I'd like to push her to try the video. I want to make sure that she feels she is the owner of her learning and that she doesn't think it's all my coaching. In these last months, I want to make sure that I'm playing a facilitative role and releasing the responsibility of learning even more to her. I think I'll need to make this explicit so that she understands my coaching moves, and I think this will be OK with her.

  When has coaching felt most successful? When have we noticed the client experience a big “aha”? What does the coach think is the biggest “bright spot?”

  What's gotten in the way of coaching? What might need to be addressed, confronted, or dealt with in order for coaching to be more effective?

  What have we learned about how our client learns? About what changes her practice and which strategies are most effective? Do we tend to coach mostly through a cathartic or supportive approach? Do we engage mostly in activities—and if so, which kinds?

  In order for the client to meet her goal, does it seem like the same strategic activities need to be repeated? Do new activities need to be added? Are we spending enough time reflecting on the activities?

  Does the coach need to further scaffold the activities so that the client can engage in them alone? Are we ready to release more responsibility so that the client can be more autonomous in her learning?

  Which coaching strategies do we want to be sure to use regularly? Which ones do we want to try using more often?

  It's important that as the coach reviews these questions and the data she's gathered, she is careful not to tumble into judgment or self-critical blame. It doesn't help if we start to beat ourselves up over what didn't happen, or if we get judgmental about what our client did or didn't do.

  3. Plan the coaching conversation. Once the coach has reviewed the plans and considered these questions, then she can design the conversation she'll have with her client. Although we spend time planning it, it's critical that this conversation is driven by the client. We might prepare some questions to pose and keep our reflections in mind, but then we'll let the client direct the conversation.

  We'll come to the meeting with the work plan in hand and lay it out on the desk. We'll ask the client many of the same questions that we reflected on, but phrased slightly differently. These can include the fol
lowing:

  Which of these strategic activities felt useful to you?

  What evidence would you cite that indicates a change in your practice? How do you know you're making progress toward your goals?

  What do you feel good about in terms of your growth this semester (or this year)? What learning do you feel has been most powerful? When have you felt a big “aha”?

  Which changes in practice or learnings do you feel have positively affected students? What do you think has made a big difference to them? How do you know that your learnings positively affected them?

  What's gotten in the way of doing some of these activities that we'd planned on doing? Are they activities that you'd still like to try? That you think would be helpful? Or are they activities we need to let go of? Are there other things you think we should do that would be helpful?

  What's been hard about engaging in coaching?

  What could I do that would make it more effective for you?

  Is there any feedback you'd like to give me about how I'm working with you?

  As I plan this reflective conversation, I engage in the same kind of thinking and writing as I described in Chapter Thirteen: I consider where my client needs this conversation to go and who I need to be in it. I try to anticipate how she'll respond, what might come up for her, and how I'll react.