Coaching and mentoring conversations for school improvement CASE STUDY. Coaching for implementing the Australian Curriculum Gray Primary School

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1 Coaching and mentoring conversations for school improvement CASE STUDY Coaching for implementing the Australian Curriculum Gray Primary School Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership Limited 1

2 Coaching and mentoring conversations for school improvement Case Study Case study title Coaching for implementing the Australian Curriculum Institution name Gray Primary School, Palmerston, Northern Territory Background Gray Primary School is located in the suburb of Gray in the city of Palmerston, opening in The School mission is to be a vibrant teaching and learning centre that maximises each child s wellbeing, Literacy and Numeracy potential in a safe, healthy, inclusive and collaborative environment. Gray Primary School has a very complex and multi-cultural student population with 25% special needs; 3% under NT Family and Children s Services care; 26% English as a Second Language (ESL) and 45% are Indigenous. The School involves a range of outside agencies. For example, the School has an agreement with 6 local non government organisations (NGOs) who work within the School community as a group called Partners Engaged with Gray School (PETS). Many classes incorporate the Bluearth Sports program into their weekly activities. In 2012 the School won a National Red Cross award for Harmony Day celebrations, and also won the National Australia Bank school s first award for the Northern Territory. The principal places an emphasis on using a shared or distributed leadership approach. Intended outcome(s) This case study focuses upon the use of coaching conversations to develop teaching and learning practices that implement the Australian Curriculum and draw upon the Marzano approach to school development (see The challenge The challenge for the school is to implement the Australian Curriculum and school improvement policies concurrently. The Australian Curriculum has to be implemented into schools in the Northern Territory. At the same time, School Reviews and a School Improvement Framework have been introduced into schools in the Northern Territory. At Gray Primary School the implementation of the English and Maths, Science and History Australian Curricula, have commenced. To support the school improvement processes the Marzano s Nine Instructional Strategies for Effective Teaching and Learning, are being applied in the school. This project started by the teachers identifying what makes a good learner? and asking the students what is good learning? 2 Coaching for implementing the Australian Curriculum

3 Coaching and mentoring conversations for school improvement Building practice To support the introduction of the Australian Curriculum the leadership team undertook some coaching conversations to ask teachers the following: Case Study how are you travelling with the change? what is worrying you? what are you finding is familiar? From those conversations the leadership team got a good sense about who was traveling well and who was not. Then the leadership team went about pairing people to support each other and looking for success with everybody. The pairing up of teachers assisted them to understand that other people shared their concerns and they were not alone. All the teachers work collaboratively in professional learning teams. The principal has a teacher who is work-shadowing her during her coaching sessions, to build his capacity as a coach and school leader. There is an expectation in the school that every teacher uses lesson intentions for every lesson. Students and teachers should be able to answer what are the lesson intentions. Students know their reading levels and set new targets each term. Teachers are expected to provide timely written and oral feedback to students. The use of coaching conversations enables a holistic school improvement process that brings together into a cohesive whole, many of the external policies that have to be implemented in the school. Use of coaching/mentoring conversations Classroom observations are used as the basis for the coaching conversations. Both the classroom observations and the coaching conversations tend to last for an hour. Modelling learning is provided by the leadership team. There are three coaches working across the school. These three are being coached themselves by outside educators. The purpose of the coaching of the leadership team is to make sure they are all on the same page, and to assist them to grow as learners and coaches. Establishing the processes of coaching conversations with the principal as part of the leadership team has positioned the school principal as a learner. It has been good for staff to see the principal as a learner too: the Principal is not the expert but is learning too. That is, the principal role models being a learner. The three coaches provide the coaching to the teaching staff and build the trust necessary to look collaboratively and constructively at teachers programs and give them feedback. The coaching conversations are used with classroom observations. A template is used and teachers ask the leadership coaches to focus on specific areas, with each teacher being a bit different. A time is made with the teacher to give specific feedback immediately after the classroom observation, which takes some of the anxiety out of the processes. Using classroom observations are held in the morning, and by the afternoon the feedback is typed up and the teacher and coach talk together. External consultants are used to seek confidential feedback from teachers about the coaching session with the school principal. This feedback is then collated and sent to each leadership coach and this feedback then becomes a precursor to a coaching session by the external consultant with each of the leadership coaches. Coaching for implementing the Australian Curriculum 3

4 Coaching and mentoring conversations for school improvement Case Study The school has moved from implementing the Australian Curriculum to using Marzano to inform the school improvement work of the school. The emphasis of this work is on pedagogy across the school - implementing the Australian Curriculum. After having the School Review the leadership team identified that we were implementing the Australian Curriculum well, but that a common pedagogical framework was required across the school. Key points for effective coaching and/mentoring practice Developing shared understandings and practices about coaching compared with mentoring, evaluating and consulting across the system takes time but is a prerequisite for success Using data as a basis for coaching, reflecting and planning and evaluating success Commitment to a coaching methodology for school improvement Intentional coaching for school improvement Intentional coaching (with context and task specific mentoring, evaluating and consulting) from an anecdotal perspective is emerging as a powerful tool in achieving school improvement. Individuals and teams using coaching as an intentional intervention methodology report changed behaviour in teachers, teaching and leading. Comments like: I feel valued, I have hope, I know a lot of stuff already this has just helped me focus and identify what is important, I am no longer doing things to people to achieve improved learning I am doing things with people to achieve improved learning for our students. A proposition could be that coaching has the potential to achieve culture change in a way that other models have not. Conclusions and recommendations The principal has learned that she has to model learning intentions with the teaching staff. She understands that change takes time. She says: take the staff with you and don t rush it. Teachers are now asking how to do things in their classroom because the school culture is sufficiently encouraging of teachers to do this. 4 Coaching for implementing the Australian Curriculum

5 Coaching Model at Gray Primary School 2013 COACHING MODEL AT GRAY PRIMARY SCHOOL 2013 School divided into three coaching teams Preschool, Transition and Non Contact teachers coached by AP; Year 1 and 2 teachers coached by Lead Teacher; and Years 3-6 teachers coached by Principal. Teachers provided with professional learning in Marzano pedagogy by Principal. Teachers implement all elements of each Design Question from Marzano professional learning in their programs and class. Towards the end of each term the teachers will give written feedback about the coaches to the external coaches (Marilyn and Julianne Willis). After the classroom observation the coach will meet with the teacher to have a coaching conversation about the lesson. (refer to template of coaching conversation) Each coach conducts a classroom observation in their classes every term term 1 general focus, term 2 reading lesson, term 3 writing lesson and term 4 maths lesson. External coaches will meet individually with the AP, Principal and Lead Teacher to coach them using AITSL Principal standards. External coaches will meet once a term with the Leadership Team to ensure everyone is on track. Whole school evaluation of the model at the end of This Coaching model is to support the implementation of Marzano pedagogy across the school as well as whole school improvement in English and Maths. This year the coaching has had a focus on teachers using lesson intentions, positive behaviour strategies, differentiation, data to inform teaching, how to address the top 10% in the class, supporting students to set learning goals and targets, how to teach new knowledge, how to revise new knowledge and how to use critical thinking/higher order thinking to extend students knowledge. This coaching model will lead into professional learning of John Hatties Visible Learning strategies in 2014.

6 Coaching Conversation Template NAME OF COACHEE: NAME OF COACH: DATE: What is working well and why? GRAY PRIMARY SCHOOL EVIDENCE OF COACHING CONVERSATION What is a challenge and why? What do you think are your growth areas? Program Feedback: Marzano implementation: Design Question 1: Design Question 6: Design Question 7:

7 Data and Monitoring: Show me how you are using data to inform your English and Maths programs? How do you know where each of your students are at? How do you monitor the learning? Learning: What resources/strategies do you use to move students forward? What learning expectations do you hold for your students? How do you get this message across? How will students process new information/content? How will students practice new information/content? What should you see students doing or hear them saying that will tell you the lesson is successful? Feedback: What feedback do you provide students and parents? Can you show me some of your feedback? Classroom Concerns: What concerns do you have regarding the learning in your class? What data or evidence do we have that this is a concern? Do we agree that there is a concern and that it is worth considering? What previous attempts have we used to deal with the concern? What outcomes? Which students are affected by this concern and what do they need? Once we identify the students learning needs, do we know the best practices to meet those needs? What do these practices look like? Talk to me about how you are differentiating in the classroom.

8 Tell me about your on-going assessments for English and Maths. How do you differentiate these for your special needs students? Classroom Walk Through What worked well? What needs refining? Evaluating our teaching: What do you expect your students to learn? How do you teach students to be responsible for their learning outcomes? How do you know your teaching is effective? As you reflect on this discussion, what insights are you discovering about your students? Planning? Assessment? Questioning? Monitoring? Targets? Your expectations? Actions to be taken: Timeline:

9 Next Coaching conversation to include: Coachee signature : Date: / / 2013 Coach signature: Date: / / 2013 Principal signature: Date: / /2013

10 HIghly Effective Teaching Practices in GRAY PRIMARY SCHOOL HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEACHING PRACTICES IN READING EXPECTED IN CLASS WALK THROUGHS DATA/ASSESSMENT All students are marked on the Overview of the First Steps Map of Development as per inside cover of First Steps Map of Development All students are assessed in PM levels Lexiles by week 6 of every term levels for all students are on display in the classroom and students have individual reading targets to reach each term. Teachers routinely use objective data on student achievement to plan, program and assess. Teachers have an excellent understanding of current levels of performance of each student their strengths and weaknesses based on data. MONITORING Teachers closely monitor the progress of individual students and continually adjust their teaching in response to the progress that individuals are making. Teachers assist students to monitor their own learning and to set goals for future learning. ENVIRONMENT Teachers maintain a safe, respectful, tolerant, inclusive environment that promotes intellectual rigour and allows students to feel safe and take risks in their learning. Teachers ensure the classroom environment is rich in text. Teachers create learning environments in which all students are engaged and challenged. DIFFERENTIATION Teachers ensure that the top 15% of students are extended through the use of higher order thinking from Blooms Taxonomy and Critical Thinking strategies. Teachers set high expectations for every student. Teachers have a range of groupings for reading that involve different resources and expectations. Teachers programs show how the different needs of students are addressed and how multiple opportunities to learn are provided. Student workbooks illustrate differentiated tasks. Teachers ensure that early and sustained interventions are in place for students identified as requiring additional support. FEEDBACK Teachers provide regular and timely feedback to students in forms that make it clear what actions individuals can take to further their learning. Student workbooks illustrate specific written feedback to students on a regular basis.

11 EXPLICIT TEACHING is explicitly taught for one hour every day. The Big Six of is explicitly taught Oral Language and Linguistic Knowledge, Phonological Awareness, Letter Sound knowledge, Vocabulary Skills, Fluency and Comprehension Teachers understand and teach semantic, (topic, concept, cultural, world knowledge, vocabulary) syntactic (grammatical and text knowledge) and graphophonic (word, graphophonic and orthographic knowledge sound and symbols, knowledge of letters and groups of letters, knowledge of print concepts) cues. Teachers explicitly teach the 4 roles of the reader code breaker, text participant, text user and text analyst. All students are taught the reading strategies as per page 131 First Steps Resource Book. Teacher s use a range of approaches to reading modelled reading, shared reading, guided reading and independent reading. Teachers introduce a variety of texts to students. Teaching practices reflect the belief that although students are at different stages in their learning and progress at different rates, all students are capable of learning successfully if motivated and given the appropriate learning opportunities. Teachers know each student s starting points for teaching and how to move them to the next level. Teachers set high expectations for every student s progress and ambitious targets for improvement. Teachers provide time for students to enjoy reading, not just do reading activities. Teachers are committed to identifying and implementing better teaching methods based on evidence-based teaching strategies. Teachers use lesson intentions in order to have clarity about what students are expected to learn and be able to do. CLASS WALKTHROUGH PROCESS 1. The walkthrough will be pre-organised between the class teacher and the coach. 2. Approximately 50 minutes will be spent in the classroom during the walkthrough. This gives the coach time to look around the class environment, observe the lesson, talk with students and look at student books. 3. Observation will be for evidence that supports or not the planned reading program and strategies. Evidence can be by displays, work students are engaged in, student work in books or portfolios, teacher questions and responses. 4. The coach is an observer in the classroom not a judgemental person. 5. After the walkthrough the coach will photocopy her notes and place in the teacher s pigeon hole. The notes will provide both warm feedback and suggestions or queries. 6. The coach and teacher are to meet asap after the walkthrough to discuss the feedback. 7. Comments from the coach will be phrased as questions where and when possible. Probing questions may be used by the coach during the feedback session. 8. Suggestions for improvement may be provided during the feedback session.

12 READING LESSON OBSERVATION: Teacher: Date of Walkthrough: Class: Date of feedback meeting: Data/Assessment: Monitoring: Environment: Differentiation: Feedback from Teacher to Student:

13 Explicit Teaching: Modelled : Was the session short and sharp? Did teacher use think aloud strategy? Did students stay focused and interested? Shared : Did the students actively participate in the reading? Could all students clearly see the text? Was the reading session focussed? Was the text appropriate? Did the teacher involve the students in meaningful follow-up activities related to the text? Guided : Was the text appropriate to the student s instructional level and selected focus? Were students grouped according to a similar need? Did the teacher use the guided reading questions effectively? Were the students given times to reflect on their use of reading strategies? Independent : Is time set aside for uninterrupted independent reading each day? Are students given a range of reading materials to choose from? Did I get students to report back to the class on what they are reading? Did the teacher read or gather data about the students? General Discussion: Signed by Teacher: Signed by Coach: Signed by Principal:

14 OVERVIEW OF A BALANCED READING PROGRAM is taught through a range of procedures that gradually release the learning over to the student. Teachers should begin with modelled reading, moving to shared reading, then to guided reading and then to independent reading. Once teachers have worked through this process the type of reading should be mixed up so throughout the term students work at all of these types of reading. Below each of these phases of reading is explained in more detail. Type of Modelled (whole class) Definition and features Example Resources Teacher reading aloud to students for a short period of time. Teacher demonstrating reading behaviours and verbalizing the cognitive processes involved in those behaviours. Class novel Picture story books Magazines Newspapers Pages First Steps (FS) Resource Bk Singular or limited focus of behaviour in reading. The same behaviours are modelled many times. Shared (whole class then in groups for differentiated activities) Language experience in sessions that are minutes. All students in class participate. Focus is singular or limited in one session. The text is visible and accessible to all students. Texts about excursions, cooking, funny happenings. Poetry and Rhymes Pages FS Resource Bk There usually are multiple readings of the text. In EYrs the teacher reads the text first, encouraging students to join in. As the text becomes more familiar students take more control of the reading. The teacher explicitly demonstrates and teaches reading strategies. Texts that can be used for Choral reading or Reader s Theatre. In PYrs the texts provide examples of more complex linguistic features. The teacher or more competent readers may read the text aloud. The teaching focus will sometimes include more formal teaching of grammar. Differentiated activities follow the shared reading.

15 Guided (small group with the teacher) Teacher selects texts at students instructional level. Small groups of students work with individual copies of the same text. Students are grouped to focus on an identified need. Most reading is performed silently (but not essential). The teacher guides the reading. Literature circles Listening posts Guided reading circles Reciprocal reading circles Pages FS Resource Bk The teacher uses the guided reading questions to create discussion about the text. Developing Readers: Students are guided by the teacher to apply the strategies they know to read a text they do not know. Independent Readers: Texts selected by the relevance of the topic rather than the level. Discussion focuses on the content of the text rather than the reading strategies. Independent (without the teacher) Students select their own text. Everyone is involved in reading. The session is uninterrupted. Students need access to a wide variety of reading materials and time to read independently every day. Learning centres Listening post Computer Library corner games Research Pages FS Resource Bk Students observe the teacher as a model of an independent reader. Students use reading journals.

16 THE FOUR ROLES OF A READER Code Breaker Text User Text Participant Developing phonemic awareness Ability to recognize, combine and manipulate the different sound units of spoken words (auditory, based on speech, focused on sounds) Teaching grapho-phonics Letters have a name and represent sounds in words. A sound can be represented by different letters or letter combinations. Words can be broken down into parts, eg syllables. Teaching Vocabulary Knowledge Words used in speaking or writing. Sight vocabulary. Words than can be decoded when reading. Words understood when listening. Teaching Text Form Knowledge Purpose, structure, organization and language features. Developing comprehension through reading and analysing a range of texts Settings and plot Purpose of text Sequencing Character Implied and explicit information Author studies Making connections to self, to other texts, to the world Building knowledge within the cues Semantic cues Does it make sense? Building students knowledge base of cultural, world, vocabulary and knowledge of texts Syntactic Cues Does it sound right? Building students knowledge of patterns of language functional grammar. Grapho-phonic Cues Does it look right? Orthographic spelling of words Letters and combinations of letters and the sounds they make. Locating and Selecting Texts Locate texts for a specific purpose Select appropriate level and text to suit purpose Evaluate, analyse and make judgments about texts Reflecting on and using strategies to maintain meaning Predicting, connecting, comparing, inferring, synthesising, creating images, self-questioning, skimming, scanning, determining importance, summarising and paraphrasing, re-reading, reading on, adjusting reading rate, sounding out, chunking, using analogy, consulting a reference. Text Analyst Authors and Illustrators Present a view of the world that can be challenged Represent facts, events, characters and people in different ways Use devices to achieve a specific purpose Having our own point of view Understanding the author s intent.

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