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Checklist Please

 "The effectiveness of professional developers is directly related to how well they know the material they share" (Knight, 2018, p. 102)

I believe this quote made by Jim Knight wholeheartedly. Personally, I trust and "buy-in" when instructional coaches seem to really know their stuff. When they have a solid understanding and confidence about instructional strategies, it makes me more willing to try new things. It's even better if they have personal experience using the strategy they are suggesting! 

Instructional coaches must have both a broad variety of instructional strategies, but also a deep understand of each of them (Knight, 2018). The coach's toolbox of instructional strategies must be like a river, deep and wide. 

                                        Photo by Jack Anstey on Unsplash

Instructional coaches can partner with teachers to help identify a goal that the teacher would like to meet. Once a teacher and coach have identified the goal, either the teacher can identify a strategy to try, or the instructional coach can offer to suggest some strategies (Knight, 2019).

Instructional coaches can organize their plethora of strategies using what Knight refers to as the "Big Four" (Knight, 2018).
  • Content Planning Strategies
  • Formative Assessment Strategies
  • Instructional Strategies
  • Community Building Strategies
These four categories of strategies can be organized into Instructional Playbooks. Just like an athletic coach has a playbook of tried and true strategies for improving his or her players' performance, the instructional coach's playbook is filled with strategies for improving his or her partner teacher's performance. The beauty of the playbook is that it is designed to be a short and simple way to organize and reference the strategies. 

An Instructional Playbook is made up of three sections:
  • one page listing the teaching strategies
  • one page describing each of the strategies
  • checklists to describe the teaching practices
In this example, the Instructional Playbook is a digital interactive document, which makes it easily accessible to the faculty and staff.

Although each of the three parts of the Instructional Playbook are important, the part that resonated with me the most was the checklists. I love a checklist. I love the structure of a checklist. I also love the feeling of accomplishment that comes with checking items off of the checklist. Knight (2019) explains that "to make it easier for teachers to implement instructional strategies, coaches can enhance and simplify their explanations through the use of checklists" (p.10).

Whenever I hear "checklist" I cannot help but think of the cartoon "Special Agent Oso" that my kids used to watch when they were little. In the show, the special agent always had a mission and in order to achieve his mission he was provided a checklist from his paw pilot with three special steps...with a song to go along with it, of course!
Just like Special Agent Oso, teacher's can benefit from the structure and simplicity of a checklist when they are learning to implement a new strategy. In the cartoon, Oso receives feedback as he is completing the steps. Often times the steps are modeled for him so he can see exactly what he should be doing. Instructional coaches can provide this same feedback when working with their partner teachers in order to help them be successful with a new strategy.

References

Crowley ISD - Curriculum and Instruction (2018, August 30). September 2018 - 90 seconds with C&I - "instructional strategies playbook" [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayeGJqoqF9Q

Kelly, M. (2019, June 6). The Instructional Playbook: The Missing Link for Translating Research into Practice. Instructional Coaching Group. https://www.instructionalcoaching.com/the-instructional-playbook-the-missing-link-for-translating-research-into-practice/

Knight, J. (2018). The impact cycle: What instructional coaches should do to foster powerful improvements in teaching. Corwin.

Knight, J. (2019). Instructional coaching for implementing visible learning: A model for translating research
into practice. Education Sciences, 9. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci9020101

TV&Film-Friends. (2020, March 1). Special Agent Oso - Three special steps [TSS] (To Grandma with love) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3WtLi3xLAI

Comments

  1. Brittanni BrownOctober 22, 2021 at 8:53 PM

    Valerie,
    I, too, use the quote from Knight (2018) when he wrote how the effectiveness of a coach is equivalent to how well they know the material they are presenting to others. I related so much to that statement. Too many times have I been the victim of this type of professional development. I am also sure I have inadvertently been this type of presenter before early on in my career. I love the idea of creating a playbook for strategies for helping instructional coaches organizing strategies and for sharing them with teachers. The part of the playbook that I felt was the most beneficial was the section for describing each of the strategies. Thank you for sharing. I enjoyed reading your thoughts and description of the module's material.
    Reference
    Knight, J. (2018). The impact cycle: What instructional coaches should do to foster powerful improvements in teaching. Corwin.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dale MasseyOctober 24, 2021 at 9:04 AM

    Valerie, I love that you talked about how important it is that professional developers know their material. One of the most important aspects of knowing your stuff is this ability to give feedback, but most of the time giving feedback requires time. I think that checklists allow you to let teachers get their feedback in a way that makes it easier to improve. According to Lia (2016), “But teachers also benefit from receiving feedback - feedback helps them to progress” (para. 2). That’s the key, feedback isn’t a “gotcha” moment, it’s a chance to grow. I also think that on top of knowing your material, you also have to be able to communicate that knowledge. As Knight (2017) explains, “Not only do instructional coaches need to know their teaching practices inside out, but they also need to be able to communicate that knowledge clearly” (p. 107).
    References
    Knight, J. (2017). The Impact Cycle: What Instructional Coaches Should Do to Foster Powerful Improvements in Teaching (1st ed.). Corwin.
    Lia, M. (2016). Using An Observation Coaching Checklist to Provide Feedback to Teachers. Journal of Catholic Education, 20 (1). http://dx.doi.org/10.15365/joce.2001152016

    ReplyDelete

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