Coaching for Math GAINS Professional Learning Day 1 AM

1. Coaching for Math GAINSProfessional LearningDay 1 AM Irene McEvoy irene.mcevoy@gmail.com David Zimmer dzec_inc@rogers.com September 16, 2009

2. Initial Steps in Math Coaching How going SLOWLY will help you to make significant GAINS FAST.

3. Overview of the next two days Practice being a math coach in a safe environment through role play. View some examples of the math coaching process in action. Clarify your personal image of what being a mathematics coach involves. Identify some next steps for yourself.

4. The Parking Lot Cheers Fears Un-clears

5. Sharing Circle: (1-2 min.) • Who are you? • Your name, school, background, role • Success from last year • What are you looking forward to in the next 2 days?

6. Establishing Norms • Start and end on time • Electronic devices off except on break

7. Norms • Start and end on time • Respond to the signal • Each person gets the chance to speak and listen • Participants direct their discussion to the whole group, not the facilitator • Invest in your own learning and the learning of others. • Contribute to a safe environment that encourages risk taking; be kind. • Electronic devices off except on break

8. A Mathematics Classroom • What do you see that is different from the classrooms where you learned mathematics? • What do you see that you are trying to increase in your school’s mathematics classrooms? What does effective mathematics instruction look like today?

9. The “Guide” Aligned with 7-12 Literacy Guide A prototype for other subjects A research framework Find an indicator that addresses one of your foci for the year

10. More Precision www.edugains.ca Library www.tmerc.ca

11. Sharpening the Instructional Focus Three strategic approaches: • Fearless listening and speaking • Questioning to evoke and expose thinking • Responding to provide appropriate scaffolding and challenge Driver for 2008, 2009, 2010,…

12. Connecting Foci Questioning Fearless listening and speaking Responding Differentiating

13. What does being a math coach involve?

14. Coaching Mind’s On: Where are you presently? Pg. 2 In pairs, create a Frayer Model for “Coaching”

15. Lucy West: Types of Coaching • What are the different types of coaching and their purposes? • Which type of coaching do you/will you do?

16. It's all about trust! • Sincerity • Competence • Benevolence • Reliability Adapted from:Coaching Leaders to Attain Student Success – Gary Bloom

17. Lucy West: Content-Focused Coaching • How does Content-Focused Coaching connect with your thinking?

18. Content-Focused Coaching • Is content specific. Teachers' plans, strategies and methods are discussed in terms of student learning. • Is based on a set of core issues of learning and teaching. • Fosters professional habits of mind. • Enriches and refines teachers' pedagogical content knowledge. • Encourages teachers to communicate with each other … in a focused, professional manner. from Content-Focused Coaching: Transforming Mathematics Lessons, by Lucy West, p.3

19. Pg. 13

20. Initial Conversations • Role play the initial meeting between coach and coachee. • Ask questions to lay a foundation for your later work with the teacher. Use the stems to probe more deeply. Switch roles after 5 minutes.

21. Coaching Strategies and Stems Pg. 3 • Paraphrasing • Do I understand that… you don’t have access to computers? • In other words …you want to try some differentiated instruction? • It sounds like …you have explored a variety of resources? • Clarifying • What do you mean by … the course is too hard? • Is it always the case that …the students in the class don’t listen? • How is… teaching math same as/different from…teaching science? • Interpreting • What you are explaining might mean …students rely on formulas • Could it mean that … students need more time on this topic? • Is it possible that … the following things could result from… ?

22. Initial Meeting • Who are you? • What are your strengths, teaching style, beliefs, goals,…? • What do you want me to know about you as a math teacher? How long have you been teaching? What’s your math history? • Tell me about your students. • What are you curious about with respect to teaching and learning?”

23. Break

24. Enhancing Questioning Skills

25. Coaching Practices/Strategies Pg. 3-5 • Paraphrasing • Clarifying • Interpreting • Probing • Instructing • Summarizing

26. Coaching Practices/Strategies Probing • Often these questions are asked in the co-planning stage • The coachee often doesn’t have an immediate answer – wait time! • Coachee thinks deeper about the matter being discussed • Helps create a paradigm shift • Empowers the coachee to develop habits of mind • Moves thinking from reaction to reflection

27. Strategies for planning… Probing Questions • What is the big idea/goal/concept for in this lesson? • How does this lesson connect to previous understandings/lessons and future ones? • What aresome student misconceptions about this concept/idea? • What action might the students engage in, and how will these be introduced? • How will this action help them with their understanding of the concept? • How will you know when the students have understood? • What would be some questions (open, parallel) that would help students explore the problem?

28. Probing questions by the coach… • Evoke teacher thinking. • Expose teacher thinking. • Help the teacher see and drill into “good pedagogical practice”.

29. More strategies for planning … Instructing Questions • Can I provide more information on…algebra tiles? • Would youlike me to provide a list of…possible websites? • If you have not seen/heard …. of TIPS, would you like me to show you how where to find them and walk through a lesson with you? • Research seems to show that…adolescent learners are often not ready for abstract thinking • Some teachers find it helpful to… design a word wall with students

30. Co-planning video-observation • Watch the video clip of this co-planning session • Pay attention to: • who controls the discussion • the kinds of questions being asked (e.g. what probing or instructingquestions are used?) • how the coach helps to articulate the big ideas of the lesson

31. Co-Planning • Use the Co-Planning Observation Guide to record your notes. • What goals did the teacher have in mind? • What types of questions did you see the coach use? Pg. 8

32. Co-Planning Debrief • Discuss your observations based on your notes. Just the facts, please. • What types of questions did you see the coach use?

33. Lesson Observation • We’ll view enough of the actual lesson that viewing the debriefing meeting has some context. • How well did the lesson meet the teacher’s objectives? • What role did the coach play?

34. Debrief • Use the Debrief Observation Guide to record your notes. • Discuss your observations of the debriefing process. Pg. 9

35. Lunch