Instructional Coaching Summer Series & Giveaway

It's time for my favorite annual event at Buzzing with Ms. B. The Summer Coaching Series & Giveaway!

Here's the why: 

When coaches are hired, they are often teachers who have demonstrated a lot of strength in the classroom. But when they're moved to a coaching position, they're often left to figure out how to work with adults on their own.

If you've been coaching for any length of time at all, it's clear: kids and teachers are two very different animals. The way we worked with kids isn't always the way to work with teachers.

The challenge is that there isn't always a lot of support or professional development for coaches.

That's why this Summer Coaching Series is all about how to support teachers in order to support students.

You'll walk away with specific ideas and steps to take to make your coaching work better and help you coach with confidence!

And here's the what:

The posts for the blog series this summer are: 

July 13: How to introduce yourself as an instructional coach
July 20: Conducting a coaching cycle
July 27: Planning collaboratively with teachers
August 3: Preparing to Model and Coteach
August 10: Working with teachers (who aren't excited to have you around)

On top of these posts that are FULL of actionable ideas for your coaching work, I'm having a BIG coaching giveaway!

One lucky duck will win the Instructional Coaching Kit, an over $170 value!

Included in this kit (some of these are affiliate links: 

• My favorite Eccolo notebook (Bendable)
• My favorite Blue Sky calendar (Week-at-a-glance)
• The best erasable pens out there
• Flair pens
• A pencil pouch
• Magnetic bookmarks (lemons!)
• A paper tray
• Post-it flags, binder clips, washi tape, and cute paperclips
• Thank you cards
• The Instructional Coaching Resource Bundle (sent via email)
• The Coaching in Classrooms resource (sent via email)

And four people will win the Digital Coaching Giveaway: the Instructional Coaching Resource Bundle and my all-new Coaching in Classrooms resource! Over $75.00 worth of products!

To enter this contest, follow the rafflecopter directions below to enter. Plus, you can add one new entry with each blog post that comes out in the Summer Coaching Series!

If you're really serious about winning, you can share a takeaway (bonus points) every single day between now and August 17, when the giveaway closes.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

   
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Six Tips for Coaching Reader's Workshop

As coaches, we coach a variety of contents and strategies. We help teachers grow in whatever area they are focused on and using the approach that works best for students.

However, in many schools, there are a collection of approaches that the school is working towards. In this case, the coach is called on to coach teachers within those frameworks. This is the case if your school uses a framework such as Reader's Workshop, Writer's Workshop, or Math Workshop.

Each of these frameworks  will look different from classroom to classroom, but the basic components will be the same. In Reader's Workshop, those components are the minilesson, independent reading, guided reading, reading conferences, and a closing share.

I am sharing even more ideas (and a really big free download) for coaching Reader's Workshop during my virtual session at the Simply Coaching Summit all about this topic, and so I thought I'd share some of the tips from that FREE conference (that you can still register for!) here on the blog!

Here are six tips to help you get started in coaching Reader's Workshop!

#1 Start out by building a common language.  

Without a common language, planning together and communicating can be really challenging. For example, the word "read" is used to mean many things. Some teachers use it to mean students are decoding accurately, but not comprehending. Others use it to mean that students read and comprehend - real reading. 

If everyone has a different idea what you're saying when you say, "minilesson", "inference", and "word study", it is nearly impossible to plan together effectively. Spending time on building a common language is a valuable way to grow a team.

Ways to do this may include modeling lessons for each component, creating a video bank of modeled lessons so teachers can watch them when they have time, doing language-building activities during PD where teachers match Reader's Workshop vocabulary words with their definitions before and after the session, and doing a book study on this framework.

#2 Collect everyone’s schedule.  

This is not a “gotcha”. This is to help you in scheduling visits to classrooms, opportunities for teachers to learn from each other, and to see where teachers are planning to spend their time during Reader’s Workshop. If something isn’t included in a teacher’s plan for the day, it’s definitely not on their radar. This will tell you what teachers value in reading instruction.

Once you have everyone's schedule, organize it into a spreadsheet. I broke mine down into fifteen minute increments. Then I made a column for each grade level and wrote in what they were doing during each time frame. It made it much easier for me to figure out when a good time to visit might be, and when to plan time to collaborate with teachers!

#3 Make sure teachers have what they need. 

Do a sweep of the school to ensure that teachers have classroom libraries, a space for guided reading, and the instructional tools and materials they need. This could be easels, chart paper, binders, baskets to organize books, book bins or bags, etc. It’s not that tools will do the job of implementing Reader’s Workshop, but if you can make a teacher’s life easier and better, and improve the student's learning experience by getting them what they need, why not? 

You may not be able to get everybody everything they'd like, but you may have some input when the principal is making purchases for the campus.

#4 Make sure that training includes a focus on the standards. 

Teachers need to know their standards, and so do you. Make sure that that you are really well versed in the standards for each grade and what they look like. Planning should start with what students need to learn how to do. If it doesn’t, it’s just fluff.

#5 Create a culture of collaboration. 

 One non-threatening way to start this is to ask people to bring something they’d like to share for your next PLC. Each person brings one student or classroom artifact that they have created throughout their unit of study. 

At the beginning of your next PLC meeting, ask each person to share their artifact and explain their process a little so everyone can learn from each other. 

Perhaps teachers can bring a reader's notebook response or entry. They can take a picture of an anchor chart they built with their students during a lesson, or share a mentor text that works really well with a particular skill.

Over time, this can grow, but it starts with making collaboration a standard “way of being”.

#6 Create a mentor text library.  

Organize books by reading strategy or skill. Label them. Host them in your coaching room. Over time, you can make sure teachers have a great collection of books, too. Read about how we put together grade level mentor text baskets for our teachers!

   

 

See you there!

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Four things instructional coaches need to do this summer

I get a lot of questions from peole who have just been hired as instructional coaches. The number one question is: What can I do to be ready?

If your brain is racing, trying to figure to what you need to do to be ready for next year, you are not alone.

Coaches everywhere (especially new coaches, or coaches who know big changes are coming) are trying to figure out how to be prepared for next year.

Here are four easy things you can do to be ready!

1. Make some decisions.

It's impossible to "focus" on everything. I know teachers who continuously stress themselves out by saying things like, "We're targeting all of these skills", and the list is 10 skills long. You can't "target" ten skills. You can really only "target" a couple of things at a time (ok, technically one thing, but I'm being flexible with this metaphor). 

If you're going to be effective, you really need to take a step back and reflect on how things went this year. Then you need to make some decisions about where you are going to invest your energy next year. It helps to do this over the summer so you have a month or two to let it sort of "percolate" in the back of your mind. What could this look like?

• Maybe this year you're going to make sure you spend more time in teachers' classrooms because you got pulled from this a lot last year.
• Maybe you're going to make a point to learn about data so you can support your teachers in understanding student strengths and areas to grow.
• Maybe you're going to dig in to your state standards to support your teachers in planning.

Grab this free download to reflect on your coaching year and think about what's next!

Once you've decided what you want to do differently next year, you'll know what your focus for learning will be on this summer. This brings me to tip #2...

2. Read a book.

While I completely recommend reading books for personal enjoyment (teachers and coaches have to be readers, too!), I'm referring to reading a book about coaching. Bonus points if it supports your plans for next year!

Here are a few I recommend. These are affiliate links, but they're all books I have read and learned from.


Coaching Conversations by Linda Gross Cheliotes and Marceta Fleming Reilly This book focuses on being a committed listener, speaking powerfully, and providing reflective feedback. Perfect for the coaching cycle!

 

The Art of Coaching by Elena Aguilar When you're working with a teacher, there are so many social and emotional issues that we take for granted in addition to the academic issues we tend to focus on. This book brings them to light and gives you some insight in addressing them.

The Art of Coaching Teams by Elena Aguilar

Coaching PLCs or grade levels can be very challenging. This book gives you a lot to think about when it comes to working with teams effectively.

  Student-Centered Coaching: the Moves by Diane Sweeney This book is full of actionable items that you can actually implement quickly. I really recommend it, especially for new coaches!

   And now for a shameless plug: The Start-Up Guide to Instructional Coaching by me.  

3. Do some PD.

Sometimes coaches get lots of PD in their content areas, but not in the actual work of coaching.
Getting professional development specifically designed for coaches is so important, and it can be motivating, too!

Sometimes, coaching PD can be hard to find.

Fortunately, here's a free one you can sign up for! It's four days of virtual PD especially for coaches! There are sessions about topics coaches need: data, culture, questioning, communicating effectively, and more. 

Just check it out to read through all of the session titles and see the big names in coaching, too! Diane Sweeney & Angela Watson were a couple who really stuck out to me.

Here's my link for the free registration: Free registration to Simply Coaching Summit

And here's my affiliate link for a six-month pass: Six Month Pass to Simply Coaching Summit

4. Rest.

As a coach, your whole purpose is to help everyone else. That's literally why you have a job. You go to work to help teachers and kids. It's a mentally and emotionally exhausting job. (Sometimes it's physically exhausting, too!)

This summer, take some time to just be yourself. Do things you like to do. Don't think about work for a while. Here are a few ideas, if you're stumped.

• Go to the bathroom whenever you want, for as long as you want
• Read a book you want to read
• Have drinks with friend
• Bake a treat 
• Stare into the abyss
• Eat a dinner you cooked
• Go to Target and buy something fun
• Get a pedicure
• Sit on the porch and drink wine or tea or something tasty
• Watch something pointless on TV
• Take a walk
• Ride a bike 
• Spend time in your garden or yard
• Go for a swim
• Really, do anything that is not work. And do a lot of it. You'll need your mental energy when school starts again.

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Helping teachers reflect on their practice

Helping teachers reflect on their practice can be challenging. As a coach, you're walking a fine line.

Your relationship with the teacher is delicate. Teachers who feel attacked will not want your support, whether attacking was your intention or not. Teachers who don't feel challenged will not benefit from your support, however helpful you might be.

The end of the school year is a good time to reflect on teaching practices, but we should really do this throughout the year, as an ongoing practice. After a lesson, day, or unit are good times to stop and think: is this working?

But we've got to start somewhere! In order to encourage reflection, one thing you can do is to meet with teachers at the end of the school year to help them think back to their year and make some plans for the next year.

As you're helping teachers think about the effectiveness of their teaching, here are a few questions you can ask and things you can do to facilitate the conversation and take it into action!

Questions to Ask:

About a specific lesson or unit

• How do you feel about this lesson/unit?
• What do you think went well?
• How did you expect things to go differently?
• Where did students struggle?
• What seemed to work well to help them be successful?
• How can you use those elements in other lessons?

About student progress

• Did students make progress?
• Did students make the progress you hoped they would make?
• How do you know? What information are you using to decide this? (Data/observations/etc)
• Why do you think that was the outcome? 

About student learning

• What learning gaps do you see across your class?
• What did you do to address these gaps?
• Was it effective? How do you know?
• What could you try next time to address this issue?
• How could you address the same issue in a different way?

About strategies and methods

• What did you try this year that worked well for you?
• What did you try this year that didn't work out well?
• What have you learned that you'd like to try? What support/resources would you need to do that?

About what matters most

• What were the best moments you spent with your students? What made them the best? How can you integrate those ideas into your teaching more often? 
• If your child had been a student in a classroom exactly like yours, how would you have perceived the teacher and classroom? The climate? The dynamics? The opportunities to learn?  
• What do you believe about teaching? How does that show up in your teaching? What could you do differently to better reflect those practices?
• What do you want to learn more about? Where do you want to grow? How can I help you do that?
• If you could change any one thing about the way you taught this year, what would it be?
• If you had total control and choice in what you taught next year, what would your classroom look like? What elements of that can you integrate into your teaching next year? 

Things to Do:

• Use a focused observation guide to help you record specific kinds of notes about a lesson the teacher is teaching. You can focus on student engagement, questioning, time management, or any other facet of teaching and learning to help teachers gather information. Need guides? Get them in the Instructional Coaching MegaPack! 
• Offer to record the teacher teaching a lesson. They can watch it with you or on their own.
• Help the teacher create and provide students with a survey. Ask them about their experience. Don't shy away from asking the tough questions: What didn't you like about class? What was challenging for you? What should I change?
• Help teachers make a plan using the Better than Goal Setting free resource I shared on this post!
• Offer a menu of support to show teachers how you can help them grow. Ideas might be book recommendations, sharing videos, book studies, modeled lessons, or coaching cycles. 

Looking for tools to help you organize yourself and support your coaching work? I've put together a free resource from the Instructional Coaching MegaPack to help you out! Just enter your email address below to get the free resource!


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The #1 tool coaches need: the Instructional Coaching Binder MegaPack.

Imagine this: you're sitting at your desk. Your teacher documentation is organized, you have every form you need at your fingertips, and you know exactly how you're going to spend your time today.

When you visit classrooms, you know what you're looking for and you have an easy, positive way to share feedback with teachers.

Every resource you use is in its place, labeled, and ready to go. You've been using the Instructional Coaching Binder MegaPack, and you're ready to coach with confidence.

Who doesn't want to feel like they're ready for their day with all of the tools they need? 

As a new coach, I was re-inventing the wheel every day, spending my precious time creating documents that already existed and digging through binder after binder and book after book to find exactly the right form.

I'd visit classrooms and not know where to start, scramble to pull together RtI forms at the last minute, and race to data review meetings, planning in my head as I walked. Basically, I was underwater.

This is a pretty common experience for coaches. There's just not that much support out there. If you feel like this, you are not alone. There are thousands of coaches across the country who feel just like you: unsupported. Coaches often have to forge their own way, sometimes even creating their job descriptions as they go.

But there's an easier way to do this work. And it starts with getting the resources you need. 

I created the Instructional Coaching MegaPack to help coaches just like you and me, who were starting from scratch every single day. It's full of every form and organizational tool you need as coach, whether you're coaching literacy, math, science, or any instructional method or approach. The best part? Forms are printable AND editable pdfs, so you can print and go OR fill them in on your computer!

Seriously, it's a lifesaver. Save yourself from reinventing the wheel on a daily basis with this comprehensive coaching resource.

Here's what coaches have said about the Instructional Coaching MegaPack.

 It's made just for instructional coaches.

It's got everything you need.

Fillable forms make life easy!

It's a lifesaver!

Want to know exactly what you'll get in this gigantic resource? Check out the details!

Coach in Style

To get you organized quickly, but help you match your style, too, there are fifteen different styles of calendars, binder covers and spine labels, and cute notes to leave when you visit classrooms, too! The best part? The calendars & binder covers are editable, making it easy for you to use them year after year.

Styles Included:

• Black and white
• Bright chevron
• Confetti pattern party
• Watercolor flowers
• Black, white, and pink dahlias
• Gold & white
• Blue and yellow flowers
• Bright pencils
• Bees
• Blush flowers
• Coffee
• Rainbow
• School supplies
• Crosshatched desktop
• Salsa: citrus and lime chevron

Binder Covers Included in each style

• Grade Level Binder Covers: Prekindergarten through eighth grade binder cover and spine label for a 3" binder
• Subject Binder Covers: Reading, Writing, Social Studies, Math, Science
• Data Binder Cover
• Teacher Documentation Binder Cover
• Coaching Logs Binder Cover
• PLC Binder Cover
• Response to Intervention Binder Cover

Calendars Included in each style

• 5-day calendar for planning
• Full monthly calendar
• Editable Full monthly calendar - use Keynote or PowerPoint to edit
• Editable binder covers and spines - use Adobe to edit

Visit Classrooms

Coaching is about making change happen on your campus and supporting your teachers in their professional learning. Some of the most important tools in the MegaPack are the instructional coaching and observation tools!  These tools help you focus your classroom visits, leave feedback, and document your coaching cycle work with teachers.

In the MegaPack, you'll get...

• School Initiatives Plan
• Instructional Support Log
• Coaching Cycle and Conference (2 pgs.)
• Book Study Meeting Plan
• Classroom Observation Log
• General Classroom Observation Form
• Focused Classroom Observation: Student Participation (2 pgs.)
• Focused Classroom Observation: Lesson Alignment (2 pgs.)
• Focused Classroom Observation: Compliance vs. Engagement (2 pgs.)
• Focused Classroom Observation: Time Management (2 pgs.)
• Teacher Instructional Goal Setting (with accountability piece)
• Teacher Instructional Goal Setting
• Grade Level Goal Setting (with accountability piece)
• Grade Level Goal Setting
• Praise Notes (3 pages) - 15 different style versions available in the printable binder materials file!
• Classroom Observation Notes

Review Data
Facilitating data conversations and helping teachers plan next steps is a big role. Data can be overwhelming, but these simple data review guides can help you make responding to data easy.

In the MegaPack, you'll get...

• Reflecting on Data Bookmarks
• Data Review (2 versions)
• Standard Review

Plan Professional Development
Stay organized while you're figuring out what PD opportunities your teachers want and need and plan training that helps them grow!

In the MegaPack, you'll get...

• Professional Development Sign-In (3 versions)
• Ideas for Professional Development
• Professional Development Calendar (printable only; not fillable)
• Planning Professional Development Organizer (2 versions)
• Professional Development Agenda (2 versions)

Plan Collaboratively
Managing a collaborative planning session with a grade level or group of teachers can result in chaos, but these planning guides help you stay focused and get it done well!

In the MegaPack, you'll get...

• Focusing on the Standards
• Integrating Data Review
• Considering Misconceptions
• Planning Day-to-Day (2 versions)
• Weekly Planning Guide

Manage Your Time
Without a plan for your day or week, your time will slip right through your fingers. Figure out what you need to accomplish, schedule your days, and have a document that shows exactly where your time went.

In the MegaPack, you'll get...

• Printable Only Color Monthly Calendar - 15 different style versions! (not editable)
• Printable Only Black and White Monthly Calendar (not editable)
• Week at a Glance: Planning Your Week
• Daily Plan with Time Frames
• Daily Plan (3 versions)
• Daily Log (Record of Activities)
• Student Intervention Log
• Event Planning To-Do

Collect Documentation & Keep Records
Coaches have to keep track of so much. These forms help you document the important stuff and get the information from teachers that you need.

In the MegaPack, you'll get...

• Teacher Documentation Form (3 times a year)
• Teacher Documentation Form (BOY, MOY, EOY)
• Teacher Documentation Form (monthly record)
• Teacher Documentation Form (9 times)
• Tutoring Log (Student Attendance)
• At-Risk List by Teacher
• At-Risk List with Teacher and Grade
• At-Risk List with Teacher, Grade, and Qualifying Criteria
• Teacher Documentation Received with Date
• Teacher Documentation Received with 8 slots
• Teacher Documentation Received by Grade Level
• Grade Level Meeting Notes (2 versions)
• To-Do List
• Teacher Materials Issued Log
• Resource Checkout Sheet
• Purchasing Log

Response to Intervention Forms
RtI is a whole world of forms on its own. Keep it simple and consistent with these RtI forms for you and for your teachers.

In the MegaPack, you'll get...

• RtI Master List (2 versions)
• RtI Referral Form (2 pgs.)
• Progress Monitoring Form
• Response to Intervention Log
• Response to Intervention Meeting Log

Make today the day things change and coach with confidence!

Need to try it out first? You can get a free sample of the some of the materials included in this resource below!

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Bridging guided reading to test prep: One easy tip

Ah, spring. the birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming, and the kids are bubbling answers.

Ugh.

We've all been there. 

During this push, push, push for test scores that happens every spring, sometimes guided reading can get the boot. It can feel like we "just don't have the time". And I get it. 

The test is scary and we want our kids to be prepared, because if they're not, there can be consequences. 

Sure, there are consequences for us, but there are definitely consequences for them.

So guided reading sometimes gets lost in the desperate race to get kids where the state wants them to be, even though we know guided reading is the real deal and the test is not.

If you're struggling with this, this post is for you.



Here's how you can do guided reading while embedding some test-taking strategies, too!

Step 1. Plan your guided reading lesson like normal. Use your test data to figure out what strategy to focus on that will help them as readers and reading test takers. Use an instructional-leveled text. Identify the vocabulary you want to plant, and the background knowledge you want to access. 

Our main strategy for this lesson in the picture below was finding the main idea. Students used post-its to mark the main idea of each paragraph as they read, applying the strategy I'd taught them about finding the three-four most important words or ideas in each paragraph.

Step 2. As you're planning, when you get ready to write your purpose question: write it in test format. I'm talking test question stems and A, B, C, D. Type it up and print it out so each student has a question strip.

It should require students to practice the strategy you're working on. For our main idea work, I asked the question, "The information on page 5 helps explain how -" This was a test question stem from our state test. Students had to use their main ideas to check every answer choice and see if it matched their evidence. 

Once students get to the page that will help them answer their question, they apply their strategy like normal, and then they answer the question. Here's the important part: They have to USE THE STRATEGIES YOU'VE TAUGHT THEM!

If my students answered a question without marking their evidence with a post-it, analyzing the question, and analyzing each answer choice, I'd take their strip away and give them a blank one so they could actually do the thinking they needed to do to be successful.

Step 3. You have students finish their reading, applying strategies, and then bring them together (as usual) for a discussion about the purpose question. Here, they verbalize their thinking and explain how they arrived at the answer.

It's an easy peasy connection and it'll give you the time and proximity to see what students are thinking as they approach these questions, while building reading strategies, too. 

Would you do this all year? Not really. You want open-ended questions for guided reading, most of the time. But bridging to the test is something that our kids need support in, and this is one way to do it without drill and kill!

Want to learn more about planning guided reading lessons? Check out my post: Planning for Guided Reading! It'll break it down a step at a time!

P.S.

If you try it, shout it out on FB or IG! 
Tag me @buzzingwithmsb!



Need more support in guided reading, and want some free resources to get you started? Enter your address below!