Hayley Hilgenberg EDU 511 February 18, 13 Literacy Coaching Guide

Working with multiple teachers, means working with multiple personalities and various strengths and struggles. The first thing that should be taken into account when preparing to meet with teachers is reflecting on your own beliefs and attitudes toward teaching. Bean R. & DeFord D. (2012) states that it is important to know your own beliefs because it will influence your interactions and relationships with teachers who may have different classroom management styles or instructional approaches (p.3). It is important to recognize your own beliefs so you can support the teacher and avoid cloning yourself (Bean R.& DeFord D., 2012, p.3). The coachs job is to support the teacher, not to clone themselves. By supporting the teacher the coach establishes trust and provides an environment where communication can prosper. Now that your own beliefs have been established it is important to accept and appreciate differences among the teachers that you are going to work with. Bean R. & DeFord D. (2012) states that all coaches, must be flexible and adjust what they do, depending on needs, interests, and personalities of teachers (p.3). Teachers do this in the classroom with students, and teachers who are also learners. It is necessary to adjust your coaching to fit the needs and strengths of the teacher. Although you will find strengths in all teachers, you will not find that all teachers want to work with a coach (Bean R.& DeFord D., 2012, p.2). Some teachers strengths could include embracing being a lifetime learner and encouraging working with a coach, while others may be skeptical. When preparing to work with teachers it is helpful to work with the teachers who

are excited, and want to work with you first. This can turn into more positivity in the school toward the role of a literacy coach (Bean R.& DeFord D., 2012, p.2). If a teacher is more willing to work with you they are most likely to take risks and share the changes they are seeing with other teachers or administrators. When a teacher is open to your help it is easier to build that relationship of trust that is essential. Bean R. & DeFord D. (2012) states that, almost every coach with whom we have worked has made this statement in some form or another: you have to develop a good relationship with teacher (p. 2). When teachers know that you value their thoughts, then more ideas and experiences will be shared, which will help build a sense of community. In What Teachers Say About Coaching teachers felt that, because of their coach, they took more risks; they tried more things than they would have tried in the past (Vanderburg. 2009, p. 2). The better the communication between coach and teacher the more productive the relationship. In What Teachers Say About Coaching they stated, Teachers spoke of how their coach encouraged their learning by helping them feel comfortable to ask questions and seek advice (Vanderburg. 2009, p. 3). Another way to build trust and minimize conflict is to establish your role is as the coach. There are a lot of different roles that a coach could take on. It is important that you are aware, and that the teachers know exactly what you will be doing and providing. One role is being a professional developer and bringing research based strategies into the classroom. Before you meet with a teacher it is fundamental to know research based strategies as well as how to model these for the teacher (Bean R.& DeFord D., 2012, p.4). Not only are you providing support but you are also providing data about how and why this strategy could improve the literacy in the teachers classroom.

Being a professional developer is an important part of coaching. When preparing to meet with teachers you should start with the teachers who want to meet with you first. This will build your confidence as well as help the rest of the teachers build that trust with you. For reluctant teachers you could talk to them and help build a relationship during professional development opportunities that you hold. This is also an excellent time for experiences to be shared among professionals. Although you should meet with the more open-minded teachers first, it is important to work with all teachers to build that sense of community. Once you meet with teachers and have presented your data based strategies it is good to remember that teachers are life long learners and that modeling strategies can be very beneficial. When modeling it is important to consider the teachers style that you are modeling for as well as their strengths. Once you are aware of them you can build off of these strengths. When responding to teachers it is also important to consider styles and their personalities. It is also important to support your responses with data. While modeling the instructional practice for the teacher I would also model management strategies. One of these for example would be Choice Words. I have used this in my classroom with a lot of success. When modeling this method for a teacher you could say, Matt, I notice that you are prepared today. How does that make you feel? Instead of Matt I am happy you are prepared today. With this strategy Matts attitude will depend on what he thinks, not what the teacher thinks. This can also lead to a sense of responsibility in their learning. Johnson (2004) states, When you figure something out for yourself, there is a certain thrill in the figuring. After a few successful experiences,

you might start to think that figuring things out is something that you can actually do (p. 8). I would also use choice words when responding to a teacher when seeing them do something that is not the most beneficial. One of the donts of coaching was to not make the teacher feel like you are fixing them up. Choice words can be a great strategy when building confidence and relationships.

Teaching an Adult Something: Teaching my Grandma how to get onto her laptop and type and save a letter on Microsoft Word. Transcript: (Shortened) H: Okay so, what would you like me to teach you. G: I want to know how to type a letter on the computer. H: An email? Or an actual letter to print out? G: A letter to print out. I know how to print something outyour grandfather showed me but I dont know how to get in there to type it. H: Okay so, sign innow do you want to do it on Microsoft word? G: Yes. H: Do you know how to get on word? G: No. H: you can go to the start up button on the bottom left, the same button you push to shut it down. Now at the very bottom you can type something in to search it so search Microsoft Word and click on it. G: Got itits open.

H: Okay now you can type your letter, however, you normally type. G: Easy enough now where do I save it. H: You can save it on a flash drive or your desktop G: Desktop H: Now you go to file save. On the very left you should make sure that desktop is highlighted because then you know thats where it will be saved to. You can also save it to documents if you would like. Do you know how to make a folder? You could make a letters folder and have all the letters you make in it. G: No H: Okay that button at the top that shows a folder with a mark on it that says new folder. Click it and then name it letters or whatever you want. Then when you go to save you can click that folder and then save your letter. I would name it something that you mentioned in the letter. G: Simple enough okaysaved.

Round Two: coaching to improve H: Okaynow I am going to click out of everything and let you do it again. G: Okayso I go to the bottom thingy and type in Word H: I would try Microsoft wordsometimes Word Pad will pop up if you just type Word G: Okay its open, now I just type like normal and when Im done I save H: Yep you made it to the letters folder, but now I would save it to something that you mentioned in the letter so you can remember it better if you have to find it again. For example, you could title it letter to Michele, or Jordans dance recital.

G: Okay, Jordans dance recital H: Okay good now when you are ready to print do you know how to find it? G: Yes on the desktop and I open it and hit file print H: You got it G: Okay that wasnt that hardstupid computers.

Teaching an adult something and coaching to improve When teaching an adult learner the best method was modeling. When teaching the adult learner how to use the computer, it was more beneficial to show him or her by modeling. In a situation where you are teaching someone how to do something physically it is easier to show him or her how to do it physically than explaining. Therefore I modeled for the adult learner while also saying each step aloud to model my thought process and how I arrived at each step. One challenge of coaching with an adult learner is that you expect immediate change. Expecting immediate change was one of the donts. The adult learner told me verbally that they understood the process but when they showed me physically it did not happen as fast or as accurately as I thought it would. However, according to The Dos and Donts for Literacy Coaches: Advice from the Field it suggests not to jump in and expect immediate change because that will lead to frustration (Bean R.& DeFord D., 2012, p.5). Another aspect of the coaching experience was the trust. Bean R. & DeFord D. (2012) write that you have to develop a good relationship otherwise you cannot be successful as a coach (p. 2). The learner that was coached has a very difficult time

remaining calm when learning new things that are related to technology. The learner normally gives up. Therefore before the lesson started I had to build trust with the learner by showing her how to record a show on the TV. Once I was able to coach her in one area dealing with technology she trusted me to then try to teacher her something a little more difficult. One way that I did build trust was to establish my role clearly, which included discussing exactly how the teaching would go and what I would be doing. I told the learner that I would do the I do, we do, you do method in which I model and show the learner first, then we go over it together, and then the learner does it with my presence but with little assistance unless it is asked for. Once the learner knew exactly what I would be and would not be doing the learner seemed more relaxed. Bean R. & DeFord D. (2012) state the importance of establishing your role because it lets the learner or teacher understand how they might work with a coach and what the benefits might be (p. 1). Bean R. & DeFord D. (2012) state that a good coach provides support for the learner to do it according to their strengths or in their style and for the coach to not try to fix them or clone them (p. 2). When working with the adult learner it became obvious that do a task such as this one is not always black in white in every step. During the you do portion of the lesson the learner had a different way of saving the document in a different area than was modeled. I also allowed freedom by suggesting that the learner type however you normally type. I also gave the learner the option and freedom to chose between saving on a desktop and flash drive depending on which she felt more comfortable using. The wording when coaching the learner was picked strategically. The adult

learner is very defensive about her general lack of knowledge dealing with technology. Therefore, I used the choice words method to help build her confidence. When I provided more support the learner was willing to take more risks and then began playing around with font and how she would name the folders. As Vanderburg (2009) states in, What Teachers Say They Changed Because of Their Coach and How they Think Their Coach Helped Them learners or teachers felt that, because of their coach, they took more risks; they tried more things than they would have tried in the past (p. 1). Although the learner was taking risks and exploring the new program they did so knowing that I was there for assistance if necessary.

Top Ten Beliefs on Coaching: Glogster Poster

http://www.glogster.com/misshilgenberg/top-ten-beliefs-on-coaching-/g6kuoqj0i55a5rql0kujr7a0

Works Cited

Bean, R. DeFord, D. (2012). Do's and Don'ts for Literacy Coaches: Advice from the Field. Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse. Johnston, Peter H. (2004-05-01). Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning. Stenhouse Publishers - A. Kindle Edition. Shanklin, N. L., & Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse (2006). What Are the Characteristics of Effective Literacy Coaching?. American Psychological Assoc. Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse. Vanderburg, M., Stephens, D., & Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse, (2009). What Teachers Say They Changed Because of Their Coach and How They Think Their Coach Helped Them. Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse. Walpole, S., & Blamey, K. L. (2008). Elementary Literacy Coaches: The Reality of Dual Roles. Reading Teacher, 62(3), 222-231. American Psychological Assoc.