8 Ways to Coach Students During Small Group Instruction for Reading and Writing
Are you ready to learn how you can become a really good coach for your students during small group instruction for reading and writing? It’s what I like to call “Make the Teacher Shift”. One thing that every peer learning community has, is a teacher who doesn't do ALL of the teaching. There are times when teaching and modeling is necessary. But there are also times when the teacher should become a really, really good “COACH” while peers are teaching and learning from each other. Without both, a peer learning community will NOT survive.
Yes, there is a difference between teaching students and coaching students. So what does it mean to become a really good “COACH”? Well, I’m going to explain the difference between a teacher and coach, how you can make the shift to become a coach when it's necessary.
I am excited to introduce the...
PEER LEARNING COACHING FRAMEWORK
Always remember the Peer Learning Coaching Framework when you want to coach your students in small group instruction.
Step 1: Compliment Students
When you are coaching your students or children in conferences or small group instruction, notice and name a transferable compliment, and give your learners the opportunity to notice their own strengths and the strengths of their peers so they can offer compliments as well.
So what do I mean by a transferable compliment? In one of my blog posts called “Give Transferable Compliments to Students Every Time” I shared my definition, but I’m going to give you the quick version right now. A transferable compliment is where you name the strategy, the WHY, and state that the strategy can be used every day.
Step 2: Observe Students
As a coach, you will become a researcher during conferences or small group instruction. What is researching? It’s when you are looking for what the student is doing and what is the next step. What types of things can you research? You can observe strengths, areas of growth, skills and strategies, student work, engagement, and level of independence just to name a few.
Step 3: Answer a Question with Question
In my opinion this is the most powerful type of feedback you can give your students or children in a peer led community. Instead of giving the answer or telling what to do and how to do it; you are shifting the work and thinking back to the learner.
You are giving them the chance to take charge of their own learning, problem solve, embrace challenges, and make big decisions about how their reading and writing lives are going to go. There are other ways you can give feedback during a conference and small group. And Inside of our Conferring All-Star Teacher program, I teach literacy teachers how to use 5 different types of feedback prompts; but I have to say that the Question Prompt is my most favorite one to use. When you answer a question with a question, that’s when your classroom or homeschool starts to shift to a learner driven community.
Step 4: Collect Evidence of Learning
How do you collect evidence? Let me give you some reasons why you will want to collect evidence of learning:
- It can guide learners to set meaningful, ambitious goals.
- It invites children to reflect on their work, their strengths, and where they can grow.
- It gives learners the chance to study their own work to help them focus on strengths and the possibilities for next steps.
- It helps you understand what your students know and need.
- It can help drive what you teach in your conferences and small groups instruction.
- It can help children focus during independent work time.
Step 5: High Impact Strategies
What do I mean by a high impact strategy? It’s a strategy that is specific, clear, actionable, and aligned to a goal or skill that a learner is currently working on to become a stronger reader or writer. These strategies may be taught by you as their teacher & coach or from their peers.
I love how Jennifer Serravallo puts it in her book called “A Teacher’s Guide to Reading Conferences” She says:
“I use the term “strategy” to refer to a “how-to” while the goal that a student is working toward is the “what”. Strategies, like a recipe, offer students a broken-down, step-by-step procedure that makes the invisible work of reading actionable and visible”.
In a peer learning community, not only does the teacher teach high impact strategies, but also your students or children can teach and learn high impact strategies from each other.
Step 6: Invite Learners to Lead Instruction
Step 7: Note-Taking
Why is note-taking an important role of a coach? Your notes will become your best friend before, during, and after a conference and small group. It can tell you exactly what to teach, what feedback to give, what compliment to share, who you should meet with next, and give you ideas for follow-up. What kind of note-taking system has worked for you? Or maybe you’re still searching for note-taking forms to use for conferences or small groups. Let me know, I’m here to help!
Step 8: Goal Setting
There you have it. The 8 most important steps you can take to make the teacher shift to COACH when meeting with students or children in conferences or small group instruction.
Just remember the acronym COACHING.
Which one of these peer learning coaching goals are you going to focus on first? Which one do you feel is going to make the biggest impact on your students or children right now? Start with one. Learn as much as you can about that one. Implement that one in your classroom or homeschool. Reflect on that one and how it went? Then, when you’re ready, add on another coaching goal. Remember the saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day”? Well…the same goes for building a Learner Driven Community.
Let me know how small group instruction for reading and writing is going in the comments below or on Facebook or Instagram.
