Learning Map for Chapter 4

The Impact Cycle

is about

A process for helping teachers set and hit powerful goals

Identify

Improve

Learn

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4

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

—C. S. Lewis

In January 2019, Leigh Anstadt came to an ICG institute with two of her col- leagues. Leigh was going to oversee the elementary instructional coaching program in Utah’s Canyons School District and rightly felt she should expe- rience the same professional development as her coaches. At the end of the institute, Leigh decided that she needed to complete her own Impact Cycle. In short, she needed to be a coach if she was going to lead the coaches.

Leigh asked Angela Haycock to be her “guinea pig.” Angela was a 5th grade teacher who came to the profession later in life. “My mom was a teacher, her mom was a teacher, and I knew that someday I wanted to be a teacher, too,” she said. “Getting hired by Canyons School District was probably one of the best things for me.” As this story will reveal, Canyons was also fortunate to have Angela work for them.

“Angela was fabulous,” Leigh said. “People tell you she is a great teacher. You go into her classroom and you can feel it. The kids love her.” Angela told us she was very busy and “a little apprehensive about coaching, but I try to push myself, and I knew coaching would probably be a good thing for me to do, so I thought, ‘Let’s do it.’”

With Angela’s permission, Leigh recorded every coaching conversation she had. “I forced myself to watch every session and reflect on my coaching,” Leigh said. “I wanted to review the conversations so I could hear myself talking or not talking, asking not telling, and reflect on my coaching. I decided I needed to live the Impact Cycle and experience it—walk it rather than just talk it.”

The Impact Cycle starts with the Identify stage, during which the collab- orating teacher, in partnership with the coach, identifies a clear picture of reality, a goal, and a strategy to hit the goal. Angela chose to focus on achieve- ment. In Canyons School District, a major assessment is the District-Wide Standards Based Assessment (DWSBA), which is given four times a year. When Leigh met with Angela to talk about getting a clear picture of reality, Angela had just received her DWSBA results, which showed that only 12 out

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The Impact Cycle

84 The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching

of 30 students had gotten the top score of 3 or 4. This provided a clear indica- tion that although students were enjoying class, many were not learning what they needed to learn. Consequently, state assessment data became the main way Angela and Leigh established a clear picture of reality.

Leigh partnered with Angela to set a goal for improvement by drawing from a list of Identify questions (see p. 93). “I tried hard to be intentional about sticking to asking questions, listening, and letting her guide the ship because I really wanted her to do the work so it would be her victory,” Leigh said.

At first, Leigh noticed Angela gave the same answer to every question: “I don’t know.” But Leigh refused to give Angela advice. “I realized that if you wait long enough, people usually come up with an answer,” said Leigh. “I think Angela’s self-efficacy improved because she came up with the answers, said them out loud, and then got positive feedback.”

Angela told us much the same thing. “Leigh was constantly telling me that it was my class and that I knew what would work best,” she said. “She did a great job of asking questions but then leaving them open for me to figure out where to go next. I think my confidence was built because I could figure out, ‘Hey, I’ve got this; I can do this.’”

When Leigh asked the Identify questions, Angela quickly came up with the goal that 25 out of 30 students would hit proficiency on the next test. Leigh and Angela checked the goal to make sure it was powerful, easy, emo- tionally compelling, reachable, and student-focused (i.e., a PEERS goal; see pp. 91–92). “The goal was the pin, or the anchor—the center point of the whole thing,” said Leigh.

Leigh came to coaching conversations with a lot of knowledge about effective instruction. She had attended many workshops on John Hattie’s Visible Learning (2008) and knew how important teacher clarity, success cri- teria, formative assessment, and feedback were to Hattie. So when she met with Angela, she shared those ideas while also making sure that Angela came up with the specific teaching strategies she wanted to use to help her students move closer to the goal.

“Leigh guided the discussions to a certain point, and then she would leave it for me to think about and look deeper,” Angela recounted. “Leigh would never say ‘Here, let me give you an answer’ or ‘Here, let’s try this, let’s do this,’

The Impact Cycle 85

which was great. She was suggesting a direction, but then letting me figure it out.”

Angela decided that her students would do a close reading of the DWSBA rubric and then complete formative assessments so they could monitor their progress toward the goal. Leigh helped Angela clarify exactly how to imple- ment those strategies. Then she partnered with her to make modifications when the assessments suggested that students weren’t learning (i.e., the Learn and Improve stages of the Impact Cycle).

Leigh met with Angela on the day the DWSBA results were released. “When I walked in, Angela announced, ‘We made it!’” she said. “She was really excited and so anxious to share, and so proud of her students for what they did. She said, ‘Look at this one, look what they did,’ celebrating their work. It wasn’t about her at all.”

Angela was still enthusiastic about the results when we interviewed her. “When the students hit the goal, it felt fantastic,” she said. “I wanted the kids to feel successful in their writing skills because I knew that going into middle school and high school, writing is what a lot of teachers focus on. I wanted to be here for those kids, and I wanted them to feel success. So it was a satisfying feeling to know ‘Hey, I helped these kids.’”

For Leigh, the change in students validated the entire cycle. The long- term impact was that students were excited about writing. In Leigh’s words, “Once the students understood that they had power and control over their writing and a clear vision of the target, they loved it. Their love of writing really caught fire, and it oozed out into other areas all day. When kids are excited about stuff, it carries over.”

The Impact Cycle

The Impact Cycle that Leigh used brings the Partnership Principles to life. Done well, the cycle leads to powerful results. It involves easy-to-learn stages and steps that coaches can master and implement quickly.

Pre-Cycle Conversation

Like most things in life, coaching is most likely to succeed when it gets off to a good start. For this reason, the coach should have a short conversation with the collaborating teacher before they dive into the coaching cycle.

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First impressions shape all future impressions, so during this conversa- tion, the coach should listen with empathy, affirm rather than judge, and com- municate that she believes in the teacher and truly wants what’s best for him. The coach should start by encouraging the teacher to discuss any concerns or questions he may have. After addressing these, the coach should summarize the stages of the Impact Cycle, explain the confidentiality policy, and clarify that the teacher decides on his own what to implement in his classroom. The coach should explain that she is there to help the teacher achieve his goals, not to impose her own ideas on the teacher. Throughout the pre-cycle con- versation, the coach should frequently ask the teacher if he has any questions.

Next, the coach should explain the Impact Cycle in greater detail by going through each item on a checklist summarizing it. She should explain each action on the list, confirm that the teacher understands it, and then ask if the teacher wants to do the action as described or modify it in some way. To be able to explain the cycle clearly, the coach needs to have a deep understand- ing of each of its stages and steps.

Identify

• Teacher gets a clear picture of current reality by watching a video of his lesson or by reviewing observation data (video is best).

• Teacher works with coach to answer the Identify questions and identify a student-focused goal.

• Teacher identifies a teaching strategy to use to hit the goal.

Learn

• Coach shares a checklist for the chosen teaching strategy.

• Coach prompts teacher to modify the practice if teacher wishes.

• Teacher chooses an approach to modeling that he would like to observe

and identifies a time to watch modeling.

• Coach provides modeling in one or more formats.

• Teacher sets a time to implement the practice.

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Improve

• Teacher implements the practice.

• Teacher or coach gathers data (in class or while viewing video) on stu-

dent progress toward to the goal.

• Teacher or coach gathers data (in class or while viewing video) on teach-

er’s implementation of the practice (usually on the previously viewed

checklist).

• Teacher and coach meet to confirm direction and monitor progress.

• Teacher and coach make adaptations and plan next actions until the

goal is met.

After the teacher has reviewed the checklist and received answers to all his questions, the coach and teacher should make a plan for the next six weeks, identifying when each of the steps of the cycle will occur. I think it is best if the coach and teacher determine the exact dates when each activity will occur. As Denise Brennan-Nelson (2005) has written, “‘Someday’ is not a day of the week.”

Lastly, after the meeting, the coach should send a detailed email to the collaborating teacher restating key ideas (for example, about confidentiality and decision making) and listing all the cycle steps and when she hopes to complete them.

Stage One: Identify

Step 1: Identifying a clear picture of reality

When we choose to change, we often do it because we see a big difference between where we are and where we want to be (Miller & Rollnick, 2013). Consequently, our motivation takes a hit when we don’t see reality clearly. The interviews my colleagues and I have done with teachers, coaches, and administrators (Knight, 2014) show that educators, just like most other pro- fessionals, don’t have a clear picture of what they do. Teachers need to have a clear picture of reality, or they almost certainly won’t see the need to change.

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Most of us struggle to clearly see what we do because of perceptual errors. Confirmation bias, for example, is the tendency to consciously or unconsciously seek out data that reinforce our assumptions. People “tend to see what they expect to see” (Grant-Halvorson, 2015, p. 23). Attribution error describes a habit of blaming others for our missteps but excusing our- selves for the same mistakes. Stereotyping occurs when we overgeneralize the characteristics of people in a group, whereas primacy effect refers to our bias toward overgeneralizing our first experiences with a person. Halo effect describes our tendency to assume that a person has many positive char- acteristics after seeing them exhibit just one positive characteristic. Last, habituation comes from our tendency to stop noticing the unique features of something we experience all the time (e.g., seeing the same students every day, a teacher may stop noticing some of the unique features of learning or behavior that they exhibit in the classroom).

A second major reason we don’t see reality clearly is that we use defense mechanisms as a kind of shield from unpleasant realities. Given the emo- tional complexity of life, some defense mechanisms are necessary; life would simply be too difficult without them. As Prochaska, DiClemente, and Nor- cross (1994) have written, “Without the protection of these ‘mental shields’ we would be bombarded constantly by undesirable feelings and external threats, both real and imagined. Defensive reactions allow us to avoid, tem- porarily at least, what we cannot confront, and let us get on with our lives” (p. 82).

While defensiveness can protect our emotional state, it keeps us from changing in ways that might in fact lead us to more success or even better lives. Being aware of defense mechanisms can help us figure out the best approach to change with others. As shown in Figure 4.1, Prochaska and col- leagues (1994) identify several defense mechanisms.

Since a clear picture of reality is important for motivation and to ensure we are focused on an important issue, it is important to cut through the biases and see reality for what it is. I have identified four ways in which coaches can help teachers do this: (1) video-recording so teachers can watch their les- sons, (2) interviewing students, (3) reviewing student work, and (4) gathering observation data.

The Impact Cycle 89

Defense Mechanism Definition

Rationalization Justifying our behavior even if our justifications are irrational

Video. Studies conducted on micro-teaching and video at Stanford Uni- versity as far back as the 1960s demonstrated that video accelerates profes- sional learning (Allen, Cooper, & Fortune, 1967). However, before Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, the cameras needed for recording a lesson were far too cumbersome and distracting for regular classrooms. Now it is very easy for teachers to record their lessons, and more and more teachers are doing what athletes have done for decades: recording themselves doing their work so they can see how to get better.

When using video, coaches need to ensure that teachers feel psycholog- ically safe by explaining that any video recordings are owned by the teacher and that no one will look at them unless the teacher chooses to share them. Coaches should explain that there are many ways they can gather video recordings of lessons: they can record students and keep the teacher out of the video, record video on the teacher’s phone, or do a model lesson and have the teacher record the lesson just to see what video looks like.

We have found that teachers learn more when they watch the video sep- arately from their coaches, then come together later to discuss what they saw. Teachers also get more out of watching their video if they use forms (such as the “Student” and “Teacher” forms that can be downloaded at www .instructionalcoaching.com/bookstore/the-definitive-guide-to-instructional- coaching) to analyze their video before meeting their coach. (My book Focus on Teaching: Using Video for High-Impact Instruction [Knight, 2014] contains a lot more information about how to use video to help teachers get a clear pic- ture of reality.)

FIGURE 4.1

Common Defense Mechanisms

Denial and minimization

Choosing not to see unpleasant data

Blaming others

Excusing our situation by blaming or scapegoating others

Blaming ourselves

Failing to acknowledge reality by blaming ourselves for unpleasant occurrences

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Interviews. Another way to get a clear picture of reality involves inter- viewing students. Interviews can uncover how students are responding to content, their emotional engagement or physical or psychological safety, whether they feel they belong in the class or their school, or whether they expect to succeed. Below are some examples of questions coaches could ask, but they should feel free to partner with teachers to come up with a list of questions that specifically address the teachers’ most pressing concerns.

Questions for Student Interviews

• How would you describe the class to a friend?

• How do your friends describe this class?

• What do you like best about this class?

• What do you enjoy about coming to this class?

• How do you feel about other students in the class?

• If you were the teacher, how would you change this class?

• What does a really good day in class look like for you? What does a really

bad day look like?

• Is this class too hard, too easy, or just right?

• What do you wish your teacher did more often? Less often?

• How confident are you that you will pass this class?

One-to-one conversations are best. Interviews can occur in a nearby empty classroom, in the hall, or at the back of class in classrooms where a quiet conversation will not be distracting. The coach should prompt the teacher to select a broad sample of students, including extroverts and intro- verts, students from different cultures, students who are learning English, students with disabilities, and students who are succeeding and not succeed- ing. The coach should take detailed notes to share with the collaborating teacher when they meet to set a goal.

Student work. Student learning also provides an important way to clarify classroom reality. Student work, standardized test scores, selected-response

The Impact Cycle 91

or short-answer tests, rubrics, and checks for understanding (I say a lot more about these measures in Chapter 5) all help paint pictures of classroom real- ity. Sometimes the coach and teacher simply need to have an informal con- versation to clarify how students are performing.

Observation of the class. Coaches can also gather data on teaching strategies and student learning using some kind of observation form (e.g., the district evaluation tool suggested in Charlotte Danielson’s 2007 book Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching)—but cautiously, and only if it is requested by the teacher. Since most professionals, including teachers, don’t begin with a clear picture of reality, conversations about the observation data can be awkward. Often, the teacher quite literally does not see what an observer sees. Additionally, data gathered by observers are usu- ally not as objective and valid as the observers might think (Buckingham & Goodall, 2019). A better option is for the coach to video-record a lesson and the teacher to use the evaluation form to assess her own lesson.

Mixed methods. There is rarely enough time to do everything, but teachers and coaches will get a clearer picture of reality when the coach uses more than one method. For example, if a coach and teacher only look at stu- dent achievement, they will miss important data, such as how many students are engaged or how much time is spent on transitions. The teacher and coach would see a lot more if they combined looking at student work and video, for example. What matters is that the teacher goes beyond perceptual errors to see the class for what it is. Once a teacher has a clear picture of reality, the teacher and coach can meet to identify a goal.

Step 2: Identify a goal (part 1): PEERS goals

When I studied goal setting with coaches from Beaverton, Oregon, we started with SMART goals (i.e., goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) but found that they missed some important ele- ments. After reading the literature and trying out different models, we arrived at what I refer to as “PEERS goals”—goals that are powerful, easy, emotionally compelling, reachable, and student-focused. If your district expects teachers to set SMART goals, you don’t need to throw them out, but our research sug- gests you’ll have more success if those goals meet the PEERS criteria, too.

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Powerful. These are goals that make a socially significant difference in students’ lives. Simply put, students’ lives are unmistakably better after a PEERS goal has been met.

Easy. Any powerful goal to be met in a classroom is going to involve chal- lenges, so the coach and teacher need to identify the easiest way to go about meeting it. A powerful goal that is too difficult to implement won’t have any impact on student learning or well-being. Remember: the most direct path to the goal is often the best path.

Emotionally compelling. Effective goals address issues that are import- ant both to the collaborating teacher and to the affected students. As Heath and Heath (2010) have written, the best goal is not “just big and compelling; it should hit you in the gut” (p. 76). When teachers identify goals that really matter to them, their passion drives the process forward. The job of coaches is to then support the teachers’ work.

Reachable. Effective goals are measurable. They clarify what will be dif- ferent after a goal is met. Additionally, a teacher with a reachable goal is able to identify a strategy that can be used to hit the goal. When teachers know exactly what their goals are and how to meet them, they have a reachable goal.

Student-focused. A student-focused goal, such as “Ninety percent of students can consistently write well-organized paragraphs as measured by a single-factor rubric” or “Eighty-five percent of students are cognitively engaged in class,” provides an objective standard for measuring how well a teaching strategy is working out in a teacher’s classroom. Usually, to hit a goal, the teacher has to implement a strategy effectively, and the strategy has to be sufficiently powerful. If the strategy is implemented successfully but doesn’t help students meet their goals, it isn’t working. We have also found that teachers are more likely to keep using a strategy when the goal focuses on student improvement rather than strategy implementation.

PEERS goals might have been the most important concept that Leigh Anstadt learned at ICG’s institute. “The thing that our coaching was missing was having a finish line—having an end to that cycle,” she said. “That was a defining point for me.” She added that PEERS goals “became the center of every conversation, the measuring stick we used to close the gap between current reality and the goal. That’s why [participating in the institute] was so important. PEERS goals changed everything.”

The Impact Cycle 93 Step 2: Identify a goal (part 2): Identify questions

During the last decade, we have created and refined a list of questions that coaches can use to help teachers set PEERS goals. The questions, listed below, are not to be used the same way every time; in fact, we expect that every coaching conversation will be different. Coaching, like listening, is more like improvising than following a recipe.

The Core Identify Questions

• What’s on your mind?

• On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst lesson you’ve taught and 10

being the best, how would you rank the lesson?

• Why did you give it that number?

• What would have to change to move the lesson closer to a 10?

• What would your students be doing differently if your class were a 10?

• In greater detail, what would that look like?

• How could you measure that change?

• Do you want that to be your goal?

• If you could meet that goal, would it really matter to you?

Coaches need to avoid leading questions and instead ask questions that prompt the teacher to think creatively.

More Questions

• If you woke up tomorrow and a miracle happened so that your students were doing exactly what you would like them to do, what would be dif- ferent? What would be the first signs that the miracle occurred? (Jack- son & Waldman)

• What pleased you? (John Campbell)

• And what else? (Michael Bungay Stanier)

• If this class were your dream class, what would be different?

94 The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching Step 3: Identify a strategy

Right after setting a goal, the teacher needs to identify the best path for meeting it. At this point, coaches can feel an overwhelming temptation to tell teachers what they should do, solving their problems for them. Doing this, however, keeps the collaborating teacher from solving and owning the prob- lem, creates dependency, demotivates the teacher, and often results in a weak solution to the wrong problem (Stanier, 2020).

But what if the teacher really doesn’t know what to do? What if the teacher is struggling with classroom management and the coach is a highly proficient trainer on that very topic? Should the coach just keep all that infor- mation in like a poker player trying to hide a royal flush? The answer is yes and no. The coach should not tell the teacher what do to. However, when— and only when—it is truly needed, the coach should share ideas in a tenta- tive way, while ensuring that the teacher is the eventual decision maker. The coach, in other words, should share ideas dialogically, balancing telling with asking.

I usually start this conversation by asking teachers to suggest some strat- egies they think might help them meet their goals. I find it important to write down these suggestions, as the simple act of creating a list encourages both the teacher and me to add more possibilities to the list (“Let’s see if we can come up with one or two more strategies”); demonstrates that I have heard and value my collaborating teacher’s ideas; and ensures that I don’t forget any suggestions.

I usually suggest to the teacher that we try to come up with four to six teaching strategies. If the teacher seems stuck, I ask questions to prompt deeper reflection, like “What advice would you give someone trying to hit this goal?” or “How have you addressed this issue with other students or while teaching other content?” If the teacher’s words or body language suggest that she is really stuck and needs some suggestions, I ask, “Would you mind if I share a few thoughts about how you might reach your goal?”

When the teacher does want suggestions, I explain my ideas and ask if I should add them to our list. At this point in the conversation, I have to guard against overvaluing my suggestions. The moment I appear to be pushing for a particular strategy, I extinguish the opportunity for dialogue.

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Sometimes the teacher suggests a strategy that I think could fail—say, using cooperative learning in a class where many student are off task. At that point, I might again ask for permission to share my ideas, and if the teacher grants me permission, I might say, “Now, you know your students better than I do, so you’ll know what’s best here, but I’ve found that if you don’t have clear expectations for behavior in place before using cooperative learning, stu- dents often get more off task. What do you think about that?”

Once we’ve got a list, I read back every suggestion in the order I noted them and ask a question like “Which of these options gives you the most confidence?” or “Which of these options brings you the most energy?” All options, regardless of whose idea they are, must be given equal consideration so the teacher feels free to pick the one that makes the most sense to her.

For this conversation to work, the coach must work from the Partnership Principles and bear in mind the conditions for dialogue identified by Paulo Freire (1970). That is, the coach must be humble—to me, humility is the only appropriate response to the complexities of the classroom. The coach must show faith in the teacher, by encouraging her to share ideas and making sure she makes the decisions about what happens in the classroom. Finally, the coach must obviously have the teacher’s best interest at heart. A conversa- tion about strategies that is truly a dialogue empowers and energizes both the teacher and the coach.

Questions to Identify a Strategy

• What teaching strategy could you use to meet this goal?

• What advice would you give someone who is trying to meet this goal?

• How have you successfully addressed this issue with other students or

while teaching other content?

• Do you mind if I share a few thoughts about what you might do to meet

this goal?

• Which of these options gives you the most confidence?

• Which of these options brings you the most energy?

Note: These are based on questions I have learned from John Campbell and Christian van Nieuwerburgh.

96 The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching Stage Two: Learn

After the collaborating teacher has identified (1) a clear picture of real- ity, (2) a goal based on that picture of reality, and (3) a strategy for meeting the goal, the coach should ensure that the teacher is ready to use the strategy. Usually, the coach describes or co-constructs a description of the strategy and ensures that the teacher sees it being used by one or more educators.

Step 1: Explain strategies

One of the first things I discovered as I studied professional develop- ment was that checklists greatly improve the clarity and power of explana- tions. They help coaches lay out the steps of a teaching strategy, keep coaches from skipping important elements of a strategy during an explanation, and compel coaches to get a deep understanding of the practices they share. The best checklists are simple but comprehensive, making it easy for teachers to implement the strategies.

Again, coaches need to resist the temptation to give advice when they explain strategies. They must balance telling with asking, using the checklist to explain strategies directly and clearly and also asking teachers throughout the explanation to share any changes they would like to make that would bet- ter meet the needs of students.

When coaches balance telling with asking, they say what they think while making it easy for teachers to say what they think, too. Done well, such dia- logical conversations are collaborative, open, free, and energizing exchanges where everyone honestly says what they think.

There are some simple things a coach can do to balance telling with ask- ing. For example, at the start of an explanation, she should explain that she has two major goals: (1) to go through the checklist so the teacher clearly understands the strategy, and (2) to record any changes the teacher wants to make to the strategy. Next, the coach should provide a quick description of the strategy and give the teacher a chance to read the checklist. Before exploring the strategy more deeply, the coach should ask the teacher to share any preliminary questions or comments about the checklist.

Once the teacher has looked over the checklist, the coach should go through it item by item and ask the teacher if the explanation is clear and

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whether the teacher would like to modify any of the items. The coach should write down on the checklist any modifications the teacher would like to make. If the teacher suggests modifications that the coach believes will make the strategy significantly less effective, the coach should share her thoughts with the teacher while still positioning the teacher as the decision maker in the conversation.

After they have discussed all the items on the checklist, the coach should sum up how it appears the teacher will use the strategy and ask if anything is still unclear. Then, the coach should ask, “Now that we’ve gone through this, on a scale of 1 to 10, how confident are you that you can implement this prac- tice?” If the teacher doesn’t feel confident, the coach and teacher should go back through the checklist until the teacher is ready to use the strategy in the classroom.

During a dialogical explanation, the coach must listen to the teacher’s comments without judgment, share (in a dialogical way) any thoughts about the checklist she may have, explore with the teacher where those thoughts lead, and modify the checklist with any teacher-led suggestions.

Some researchers and professional developers are challenged by the idea behind dialogical explanations, asking, “Doesn’t the teacher have to teach the strategy with fidelity?” But fidelity of implementation is not the actual goal here. The purpose of instructional coaching is to unmistakably improve stu- dents’ learning and well-being, as summarized in the PEERS goal identified by the teacher. The PEERS goal is an objective standard for excellence, ensur- ing that the teacher implements teaching strategies effectively. This often means that a strategy is implemented with fidelity, but not always. Some- times a strategy has to be adapted for particular students or teachers to work. Other times, too strict a focus on fidelity can keep a teacher from meeting the goal. If a goal isn’t met, the teacher will have many opportunities during the Improve stage of the cycle to identify what to change and, in partnership with the coach, how to adapt the strategy for success.

One of the strengths of a dialogical approach to explanations is that it makes the teacher’s thinking visible. When teachers feel comfortable telling coaches how they might change a strategy, coaches have a chance to discuss the implications of doing so. But if a coach simply tells a teacher how a strat- egy must be taught, any opportunity for a reflective conversation is lost and

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the teacher is silenced. Ironically, telling a teacher how a strategy must be

taught can sometimes decrease fidelity to a practice.

Step 2: Model strategies

It is helpful for teachers to see a strategy being used in the classroom before implementing it themselves. In many cases, the easiest way for this to happen is for the coach to model the strategy in the teacher’s classroom. The coach should apply the strategy competently but realistically, without over- shadowing the teacher, and talk positively about the teacher to the students during the lesson. The teacher can follow along during modeling by consult- ing a checklist that the coach provides. Teachers have told us they usually don’t want the coach to teach the entire lesson—they just want to see the strategy they are learning.

Modeling in the teacher’s classroom isn’t always the best approach, how- ever. A coach who takes control of a class where behavior management is the issue, for example, can unintentionally erode the teacher’s already shaky powerbase. Also, if the coach isn’t able to control the class, not much will be learned. Modeling in a teacher’s classroom also may not be the best idea if a coach doesn’t know the content being taught. In that situation, it might be better for the coach to co-teach with the teacher. The coach can demonstrate the strategy while the teacher covers the content.

Coaches can also model strategies for teachers without students in the room. One obvious disadvantage of this method is that it is artificial; both the teacher and the coach have to imagine what it would look like if students were in the class. On the plus side, the teacher can stop the coach at any point during the demonstration and ask questions or ask the coach to repeat an action to make it clearer.

Another option is for teachers to go to other teachers’ classrooms and watch their peers use a strategy. The coach and teacher can go together to observe the class, or the coach can teach the collaborating teacher’s class while the teacher conducts the observation. Teachers will find it helpful to bring a checklist to the class to focus their observations. After watching the lesson, if time permits, the coach, the modeling teacher, and the collaborat- ing teacher can get together to discuss the lesson.

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Sometimes, coaches partner with teachers to set up model classrooms where teachers teach many or all of the teaching strategies in the coach’s playbook. This approach requires the coach to spend a lot of time describing and modeling lessons for the classroom teacher and the classroom teacher to spend a lot time learning the new strategies, but it can be very helpful.

Many coaches around the world are building libraries of videos that show teachers implementing teaching strategies. Coaches report that teachers find these videos helpful. (Of course, the recordings are only taken with the teach- ers’ permission.)

Finally, coaches may offer teachers a combination of ways to see a model of a lesson. For example, they might show a video of a teacher using a strategy and then co-teach with the teacher until the teacher feels ready to implement the strategy independently. There are many different combinations to try out. What matters is that afterward the collaborating teacher feels confident about applying the new strategy. And that’s when the real fun starts.

Stage Three: Improve

In a perfect world, a teacher who has learned a new strategy would imple- ment it and students would immediately meet their achievement or engage- ment goals. Unfortunately, our world is less than perfect. Most of the time, the teacher has to modify or replace the initial strategy or goal so that it works with students. This, in a nutshell, is the collaborative work of the Improve stage: making adaptations until a goal is met. This stage involves four steps.

Step 1: Confirm direction

Every time the coach and teacher meet, the coach should start by checking to see if the collaborating teacher has anything to discuss before starting the formal coaching conversation. Sometimes teachers are so focused on a cer- tain issue, such as a student success or a disappointing evaluation, that they aren’t ready to talk about, say, data or instructional practices. If the topic at the front of the teacher’s mind is ignored, the conversation won’t be success- ful. Confirming questions like the two in the following box can help ensure that the coaching conversation focuses on the teacher’s main concerns.

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Questions to Confirm Direction

• What’s on your mind? (Michael Bungay Stanier)

• Given the time we have today, what is the most important thing for us

to talk about? (Susan Scott)

Step 2: Review progress

When the teacher is ready, the coach should ask to discuss whatever progress students have made toward the goal and what the teacher is learn- ing about the strategy, the students, or himself. When coaches partner with teachers to review progress, they often find the following questions to be helpful.

Questions to Review Progress

• What has gone well?

• What are you seeing that shows this strategy is successful? • What progress has been made toward the goal?

• What did you learn?

• What surprised you? (Barkley, 2009)

• What roadblocks are you running into?

Step 3: Invent improvements

When reviewing progress, the teacher and coach will inevitably tran- sition to exploring what changes need to be made to ensure success. The teacher can only make a limited number of changes to ensure improvements: to the way the strategy is taught, to the strategy itself, to the goal, or to the kind of data gathered to show progress toward the goal.

During the Improve stage, coaches often use the following Improve questions.

Questions to Improve Practice

• Do you want to keep using the strategy as it is?

• Do you want to revisit how you use the teaching strategy?

• Do you want to choose a new strategy?

• Do you want to change the way you measure progress toward the goal? • Do you want to change the goal?

Step 4: Plan next steps

Before ending the conversation, the coach should make sure that the teacher has developed a clear plan for next steps. To do so, the coach should ask the teacher what tasks need to be completed in the next week, when each task will be completed, and who will do it (usually the teacher). The coach should carefully note down the details of the plan and email the notes to the collaborating teacher right after the conversation.

Before ending the session, I like to ask one last question: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how committed are you to this goal now?” If the collaborating teacher gives me a high number, we bring the session to a close. If the number is low, I continue the conversation by asking a question like “What needs to change to move you closer to a 10?”

Coaches and teachers should meet at least once a week. Meeting too fre- quently can interfere with reflection; teachers need time to think for them- selves, and that’s hard to do if they’re meeting every day with the coach. At the same time, if the coach and teacher don’t meet at least once a week, the col- laboration might lose its sense of urgency. Ultimately, the coach and teacher need to meet frequently enough to make steady progress toward the goal.

Questions to Plan for Next Steps

• When should we meet again?

• What tasks have to be done before we meet?

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• When will those tasks be done?

• Who will do them?

• On a scale of 1 to 10, how committed are you to this goal now?

To Sum Up

The Impact Cycle involves three stages: Identify, Learn, and Improve. Identify. During this stage, coaches partner with teachers so teachers can identify a clear picture of reality (such as by reviewing a video of a les- son, learning from student interviews, reviewing student work, or analyz- ing observation data gathered by the coach). After this, coaches partner with teachers so that teachers can set a goal that is powerful, easy, emotion- ally compelling, reachable, and student-focused (i.e., a PEERS goal). Next, coaches partner with teachers to identify a strategy that teachers will imple-

ment in an attempt to meet the goal.

Learn. During this stage, coaches partner with teachers to ensure

that they are ready to implement the strategy they have chosen. Often this involves clear but dialogical explanations of a teaching strategy (frequently involving a checklist) and modeling, which could involve coaches model- ing in collaborating teachers’ classrooms (with or without students pres- ent), coaches co-teaching, teachers visiting colleagues’ classrooms, teachers watching a video of the strategy being taught, or several of these learning opportunities in combination.

Improve. During this stage, coaches and teachers collaborate to make adaptations until goals are met. These collaborations may involve changing how strategies are taught, changing strategies, changing goals, changing the kinds of data gathered to show progress toward goals, or simply waiting for the change to work.

Reflection Questions

1. Whathappensduringcoachingwhenteachersdonothaveaclearpic- ture of reality in their classroom?

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2. What difference does it make when teachers are (or are not) emotion- ally committed to meeting the goals they set?

3. Doyouhaveacollectionofteachingstrategiesthatyoucansharewith teachers to help them meet their goals?

4. Have you used checklists? If so, did they help? If not, would you con- sider using them?

5. How important is it to see a strategy before you teach it?

6. What do you do to ensure that teachers go all the way through the

cycle and meet their goals?

Going Deeper

The Impact Cycle presented here is more extensively described in my book The Impact Cycle (Knight, 2018). That book provides an in-depth discussion of the cycle and includes many tools. But it should be read with this chapter in mind, because here I describe many refinements that have been made to the cycle since that book was published, including those related to the pre-cycle conversations, identifying strategies, and explaining strategies. The Impact Cycle was influenced by the following books that would also be helpful to anyone who is interested in being a change leader.

• Atul Gawande’s book The Checklist Manifesto (2011) is a helpful and beautifully written book for anyone who has to explain things to other people, which is pretty much all of us. Gawande’s TED Talk (2017) on coaching is also a must-watch for anyone even slightly interested in coaching.

• Chip and Dan Heath’s Switch (2010) and Heidi Grant-Halvorson’s Nine Things Successful People Do Differently (2012) taught me a lot about leading change and setting goals. (A cool feature of Grant-Halvorson’s book, if you read it on the Kindle, is that the Kindle text includes links to the research articles that the author mentions to support her assertions.)

• Grant-Halvorson’s No One Understands You and What to Do About It (2015) offers a great summary of the perceptual errors described here.

• Two books that have greatly improved my ability to ask questions (and

to be a better coach in general) are John Campbell and Christian van

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Nieuwerburgh’s The Leader’s Guide to Coaching in Schools (2018) and van Nieuwerburgh’s An Introduction to Coaching Skills (2017), which I consider an essential text for coaches.

What’s Next?

Trying to learn how to coach well without implementing an Impact Cycle is like trying to learn how to swim without ever getting into the water—totally counterproductive. Because completing a cycle can be intimidating, I suggest coaches consider the first few cycles they engage in primarily as opportu- nities to learn, perhaps starting out with a friendly colleague who will offer plenty of support. Once coaches are moving through the cycle, they should address all seven of the Success Factors identified in this book.

A coach will likely need a playbook and will need to know how to gather data and how to listen and ask questions effectively before succeeding in the role, but real learning starts with the coaching cycle, and coaches need to start moving through it as soon as possible. If they plan to call themselves coaches, coaches need to start coaching.