One role of an instructional coach is to help teachers reflect on how they deliver instruction and how students receive it. Such reflection can be facilitated in several ways, the most telling of which is data–data about student behavior, questioning techniques, student engagement, teacher movement.
Consider inviting me to your classroom to gather data and reflect with you. Here are a few ideas:
- High-level Questioning: What questions are you asking your students? Where do they fall on Marzano’s taxonomy?
- Reinforcement ratios: How are you reinforcing student effort and performance? To what extent is your feedback positive or negative?
- Tally of Disruptions: How many disruptions occur as you deliver instruction? How do you respond to these disruptions?
- Time-On-Task: What percentage of class time are your students on task?
- Opportunities to Respond: How many opportunities do students have to contribute verbally in your class?
- Response Distribution: Which students are you calling on? Who answers your questions?
- Active Engagement: What percentage of your class time are students actively learning? And what percent of class time are they passively receiving?
- Questioning Techniques: What questioning techniques (cold calling, volunteers, choral response, survey) are you using in your classes? How often do you use each one? And which ones are most effective with your students?
The data we gather can become a useful tool in guiding the goals we set and strategies we select for improving instruction and performance in your class.
Let me know how I can help you gather data in your class.
