Student-Centered Coaching Cycles in Action

"How can we be certain that coaching improves student learning?" (Diane Sweeney, Student Centered Coaching)  This is the driving question behind the Student-Centered Coaching model.  As we looked at various coaching models last year, Diane Sweeney's work aligned with our goals and the work we are already doing around MTSS and PLC's. 
In early October, I began several coaching cycles with teachers.  Two of them centered around supporting teachers in first and second grade with finding guided reading levels of their students through the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment kit.  We then dug into the Literacy Continuum to help set specific goals for the guided groups.  It was exciting to see how much information could be obtained from completing these assessments about our readers that will help guide instruction!
The other two coaching cycles (with a fourth grade teacher and a fifth grade teacher) centered around an Enduring Understanding.  With those teachers, we met and chose an EU to focus on, and began co-planning for that EU instruction during their reading block. 
In fourth grade, we chose EU1 (RL 4.1.1.1), which is: "Refer accurately to a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from literature."  We began by establishing how we wanted students to do this and modeling that thinking process for the students using their anchor text Eagle Song.  Then collaboratively students worked through answering a question that required them to refer accurately to the text.  We provided specific feedback for each group and modeled another example the following day.  Students then worked through one of the responses independently, we collected the work, provided specific feedback, shared exemplars (pointing out the success criteria and where it was evident in the examples).  Based on this information, we pulled groups with like "next steps."  For example, if a student was providing evidence for a part of the question but not the whole question, that is a different next step than those who did not initially provide specific text evidence.  The growth in just a few weeks has been evident!  With two teachers, there is more time to provide specific feedback and support students with the next steps on the continuum of this particular standard. 
It has been exciting to see the growth in student learning that this coaching model has helped to foster!  If you are interested in getting on my schedule at McKinley or Wilson for coaching cycles, drop me an email: ezeman@Owatonna.k12.mn.us. If you're at Lincoln or Washington, contact Joanne Harmsen at jharmsen@Owatonna.k12.mn.us to get on her schedule.  Katie Coudron is also running coaching cycles at Willow Creek and OJHS; email her at: kcoudron@Owatonna.k12.mn.us.