Back to Basics Part 3 - The Coaching Continuum

Julie Schwartzbauer contributed today's posts. More of Julie's posts about her district's "Back to Basics" plan for coaching can be found here.

In my last two posts I have written about how our district is focusing on a “Back to Basics” plan for coaching.  I have touched on the reasoning behind the need for a back to basics model and explained the coaching cycle.

When the plan was introduced to our building literacy coaches, there was some anxiety surrounding the idea of coaching all teachers.  We know and understand that all teachers do not desire to, or feel the need to be coached.  The question became how do we provide support that is differentiated for all teachers.

Before we developed a plan for differentiation, we needed to build understanding around three essential principles of coaching.  In her book Differentiated Literacy Coaching, Mary Catherine Moran states that the overarching goal of improved student achievement are three essential principles of coaching:

1. Coaching should help establish a school culture that recognizes collaboration as an asset.
2. Coaching should develop individual and group capacity to engage in creative problem solving and self-reflection.
3. Coaching should provide a continuum of professional learning opportunities to support adults in their acquisition and use of specific knowledge, skills, and strategies.

With that being said, the literacy continuum is a structure for professional learning that provides scaffolding to meet the needs of individual teachers and builds on the knowledge teachers bring to the table. As shown in the figure below, the continuum offers eight differentiated formats for coaching.

The Literacy Coaching Continuum (Moran, 2007)

What we like about using the continuum with our coaches is that it assumes a progression in intensity of coaching from least intrusive (sharing resources), to more intrusive (co-teaching).  Moran defines intrusive as being the extent of the coach’s involvement in the actual teaching routine and the potential impact of that involvement on the teacher’s sense of comfort.The differentiated format of the coaching continuum allows coaches to consider a teachers knowledge base, personal experiences, as well as their comfort level when it comes to being coached.

It is our hope that during professional learning communities, coaches will talk with teachers about the “back to basics” topics and then determine what coaching format would be the “best fit” for the team or for each individual teacher.

I have included a table below that defines each of the coaching formats in the continuum. My next post will focus on collaboration with building principals.

(The document below can be accessed using GoogleDocs.)