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On-Site Support and Coaching
Grade-Level Meetings, Demonstration Lessons, and Coaching
According to Joyce and Showers (1995) and Collins (1997),
coaching is the most powerful model for creating learning that has a significant and enduring impact.
Grade-level meetings give teachers who have completed a TWT workshop the opportunity to ask questions, share student samples, and review a particular strategy. It is also a chance to discuss and share “homework” that the coach has assigned during a previous meeting.
Demonstration lessons offer the teacher a chance to observe a strategy being taught in his or her own classroom by one of our professional trainers. Other teachers at the same grade level also observe the lesson. Teachers sit with students rather than as a group at the back of the room so that they can interact with students during the lesson. Just as important as the demonstration lesson is the dialogue time that follows each lesson. Grade level teachers discuss the sequence of the lesson as well as what next steps should be.
Coaching lessons encourage teachers to teach lessons to their own class while the coach and grade level colleagues observe. Before the observation lesson, teachers are urged to meet as a grade level and work together to create a lesson. They are also encouraged to have one or more teachers “test drive” the lesson and make adjustments to the lesson to improve it. Finally, the new and improved lesson is delivered while the coach is on-site.
This model encourages planning and working together as a grade level team. Teachers become comfortable in front of their colleagues, thus laying the groundwork for peer coaching.