The Big Four: Beta Version

When I was a little kid, my Mom took me to Montreal's Expo 67 World's Fair.  This was a really exciting time in Canada, as we celebrated our centenary, on the verge of a new era as the country was about to vote in a young, visionary new Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau.  

Expo 67 was a big part of that excitement, and all of the world build these great pavilions celebrating their country's accomplishments.  Britain's pavilion was purposefully left unfinished to symbolically suggest that Britain's story as a nation was also unfinished.

I've always liked that metaphor because I think many of the things we do are too quickly finished.  We need to continually revise our teaching practices, for example, never getting to the point where we say, well, I'm done!  

For that reason, the Kansas Coaching Project, in partnership with the Instructional Coaching Group, is announcing the beta versions of the Big Four teaching tools. If you go to the tools section of the KCP website you'll discover that we have added a lot of tools, including mini-coaching manuals related to such topics as the real learning index, content planning, high-level questioning, and intensive-explicit instruction.  Also, you'll find a copy of the new Big Four walk-through, a survey for assessing the effectiveness of coaching programs, Sue Woodruff's assessment tool that coaches can use for evaluating the impact of coaching, as well as several articles and many new presentations.

These tools are not finished products; indeed, they may never be finished products.  With the British Pavilion as my metaphor, I am beginning to believe that we should never stop improving the teaching tools that coaches use to improve instruction.  So I am putting these tools out there for people to try out and give us feedback.  We hope to continually refine our tools so that they are simpler and more powerful, with the goal of creating a set of tools that help us achieve our goal of having an unmistakable positive impact on children's lives.

All of these tools are free, and you can copy them, use them, and share them.  All we ask is that you share with us what you have learned. Your ideas will help us make them better.  I have already received many suggestions for improvements, and I'm excited about putting more and more simple and powerful tools on line.

I know it is almost a cliche to say this, but I really believe that if we at the Kansas Coaching Project can tap into the expertise of the hundreds of coaches we know across the country, as well as the wisdom of the thousands of teachers with whom they work, well there is no limit to what we can accomplish.

What is Instructional Coaching Institute Level 2

Some of you have asked about Instructional Coaching Institute Level 2, so I've included a quick description below.  On October 15 on our website we will be releasing new tools for coaching these practices and you'll be able to download them for free.

Instructional Coaching Institute Level II has been created for coaches and other educators who wish to deepen their knowledge of coaching tools and teaching practices that improve teaching practices in the Big Four areas of instruction—classroom management, content planning, intensive explicit and constructivist instruction, and assessment for learning. Participants   in this institute will learn high-leverage teaching practices that coaches can share with teachers to have a quick, powerful, positive impact on instruction and ultimately student achievement.

This session will cover

·       Classroom management teaching practices such as developing and teaching expectations, improving praise to correction ratios of interaction, increasing students’ opportunities to respond, correcting students fluently, and increasing time-on-task

·       Content planning teaching practices that include developing essential questions for lessons, units, and courses, and developing lesson, unit, and course maps to provide a living study guide for students

·       Instruction--Intensive explicit teaching practices are designed to ensure students master essential information, strategies and proceedures. These teaching practices include pretest, describing content, learning by watching, sharing, practicing, post-tests, and generalization.

·       Instruction--constructivist teaching practices are designed to ensure students master construct their own understanding of information, strategies or procedures being learned. These teaching practices include cooperative learning, project-based learning, thinking device, high-level questioning (HLQs), reflection learning, and stories.

·       Assessment for learning—teaching practices empower teachers and students to carefully monitor student learning and progress.   These practices involve identifying teaching targets, developing propositions, identifying and implementing checks for understanding.