Book Summary: Instructional Coaching by Jim Knight

Instructional Coaching—A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction, by Jim Knight (Corwin, 2007)

Chapter 1 Why Coaching?

This chapter discusses what instructional coaching is and presents some research about why coaching is a far more effective method for professional development than the traditional one-shot presentation.

Chapter 2 What Does Coaching Look Like?

Knight says that there really is no typical day for an IC, that each brings its own set of activities and challenges.  In this and other chapters he shares interviews he’s had with other ICs.  These coaches all agree that their biggest fear is that “teachers will not want to work with them” (p. 20).  But, they found that even teachers who were very reticent in large-group PD sessions were much different when approached for a one-on-one conversation.  Some advice for enrolling teachers is to:  (1) start by listening and respecting teachers with whom the coach is interacting, and (2) communicate that the coach is another teacher willing to help.

Coaches are encouraged to focus on high-leverage topics so as not to waste the time of teachers.  These topics are called the “Big Four”:

• Behavior:  Coaches can help teachers to create safe, productive classrooms.
• Content knowledge:  Coaches can help teachers access standards and plan how to translate those standards into lessons.
• Direct instruction:  Coaches can help teachers to be more effective instructors.
• Formative assessment:  Coaches can help teachers use formative assessment.

Coaches need to build emotional connections with their teacher partners.  The premise of the book is that coaching is a “partnership mindset.”  Knight explains several of the principles for this mindset:  equality, choice, voice, dialogue, reflection, praxis, reciprocity.  I understood all of these except for praxis (a brand new word for me).  Apparently it means “believing that learning is most meaningful when we reflect and recreate knowledge so that we can use it in our personal or professional lives” (p. 54).

Knight describes the major forms that the coaching partnership will take: 

• Collaboration
• Modeling
• Observing and providing feedback
• Support

Chapter 3 What is the Partnership Philosophy?

This chapter expands on those core principles of the partnership mindset.

Chapter 4 Partnership Communication—Creating Learning Conversations

Six aspects of effective communication:

• Understanding the communication process
• Employing authentic listening
• Understanding our audiences
• Recognizing stories
• Interpreting nonverbal communication and facial expressions
• Building relationships through emotional connection

The communication process:  Speaker > Message > Listener > Interference > Perceived Message > Feedback

Authentic listening:  Misconceptions, Attentiveness, Self-Awareness, Honesty and Authenticity, Empathy and Respect

Listening strategies:  Developing inner silence, Listening for what contradicts our assumptions, Clarifying, Communicating our understanding, Practicing every day, Practicing with terrible listeners

Understanding our audience—Focus questions:

• What are my collaborating teacher’s most pressing concerns?
• What does my collaborating teacher know about this topic?
• What are my collaborating teacher’s learning preferences?
• What are my collaborating teacher’s values?

Chapter 5 Getting Teachers on Board and Finding a Starting Point

The chapter begins with a review of some of theory around the concept of “change.”  That is, the stages people go through as they are working toward change.  Next, three components of coaching are presented:  (1) enroll, (2) identify, (3) explain.  Basically there are countless ways to enroll, or begin, a partnership with a teacher or teachers.  And, for step 2 (identifying an area that the partnership can explore), there are several questions given that can be used to decide if one of the Big Four or some other topic is most pressing.  Step 3 is where the IC explains the new, to-be-tested-out teaching practice. 

Chapter 6 Modeling, Observing, and Collaboratively Exploring Data

Tips are given for how coaches should approach modeling of a lesson/practice, as well as observing in a classroom and collaboratively looking at data.  I also found very helpful the suggestions given for what to do when teachers don’t want an IC in their classrooms.  Knight approaches this problem from the viewpoint that it’s a negotiation to encourage teachers to invite ICs into their classes.  And so, he brings in Fisher and Shipiro’s (2005) Five Core Concerns for Negotiation:

• Appreciation:  (1) Understand each other’s point of view, (2) Find merit in what each of us thinks, feels, does, (3) Communicate our understanding through words and actions.
• Affiliation:  Build it by (1) Arrange to meet in an informal setting, (2) Sit side by side, (3) Refer to the importance of their interests, (4) Emphasize the shared nature of the task you both face, (5) Avoid dominating the conversation.
• Autonomy:  The least effective way to utilize coaching is for the administration to tell a staff member he or she must work with a coach.
• Status:  The IC should be presented as a “second set of hands” so as not to undercut teachers’ expertise and status as classroom leaders.
• Fulfilling role:  The IC must not threaten teachers’ roles.  The teacher always is the leading mentor, supporter, and teacher in the classroom.

Chapter 7 Focusing on the Big Four:  Behavior, Content Knowledge, Direct Instruction, and Formative Assessment

I really appreciated the disclaimer at the beginning of this chapter that stated that if districts want their instructional coaches to be highly effective, then they need to provide them with extensive professional development in the Big Four areas.  In my own case, what real expertise do I have in these areas over and above any of my colleagues at BHS?  There are teachers at BHS who are far better at classroom management than me; I certainly don’t have the content expertise of any teacher who’s in a field other than mathematics; I am perhaps better read in instruction and assessment theory than most, but that doesn’t mean I have any more classroom experience with these things.  Instructional coaching partnerships will be a huge learning experience for me which will depend greatly on my colleagues’ patience during this learning process.  What I can bring to the partnerships is that opportunity for support and that person with whom to dialogue and reflect.  I can be a second set of hands and another pair of eyes in classrooms.  And, since I am responsible for pretty much anything data-related, I can work with teachers to examine classroom data and search out alternative instructional strategies that might lead to better results.  Jim Knight goes into some detail about the Big Four, but I’m not going to summarize it here because it has a lot of overlap with other resources we’re all familiar with:  the “notable nine” instructional strategies, classroom management strategies, formative assessment, and so on.

Chapter 8 How Coaches Can Spread Knowledge

Chapter 9 Coaches as Leaders of Change