As many folks know, I am in the process of writing my fifth book! It’s about instructional coaching…tentatively titled “How to Coach Teachers to Teach (Almost) Anything” – – – I mean, it’s not like it’s going to be published by Yale or anything, right? 😉
One of the things that I wanted to really drive home for coaches are the fundamental skills that teachers have to have in place. So, I broke those fundamental skills down into five categories:
- Classroom Management
- Behavior Management
- Engagement
- Lesson Planning (the most often un-coached skills that is the starting point of a successful lesson)
- Delivery of a Basic Lesson (like the very least the teacher has to do to deliver a successful lesson)
In this series of five blogs, one on each of the topics, I have broken down those skills for you, too!
If you’re a teacher, you can use these as a checklist for lesson planning
If you are a professional developer, you can use this is a checklist for a new teacher (or veteren teacher) training program
If you are a principal, you can use this to help you set your instructional goal and as a tool to determine where you staff might need strengthening.
If you are a coach, you will use these lists to prioritize the content that you will coach. If a teacher is struggling with any of these, then that struggling point is where your coaching should start. After all, if a fundamental is missing, then the teacher doesn’t have much of a chance of getting the fancier stuff well implemented.
Here are the Classroom Management Priority Skills for Coaching
The teacher:
- Has a signal for getting whole class attention
- Gives directions when students are all quiet and all eyes are on her
- Has a go-to redirection routine
- Sets up, signals and has a very brief time limit for transitions
- Modulates her voice to get attention and focus students
- Has a routine for revving students up when their energy is waning
- Greets students in the morning/top of the period and gives a task right away so they enter the classroom with purpose
- Has a simple routine for written responses
- Has a simple routine for discussion
- Has a simple routine for partnering
I struggle to find books that teach behavior management and classroom routines effectively. When will your book be available. Do you have any other suggestions to pair with your new book that are super good?
Alesa Reed
Hi Alesa!
My book is coming out August 15th!!! I can’t wait! In fact, I am editing right now and took a little break to answer comments! I really LOVE Kameenui and Darch’s book on management and teaching. I love how they basically say that teaching is management and management is teaching – – you can’t separate the two!
-J