1. Teach 2017
Coaching for Excellence: Using a model of 6-step feedback to
support development
4 February 2017
2. About the session
Jennifer Gregson is the Network Lead for
Primary Professional Development at Ark.
At her Teach 2017 session, she worked with
participants to help them become effective
coaches.
In these slides she reveals Ark’s unique 6-step
feedback model to support development. She
looks at how to establish expertise and
independence in those around you (including
your pupils) and help them to expand the
capacity to solve their own problems.
2
4. Big Idea
The real value of observation & feedback is not to evaluate a teacher, but to
develop their practice so that their pupils learn better.
In teaching we have two schools of coaching.
The first comes from the world of business, where the coach is questioner.
The coach doesn’t offer solutions but ask questions to help you unpack your own
thinking. It gives you the space to think about what to do in a given situation.
The other school of coaching is performance coaching. This comes from the
world of sports and arts. The purpose of this coaching is to create an immediate
improvement in someone’s performance. We look for one action that the
teacher can take tomorrow, that will improve the learning of their pupils.
5. What does great coaching look like?
Watch this video of Yo-Yo Ma, a world famous cellist, coaching three young
musicians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cexpsSXRxBg
6. What does great coaching look like?
• What does Yo-Yo Ma do to teach his musicians to play better?
• Note down what Yo-Yo Ma says and does that:
• Makes the musicians open to his feedback
• Makes it easy for these young musicians to implement his feedback
• Makes sure his feedback sticks – that it directly and immediately changes
how they play the piece.
7. Why is Yo-Yo Ma’s coaching so effective?
• Isolation of a skill – he doesn’t give a long list of general things to improve
upon. Instead he focuses on one tiny aspect that he feels will make a big
difference.
• Yo-Yo Ma uses his expertise to be very clear about exactly what the musicians
should do differently. He tells them exactly what he wants them to do rather
than allowing them to choose.
• He gets the musician to practise the specific change he wants to see and gives
them immediate feedback if they are not quite doing it right.
• He is very positive and uses lots of praise.
8. Big Idea
Adults can really only improve in 1-2 areas at a time. The most effective
coaches narrow their focus to the highest leverage action-steps.
Rule 27: Limit Yourself (from Practice Perfect by Doug Lemov)
We often have so much we want to share when giving someone feedback.
Imagine the tennis pro who starts by saying, “There are nine things you must
make sure to do to hit a forehand.” There’s no way you can keep nine things in
your head when hitting a forehand.
Despite this, it can be hard to restrain ourselves when giving feedback.
Everyone likes to feel they have a lot to share when coaching. However, it is
important to “tame your inner expert” because too much feedback simply
backfires. Instead, focus on the one or two most important things that should
be improved.
9. Regular Observation
“Lock in frequent and regular
observations – by receiving
weekly observations and
feedback, a teacher gets as much
development in one year as most
receive in twenty.”
Paul Bambrick-Santoyo
Leverage Leadership
If you are only giving one or two bite-
sized pieces of feedback after each
observation, you need these observations
to be highly regular to significantly
change a teacher’s practice.
10. The Four Keys
Regular Observation:
• Lock in frequent and regular observations
Right Action Steps:
• Choose the best action steps for change in each classroom observation
Effective Feedback:
• Give face-to-face feedback that practises the action step
Accountability:
• Create systems to ensure feedback translates to practice
11. Scripting the action step
11
• Narrate the positive with precise praisePraise
• Use targeted open-ended question and scaffold
to identify the core issueProbe
• State single, concrete, highest-leverage action
stepAction step
• Simulate how to improve current practicePractice
• Design/revise upcoming lesson plan to
implement actionPlan ahead
• Establish timeline when the action step will be
completedFollow-up
12. What characteristics do these action-steps
have in common?
• Stand at the corner of the room so that you can see all students
• Be Seen Looking: crane your neck to appear to be seeing all corners of the room
• Roll back the answer: repeat the wrong answer back to the student to give them time to
identify their error
• Close the loop: after correcting the error, go back
13. Criteria for effective action steps
Highest Leverage:
• Will this help the teacher to develop most quickly and effectively?
Clear and Measurable:
• Can anyone understand the action?
• Can you easily measure if the teacher has made the change?
• What evidence will you have of mastery?
Bite-sized:
• If you can’t make the change in a week, the action step isn’t small enough
14. How to convert PD goals to bite-sized
action steps
Too high
• PD Goal - Keep students on
task
Still too high
• Monitor students to prevent off-
task behaviour
Better level
• Stand at the corner of the room
so that you can see all students
• Be Seen Looking: crane your
neck to appear to be seeing all
areas of the room
15. Six steps to effective feedback
15
• Narrate the positive with precise praisePraise
• Use targeted open-ended question and scaffold
to identify the core issueProbe
• State single, concrete, highest-leverage action
stepAction step
• Simulate how to improve current practicePractice
• Design/revise upcoming lesson plan to
implement actionPlan ahead
• Establish timeline when the action step will be
completedFollow-up
1 – 2
minutes
2 – 6
minutes
1 minute
As much
time as
remains
As much
time as
remains
1 –3
minutes
16. Step 1: Praise
How does Lynsie ensure her praise is brief but effective?
https://youtu.be/Q84Xn-5_S8c
17. Criteria for effective praise
Precise Praise is:
• Targeted – gets at a specific action the teacher took
• Teacher-owned – teacher is able to narrate his/her success
• Reinforce Positive Actions, particularly those that are connected to the
teacher’s development goal
• 1 – 2 minutes only so that the majority of the feedback feeds forward
18. Six steps to effective feedback
18
• Narrate the positive with precise praisePraise
• Use targeted open-ended question and scaffold
to identify the core issueProbe
• State single, concrete, highest-leverage action
stepAction step
• Simulate how to improve current practicePractice
• Design/revise upcoming lesson plan to
implement actionPlan ahead
• Establish timeline when the action step will be
completedFollow-up
1 – 2
minutes
2 – 6
minutes
1 minute
As much
time as
remains
As much
time as
remains
1 –3
minutes
19. Criteria for an effective probe
• Targeted on the core area of the lesson where you want to focus
• Presents ‘data’ about an exact moment in the lesson
• Open questions to guide teachers to identify and understand the issue
• Leads to the pre-determined action step
• An authentic discussion to ensure teacher buys into the action step
• Maximum 6 minutes long!
21. Probe
Targeted on the core area of the lesson where you want to focus
What question does Hayley ask to get straight to the issue she wants to discuss?
Presents data about an exact moment in the lesson
What does Hayley say to ‘present the data’ about the moment in the lesson she wants
Jade to think about?
Open questions to guide teachers to identify and understand the issue
What questions does Hayley ask to get Jade to see ‘what went wrong’ and how she could
have done it better?
An authentic discussion to ensure teacher buys into the action step
Does Jade agree with her action-step? How do you know? How do you think Hayley
achieved this buy-in?
22. Six steps to effective feedback
22
• Narrate the positive with precise praisePraise
• Use targeted open-ended question and scaffold
to identify the core issueProbe
• State single, concrete, highest-leverage action
stepAction step
• Simulate how to improve current practicePractice
• Design/revise upcoming lesson plan to
implement actionPlan ahead
• Establish timeline when the action step will be
completedFollow-up
1 – 2
minutes
2 – 6
minutes
1 minute
As much
time as
remains
As much
time as
remains
1 –3
minutes
23. The value of practice
• Doug Lemov and Erica Woolway have coined the phrase ‘the get-it, do-it gap’
to capture what they found to be the limitations of the traditional model of
professional development sessions.
• They see similarities between teachers and sport stars or musicians. All have a
common need to get things right in the moment (There’s no chance to redraft
the year 11 lesson you just delivered!)
• Therefore we need to rehearse like other performance professionals.
Reference: Practice Perfect by Doug Lemov
24. Practice
Simulate how the teacher can implement the action step:
• Concrete: generate the actual language or actions teacher could have taken
• Teacher-centered: teacher does the practice (don’t just talk about it!)
• Repeat the practice until successful. Practice makes you better: perfect
practice breeds success
• Debrief why the practice was effective
25. Six steps to effective feedback
25
• Narrate the positive with precise praisePraise
• Use targeted open-ended question and scaffold
to identify the core issueProbe
• State single, concrete, highest-leverage action
stepAction step
• Simulate how to improve current practicePractice
• Design/revise upcoming lesson plan to
implement actionPlan ahead
• Establish timeline when the action step will be
completedFollow-up
1 – 2
minutes
2 – 6
minutes
1 minute
As much
time as
remains
As much
time as
remains
1 –3
minutes
26. Plan ahead
• Get the teacher into the habit of bringing along a lesson plan for an upcoming
lesson
• Help them to pinpoint a moment in the lesson where they can implement the
action step
27. Plan ahead
• Coach has prepared by looking at lesson plan in advance if possible
• Teacher has amended/updated/annotated lesson plan
• Teacher has clear understanding of what they will say and do in the lesson
to be successful
• Teacher understands how action step will impact learning
27
28. Six steps to effective feedback
28
• Narrate the positive with precise praisePraise
• Use targeted open-ended question and scaffold
to identify the core issueProbe
• State single, concrete, highest-leverage action
stepAction step
• Simulate how to improve current practicePractice
• Design/revise upcoming lesson plan to
implement actionPlan ahead
• Establish timeline when the action step will be
completedFollow-up
1 – 2
minutes
2 – 6
minutes
1 minute
As much
time as
remains
As much
time as
remains
1 –3
minutes
29. Step 6: Follow-up
Instil accountability for implementing the feedback
Set dates for the following, as necessary:
• Completed lesson plans / resources to be shared with you
• The next lesson observation
• Teacher’s observation of another teacher
• Teacher to video themselves for critique at next feedback session
