Lessons Learned: Instructional Coaching
Rural LIFE instructional coaches provided critical support to teachers, school leaders, and PLC teams.
Rural LIFE instructional coaches supported teachers by increasing their confidence in the classroom, facilitating collaboration, and guiding learning about problems of practice. Supporting teachers through modeling, lesson planning, learning and reflection cycles, and collaborative conversations improves teacher pedagogical practices. Under the guidance of instructional coaches, teachers collaborated more, used more structured PLC protocols, and were more comfortable using data to inform instruction.
Brooke Drinnon served CHMS as a literacy coach during the school's first two years as a Rural LIFE treatment school; she later returned as their sustainability grant coach where she helped their school team plan and facilitate PLCs focused on ELA curriculum implementation.
Lesson 1
Instructional coaching following professional learning is an essential support to facilitate transfer to practice at myriad levels.
Coaching that supports district-, school-, and classroom-level implementation following professional learning sessions provides personalized and scaffolded supports for changes in instruction.
Implementation of HQIM is more successful when there is a coach in the school who follows up with teachers after attending professional learning.
Lesson 2
Instructional coaches foster collaboration across grade level and school boundaries facilitate processes for instructional practices to spread and flourish.
COMMUNICATION TIP
Keep all professional learning resources and documentation in one place so project participants and stakeholders can access it easily.
Lesson 3
Effective instructional coaches are non-evaluative and facilitate cycles of improvement based on school-based goals and personalized pathways.
Lesson 4
An instructional coach helps the implementation team focus on progress indicators and data-informed iteration while allowing multiple voices to guide any necessary changes to implementation.
Literacy Coaching for Change: Choices Matter (Literacy Leadership Brief, International Literacy Association)