Coaching Redefined
by Laura Jacklin and Anna Greenstone
For the past year and a half the Philadelphia Writing Project worked with the School District of Philadelphia to pilot intellectually rigorous, technology rich curricula aligned with the Common Core State Standards. The project was funded by the Gates Foundation and piloted in 9th grade classrooms in 5 SDP high schools. Using a digital learning management system and units developed by Educurious in partnership with the University of Washington, students are encouraged to delve deep into writing in this proficiency-based pathway program.
With the support of the Philadelphia Writing Project, Laura Jacklin, Furness High School, and Anna Greenstone, a University of Pennsylvania graduate student, were able to work together to enact Educurious curriculum in Laura’s 9th grade classroom. In what follows Laura and Anna each reflect on the different roles a coach can play, their collaboration and growth, and the student progress that emerged.
Laura Jacklin
Despite participating in PhilWP’s 2012 Invitational Summer Institute, I still don’t feel comfortable writing creatively; so, asking my students to do anything that I don’t feel comfortable doing is a challenge. When I was told that I would be receiving support from a PhilWP coach in the implementation of my new Educurious curriculum, I was grateful. Teaching a brand-new, technology-rich, writing-focused curriculum seemed daunting. When Anna Greenstone came in to coach, I didn’t know where to start. What would our collaboration look like? How would she work with student writing?
Over time, we figured it out. For the first couple of weeks, Anna’s visits consisted of observation. In this way she was able to become a presence in the class while getting to see how the students and I navigated the curriculum. It was so great to have Anna in the classroom and to bounce ideas off her.
It was during the suspense unit when Anna’s coaching and co-teaching proved to be the most valuable. Because of my aforementioned discomfort, I had never made creative writing a priority in my classes. However, in the Educurious unit, “Picking Up the Clues,” the students are challenged to write a suspense narrative using what they learned about the elements of suspense by focusing on short stories by Edgar Allan Poe as well as the novel Girl, Stolen, by mystery writer April Henry.
Anna stepped in and was able to facilitate lessons on brainstorming, peer editing and revision. During these lessons, I sat beside my students and modeled my own writing process as Anna led the lessons. Students were able to see me struggling as a creative writer. As we brainstormed together they saw me jot down suspenseful moments from my own life and pull out images that could build to a larger piece. I described the wind whizzing by my face and the blur of land that went past as I sat in the backseat of a stranger’s car in Montana. Next to me, Siani, one of my students, jotted down notes and images of a time she and her friends waited at a bus stop and a creepy guy started following them. Anna directed us through various stages of writing, and I was able to learn from her as both a student of writing and a teacher. It was also a powerful lesson for the students to see their teacher as a student and to observe the writing process being implemented.
Another beneficial aspect of having Anna as a coach was her ability to work with students one on one to offer feedback on student writing. I think that it can be hard for students to hear feedback when it’s from their own teacher. Anna served as a neutral party in our writing workshops and students were able to receive feedback from her in a more comfortable way.
My students’ quality of writing, as we navigated the new curriculum, is much richer because of Anna’s coaching. I also noted a sharp increase in attendance as we explored this unit. While it is hard to establish cause and effect, I can’t help but wonder if the combination of engaging texts and permission to be creative gave students a greater incentive to attend. I still struggle with viewing myself as a writer, but after working with Anna I feel more comfortable working with my students as they write in my classroom.
Anna Greenstone
The Educurious literacy curriculum centers on varied and rich texts of different genres and provides abundant opportunities for students to produce original work, using digital technology as resources. In witnessing Laura teach, I was impressed with how she incorporated computers and writing prompts into daily classroom routines to maximize opportunities for student independence. Students were comfortable using classroom laptops as they wrote, edited, created podcasts and comics.
During my weekly visits, my central goal was to be a resource for students. Circulating throughout the classroom, reading their work, I engaged students in conversations about revising their essays or stories. One common focus of our discussions was looking at how stories were organized and ways to develop themes and arguments more deeply.
Laura and I often thought about ways to expand the role of revision and the writing process in student work. We acknowledged that many students had limited exposure or practice with some of the analytical and creative topics that Educurious introduced. We valued providing a means for students to incrementally improve their writing.
Some of my most memorable classes were when Laura and I co-taught methods of brainstorming. We led a free-write, asking students to write non-stop, about a suspenseful moment in their lives. Both Laura and I gave examples from our own lives; her dangerous ride in a pick-up truck with wild teens in Montana and the night I thought armed robbers were in my compound, when I lived abroad. We built on each other’s input, modeling the use of strong sensory details. Her students really demonstrated effort with these free-writes, their descriptions vividly captured features of suspense.
We later worked together to plan and facilitate peer editing of student stories. We used a sample of student writing, then collectively and constructively revised the piece. Students were eager to offer feedback of varying types, from pointing out grammatical errors to questioning the believability of a plot twist.
Throughout my work with Laura and her students what has becoming powerfully clear is that valuable coaching can take on many forms. My focus was on student writing, and developing their process of revision as writers. Also, by being in regular communication with Laura, we could think through some of the challenges to using this curriculum in her classroom, and apply both our perspectives to this inquiry into student work in new curriculum. By positioning myself as a resource to the class, I ultimately hoped that students would feel supported, challenged and witness their own improvement as writers. The coaching structure that organically emerged through our collaboration creates an alternative to the traditional notion of “expert” coach, who is present to critique or advise the teacher. Instead, Laura and I worked side by side, providing more opportunities for students to write with feedback and guidance. This type of coaching could be valuable in many classroom contexts.
At various points throughout the pilot we were able to learn about the coaching that took place in the other pilot schools. In many cases, coaches emphasized technology skills and supported students in making movies as well as in developing solid analytical essays. The approach the coaches took depended on the leadership of the classroom teachers, the needs of the students, and the objectives of a particular curriculum unit. For example, one of the earlier units, Charting Current Controversies, emphasized building strong, evidence- based arguments. The unit we describe focused on creative writing. Each unit has an emphasis on a particular genre of writing and reinforces the notion of writing for what purpose and for whom. They are well designed and rigorous, but it is in the implementation that they come alive for students. Having a coach to work along side the classroom teacher adds a fruitful dimension as the two professionals work together to extract the best from students as they engage in the topic of the unit.
Laura Jacklin teaches English at Furness High School and Anna Greenstone is a PhilWP Literacy Coach and a Teaching Fellow at Capital City Charter School.