Practice in Coaching Meetings: Role-play vs. Co-planning
If you are new to the concept of practicing in coaching meetings, I recommend that you start back with my previous post “We Talkin’ ‘bout Practice?!” in which I share the rationale for and 5 key elements of practice in coaching meetings.
There are a range of ways to practice in coaching meetings with teachers, but I’ve found it helpful to break the types of practice into two primary categories: role-play practice and co-planning practice. I’ll break down what each type of practice is for, how to model it as a coach, and give examples of what practice actually looks like and pitfalls to avoid.
Role-play Practice:
Role-play practice is when a teacher and coach engage in role-playing through actual classroom scenarios in order to build habits and decrease anxiety before trying out a skill or strategy in the classroom. First, the coach models in their “teacher voice,” showing the teacher exactly what a skill or strategy looks like in action. Then, for a planned scenario, the teacher pretends they are in front of their class, speaking and moving as if they were actually with students. Oftentimes, the coach plays the role of students (or co-teacher, administrator, or parents) in order to simulate real situations.
When to use it: Role-play practice is best for coaching meetings that focus on building teachers’ skills around teacher moves that are predominantly verbal or responsive to “on the fly”situations in the classroom. Welcoming students at the door, giving clear directions, redirecting students, active student response strategies, wait time and feedback are examples of teaching strategies that when they are the focus of a coaching meeting align well with role-play practice.
Coach’s model: Before the teacher practices, the coach should give a model that is as close to the real situation as possible. Ideally, this would be in the teacher’s classroom, standing up, using appropriate tone and body language, and in their “teacher voice.” Models should be short - ideally 30 seconds or less.
How to practice: After the coach gives the teacher a scenario, the teacher should mirror your model by standing up and using their “teacher voice” to practice a strategy or skill. In some situations, it may be beneficial to give the teacher 30 seconds to 1 minute to plan what they are going to say first. Depending on the scenario, the coach may interact as a student would by providing answers, asking questions, or doing other behaviors observed in the class.
Example: Most new teachers need support around giving clear directions, which is a great skill to practice in role playing. I’ve found it helpful to have teachers stand up and practice my model as a coach in their “teacher voice” first. Then, I provide new scenarios, one at a time, in which the teacher plans and delivers their own set of clear directions. They practice each scenario several times until they can do it perfectly, and then practice even a few more times to lock it in.
Pitfalls: Avoid using actual student names when practicing reacting to challenging or off-task student behavior. We don’t want to reinforce in a teacher’s mind that a particular student is their “bad” student.
Co-planning Practice:
When to use it: Co-planning practice works best for anything that falls in the planning and preparation side of teaching. Some skills that work well to practice with co-planning are lesson objectives, aligned activities, lesson structure, questioning, and assessments.
Coach’s model: Before the teacher starts to create their plan on your, they need to see an exemplar of what this looks like. A great coach model for co-planning practice typically includes a printed or virtual document that shows an example of exactly what the skill looks like done well.
How to practice: Teachers should have multiple “at bats” for the new skill. To engage in co-planning practice, teachers typically pull up their lesson plans to add or revise using their new knowledge. Alternatively, the coach can provide scenarios or non-examples that need revision, and the teacher can write out or create something in response to the scenarios. Coaches need to give very clear and specific directions of exactly what is expected, not just “Let’s revise your lesson plans.”
Example: Let’s say the coach is working with a teacher around incorporating more higher-order questions throughout their lesson. The coach’s model could be a revision of the teacher’s lesson plan from the observed class with 3 higher-order questions scripted at strategic points, and the corresponding strategy for soliciting answers from all students. Then, the teacher would look at their lesson plan for the next 3 days, and script in at least 3 higher-order questions and student response strategies per day with the support and feedback of their coach.
Pitfalls: Coaches tend to struggle with breaking down a co-planning focused coaching meeting into a narrow enoch focus area to accomplish in one meeting. Try to be as focused as possible, which might mean breaking your plan for one meeting up into two or three meetings.
Using a Combination of Both Types of Practice
I find that I often use some combination of both types of practice. The most common way I do this is by pausing to give teachers a minute to plan or script something out (co-planning practice) before they practice out loud (role-play practice).
However, there are certain skills in education that lend themselves well towards blending the two types of practice. Any skill that depends heavily on both preplanning and a strong delivery are good candidates for a blend of practice.
For example, I’ve found that supporting teachers around routines works best with both types of practice. Let’s say a coaching meeting focuses on the teacher’s entry routine. I would start out the teacher practice time with co-planning practice by having the teacher revise my model of an entry routine to fit their style and goals, which should last about 6 - 10 minutes. Then, we would script out a few sentences about how the teacher would introduce this new (or revised) routine to their students (also co-planning practice). And finally, we would role-play through introducing and facilitating the routine.
Practicing with teachers can initially feel awkward for coaches, but working towards consistently incorporating practice for half of your teaching meeting can have big payoffs for teachers in their classrooms.