Teachers as Classroom Coaches

How to Motivate Students Across the Content Areas

Andi Stix, Frank Hrbek

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781416617853
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

One of the hardest things for teachers to do is to inspire their students. In this groundbreaking book, authors Andi Stix and Frank Hrbek show teachers how to do just that by adapting proven coaching strategies in class.

Students in extracurricular activities often have coaches, yet it is students in the classroom who are most in need of the motivation and support that coaches provide. In Teachers as Classroom Coaches: How to Motivate Students Across the Content Areas, you'll learn how to apply the same methods that professional coaches use to help students achieve more in all subjects and at all grade levels. These strategies, which have been used successfully in some of the most diverse classrooms in the country, can help to

* Ensure harmonious group work,
* Improve organizational and note-taking skills,
* Overcome emotional and environmental roadblocks,
* Resolve conflicts among students, and
* Empower students by allowing them ownership of their work.

In addition to the coaching strategies, the book provides sample assessment forms, student-teacher dialogues, real-life examples of coaching in action, and a wealth of cross-curricular project ideas. Whether you teach elementary, middle, or high school, and no matter the content area, this book has everything you need to fire up students' imaginations and get them engaged, inspired, and motivated to succeed.

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Section 1

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Creating the Coaching Environment

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In this section, we define the art of coaching, describing in detail how teachers can empower and motivate students by giving them more responsibility, providing them with choices, enhancing their self-esteem, and relieving them of stress. We also discuss the conditions necessary for a productive atmosphere and explore how coaching helps teachers to determine the aptitude of students by recognizing their talents and grouping them accordingly. The teacher-coach becomes aware of the appropriateness of the content, matches it to an effective strategy, and uses that strategy to help students develop their skills.

Schools need not be institutions where learning stops at the classroom door; they can be vigorous centers bursting with creativity, intellectual engagement, and fun. Yes, fun! The goal of learning may be to expand the mind and better understand the world, but the road to getting there does not have to be straight and narrow—it can be an interconnected circle of lively and intelligent discussions, where knowledge bursts through the doors, the windows, the walls, and the floor, and every day there is something new to be discovered.

On the following page, you'll find an essential question and some guiding questions and statements to consider when reading chapters 1–7.

Essential Question: In what ways would the field of education benefit from coaching?

Guiding Questions and Statements:

• How can coaching lessen conflicts in the school?
• In what ways can coaching develop better listening skills?
• For what reasons do students perform better when coached?
• Describe in detail how coaching increases the ability to resolve conflicts.
• Explain specifically how coaching can encourage better organization and note-taking skills.
• How can coaching promote innovation and creativity?
• Describe in detail how coaching helps to overcome emotional and environmental roadblocks.
• How does allowing students ownership of their work empower them?
• Describe in detail how coaching improves cooperative group performance.
• How does a coaching environment decrease student, staff, and administrator absenteeism?
• In what ways does a coaching environment increase motivation and the passion to learn or perform one's duties?

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Chapter 1

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Teacher-Coaches

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Essential Question: What is coaching?

Guiding Questions and Statements:

• In what ways are coaching techniques motivational?
• Describe in detail how the environment changes due to a coaching environment.
• Why is student behavior modified in a coaching environment?
• For what reasons should students be trained to use coaching with each other in a coaching school?

* * *

There is nothing wrong with setting the stage for an activity or lesson with a 5- to 7-minute lecture. In fact, the shorter the better: Research has shown that students lose interest and focusing ability after the first 7 to 15 minutes of listening to a lecture (Bonwell & Eison, 1991). At the outset of a lesson, the main objective for any teacher is to set the stage by motivating students to engage enthusiastically in the day's activity.

Teachers who work as coaches have the same responsibilities as always, they just take a more interactive approach toward them. Like sports coaches, these teachers mix with everyone and are involved in everything. They motivate students to achieve results by instructing, guiding, and listening to them; when the going gets tough and enthusiasm wanes, they are there to show students the way. The classroom is the playing field, the students are the team, and the teacher, as the coach, holds everything together.

What Is Coaching?

More than 2,400 years ago, at the height of the Athenian enlightenment, Socrates asserted that teachers should help students to uncover information for themselves. This was a radical departure from the traditional approach of the time, which thought of students as empty vessels and of teachers as dispensers of information. Socrates' philosophy of teaching set the stage for coaching, which aims to unlock student potential.

Coaching is concerned with long-term skill development rather than with quick fixes or temporary understanding. We define coaches as those who offer inspiration, guidance, training, and modeling, and who enhance others' abilities through motivation and support (Longenecker & Pinkel, 1997). The goal of teachers who coach is to help students

• Find their inner strengths and passions in order to nurture self-worth and identity,
• Have a voice in their own learning and negotiate collectively with the teacher to create the goals and objectives,
• Passionately engage in talking content to increase memory retention and fuel motivation to learn, and
• Use their inner talents to bring their work to the highest level of scholarship attainable.

To better understand coaching, we can compare it to other professions. According to CoachPeople Training (2003), coaching is multidisciplinary and helps individuals move toward effective action by focusing on the present. A coach asks questions that provoke awareness, creating an environment for self-discovery. By contrast, therapists often look at the past to help patients understand the present; guidance counselors address personal problems and may recommend academic or career placement; consultants, who are usually experts in a given field, provide techniques and answers to questions; and mentors help individuals replace or take on specific new positions.

Coaches as Motivators

How do we motivate students? First, we need to develop a relationship of trust, based on a sense of security in a risk-free environment. Students need to feel that they can make new leaps in their endeavors within the security of this relationship. Second, teachers need to offer assignments that are intellectually challenging, but not overly difficult. The coach's ultimate goal is first to motivate students through guidance and activity, and then to tap the motivation inherent in students' natural curiosity.

Time and time again, research has shown that if students are truly engaged in learning, their recall increases (Conway, Cohen, & Stanhope, 1991; MacKenzie & White, 1982; Semb & Ellis, 1994; Surges, Ellis, & Wulfeck, 1981). For example, in a study of an accounting course, Specht and Sandlin (1991) found that role playing enhanced students' conceptual understanding more than did traditional lecturing. It is crucial, therefore, for teacher-coaches to motivate their students into activities that are as realistic as possible. Whether the forum is a debate, discussion, or simulation, students must feel that they are writing and researching for practical use.

To move into effective action, teacher-coaches must help students develop responsibility and choice, relieve stress, increase self-esteem and identity, and make real contributions to the classroom.

Developing Responsibility and Choice

It is a challenge to move towards a classroom environment where students have more responsibility and choice in their learning. Such a change might make students feel uncomfortable at first, as they are accustomed to the teacher telling them what to do. Because students who take more responsibility for their actions engage more proactively with classroom activities, teachers should coach students to determine their own goals. With responsibility comes accountability: Individuals are answerable for their choices and are evaluated accordingly. Therefore, the first step in helping students move into effective action is for the teacher to coach the students to take ownership of what needs to be accomplished.

Relieving Stress

With responsibility comes a certain degree of stress. Students have to uncover information themselves instead of letting the teacher dish it out. Teacher-coaches need to work with student groups to help ensure that their approach to the task at hand is manageable. We must help students to discover what is unknown for themselves (Dutton, 1997).

A changed environment can lead to a fear of the unknown, which in turn can lead to stress. Developing student responsibility gradually and having a plan of action in place can alleviate students' uncertainties.

Increasing Self-Esteem and Identity

As student responsibility and choice increase and stress levels decrease, students should have the opportunity to build self-esteem and identity. It is easy to imagine how empowered students might feel when using a new strategy in their own learning, especially when it is effective. The sense of accomplishment and independence that students feel after completing a job without being told what to do every step of the way is a reward in itself. Before the teacher knows it, students begin to mature emotionally as they realize that they have the power to make choices in their own learning. Teacher-coaches help their students become confident and competent in the learning environment (Hudson, 1999).

Making a Real Contribution

When teachers function as coaches, students move from writing reports for the teacher's eyes only to preparing projects, position papers, or perspectives for use in real-life simulations, discussions, or debates. Regardless of the forum, students feel they are making a real contribution for all to witness. When students engage in simulations, the teacher's job is to help them examine the ethics and values in the content. As in everyday life, our contributions are never purely academic.

* * *

When students reflect on the coaching model being used in the classroom, they feel more comfortable with the teacher's role as someone who is invested in their learning. Teachers help students to individually apply the content to their personal experiences; to quote O'Neil and Hopkins (2002), coaching "allow[s] the student-teacher relationship to develop on a deeper level … and provide[s] an opportunity for the teacher to step out of the expert mode and engage with the students in a process of co-inquiry" (p. 407).

Teacher-coaches model coaching techniques for students and discuss their meaning at every stage of development. The goal of school-based coaching is for the students to take on the roles of peer coaches with one another. We recommend hanging posters of coaching strategies in the classrooms to help students incorporate the language of coaching as they acquire essential skills. When students circulate from one classroom to another, they become aware that coaching is the culture of the school. Similar experiences in different classes reinforce and deepen individual understanding of coaching techniques.

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Chapter 2

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Personality Types and Teaming

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Essential Question: What does it mean to be part of a team?

Guiding Questions and Statements:

• Describe in detail the components of a well-functioning team.
• In what ways do personality types affect teaming?
• Explain specifically how talent can be fostered by teaming students more effectively.
• In what ways can team members assess themselves?

* * *

Much as sports coaches need to know what talents and attributes each player brings to a team, teachers need to know what aptitudes students bring with them to cooperative groups. Obviously, groups will need to be refined throughout the school year as the teacher gets to know the students well. Over time, the teacher will switch the students around to make the groups more effective.

Personality Types

When we refer to student talents and abilities, we mean the types of thinking aptitudes that students bring to the table—we are not discussing levels of achievement, though grouping by those criteria has merit at times. The teacher should get to know how the students operate: What are their strengths and weaknesses when working together? Let's examine some common student personality types and their respective aptitudes.

Managers

Students who fit this type are extremely focused, highly organized, and able to plan actions day by day. They may co...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Section 1: Creating the Coaching Environment
• Section 2: Classroom Strategies
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Examples of Project-Based Assignments
• Bibliography
• About the Authors
• Related ASCD Resources
• Study Guide
• Copyright