3 Part Series: Part 3 Helping Teachers Verbally Command their Classroom

For a refresher or in case you missed it, see Part 1 and Part 2.  

Part 3: Shifting from Suggestions to Commands

Data Collection
Keeping in mind the focus question the teacher and I created guides me to develop a chart using a Google doc. I will record the teacher’s directions and how students respond. Student responses could be their actions and their verbal responses or lack thereof. I use a two column chart to record the data. Example data to collect can include how many students are adhering to the direction and/or the student responses to the directions. For example, if the teacher was to say, "Will you take out your homework from last night, okay?" data would include how many students take out their homework quietly vs talking, how many students talk out loud during this task and how many students call out a response, such as “Yeah!” The data should accurately represent the students’ responses to a teacher's direction.

During the data collection time, I type the teacher’s directions (whether they are suggestions or commands) and the students’ actions (how many students follow the direction, talk, do nothing etc.) I record the directions for a set amount of time, otherwise it can be difficult to record everything. Once I have enough data, I acknowledge the teacher as I leave her classroom.

Soon after, I set up the data display. I add two columns next to the teacher’s directions because I want the teacher to identify her directions as suggestions or commands, why they would be categorized as such, and then want to have her rewrite any suggestions as commands. An important part of an effective data display is to do just that, display the data without my interpretations. If I tell her which directions are suggestions and which are commands, I would be telling the teacher what she should see instead of leading her to reflect and learn from the data.

See Example C for a sample chart of how I set up the Data Display

Data Discussion
Once I collect the data, I share the data display with her as a Google doc.  When we meet, we discuss the data. I ask her to describe what she notices about her directions and student responses. She identifies which directions are suggestions and which ones are commands. She also reflects on how the students respond to her directions when they are suggestions versus commands. I help her dig deeper in the data by asking probing questions, such as “What impact do your verbal directions have on student behavior?”

I ask her to rewrite the directions she identified as suggestions. This helps me understand her thinking about how she phrases her directions. This also opens the door for her to share why she was so used to asking people to follow directions. Her previous career was in the retail business and in order to get people to complete tasks, she had to phrase it as asking to accomplish tasks as favors to get the work done. This gave me a new perspective of her background and we are able to discuss the difference between getting tasks done in the retail world versus getting a class of middle school students to do their work and follow directions.

To conclude our meeting, we set up our next focus and data collection times. She wants me to come in again to see her progress on her verbal commands. As we continue to build our relationship, she feels comfortable asking me for help with other tasks as well, which I will be sure to follow up with.

Teacher's Reflections
During this particular coaching cycle that inspired this blog, the teacher noticed more adherence to her directions and more engagement in the class activity. Professionally, she felt more confident and more in control of her classroom.

Please add comments if you have other ideas or resources to share on this topic! Thanks for reading.

3 Part Series: Part 2 Helping Teachers Verbally Command their Classroom

Part 2: Data Collection

Initial Data Collection of Beginning Teacher
When the beginning teacher asked me to come into her classroom, I had asked what she wanted me to look for. This is a key element in the coaching cycle. The teacher needs to identify an area she wants to work on. I will use a very informal data collection for this particular part of the process. During part three of this blog I will use a formal data collection process. For this informal data collection, I focus the data on what the teacher says or does to get students to listen and follow directions since this was her request the previous day.

While in her classroom, I quickly notice that the teacher is speaking in suggestions and not commands. Meaning, she is asking the students to follow her directions. Her students are responding in ways that show they understand they have a choice in following the directions or not. For example, the teacher says, “Can you go to bell work?” Some students follow the directions, some talk, some don’t do the work. For data collection to be effective, it has to be objective, without any interpretations on my part. So I couldn’t write her directions down and say what needs to improve or change. Instead, I would have to write them down verbatim, meet with the teacher and ask probing questions that would lead her to this discovery. One of Jim Knight’s Big Ideas of Coaching is that teachers aren't motivated by other people's goals. In order for a teacher to have buy-in in regards to her verbal use of classroom commands, the teacher should create this goal for herself. However, this can be a difficult task to self-identify.

During this class period, I collect data by writing down the teacher’s directions to the class. A sample chart is linked here.

See Example Chart A

Once I finish collecting the data, I wave bye to the teacher as I exit her classroom and finalize the data on my Google doc in order to share with the teacher before we meet the next day.

Informal Data Discussion

When we meet, I first ask her what is going well so far and what is making her nervous about teaching, if anything. After taking some time to continue building our relationship, I ask, “What do you notice about this data?” She observes that some of her directions were too long. Then I ask, “What else do you notice about your directions?” She wasn’t sure of what to say. If this was a formal data collection part of the coaching cycle, I would have recorded the students’ responses, but since the teacher hadn’t yet identified this area as a focus, I didn’t record student actions as part of the data. So I dig a little deeper and ask, “What do you notice about how you are phrasing your directions?” She reads over them, ponders, then says that she is asking students to follow her directions. The probing question I ask is, "What impact do you think that might have on the students’ responses?" She is able to touch the surface of the idea of giving students the option of following her directions or not and that this might be contributing to some of the challenges she is having in that class.

This leads the way to us creating a focus question for a follow-up data collection time. I ask what she would like to focus on for the next data collection and she says her directions. From that, our focus question becomes, “How are my directions impacting students’ responses?” We set up a time for data collection and another data discussion. I also tell her I will find a resource to help her learn more about giving directions to students.

Sharing Research for Continuous Professional Development
After our meeting, I search for resources about teachers giving directions as suggestions rather than commands and about teachers having verbal command of their classes. I look through some books and search online. I find only one online resource from Intervention Central. I email the teacher this resource and create a Google doc for to take notes as she reads. Here are three questions I write to guide her reading:

What stood out to you?
What is an “aha” for you?
What will you implement?

One of the teacher’s “aha” moments what that she was explaining too many details in her direction and would lose the meaning of the direction in the first place. The article explains how directions need to be direct and to the point. She also realizes she can be polite, but by giving polite commands, not polite requests. You can also help the teacher reflect on her directions from the informal data collection by having her rewrite some of her verbal suggestions to verbal commands by using a chart like Example B.

I look forward to the formal data collection time where I will be collecting data on the teacher’s directions and the students’ responses. The next blog describes the final steps of this coaching cycle.

3 Part Series: Part 1 Helping Teachers Verbally Command their Classroom

Have you ever observed a teacher who was suggesting to her students that they listen to her? Or was asking for their permission to teach? Or was giving them a choice in a way that helped the teacher lose authority over the classroom?

Here’s what it sounds like: Do you think you could start on your bell work? Can we all focus? Does anyone think they know the answer? Let’s all have a seat, okay? This is what it looks like: Students call out “Okay!” Students may or may not follow the directions. The teacher gets frustrated by the lack of adherence to directions.

As a teacher, I used to do this in my own classroom. Fortunately I had a great principal who quickly pointed this out to me and helped me rephrase some of my questions. As I gained more experience as a teacher, and took on roles outside the classroom, I noticed how other teachers asked questions in the same way I used to. I offered some suggestions on how to change their phrasing, but didn’t have the tools and knowledge to share during those years. After being in an instructional coaching position, I have learned valuable methods and have obtained helpful resources that help me better coach teachers. Most recently, I was coaching a beginning teacher on not giving up verbal authority in her classroom. As I tried to find specific research for her to read, I realized there wasn’t too much about this topic. I decided to write this blog as a three part series in hopes of it helping other instructional coaches help teachers who may have this same tendency.

The first blog in this series will focus on what I did to build a relationship with this beginning teacher and how I went about bringing her verbal suggestions to her attention. The second blog will explain how I collected data. The final installment of this three-part blog will help you to understand how to help the teacher shift from using verbal suggestions to verbal commands.

My method for helping this beginning teacher is guided by what I have learned in the OCPS Professional Learning's Advanced Coaching Academy, which is rooted in the teaching of Jim Knight and in conjunction with the UF Lastinger Center.


Part 1: Building a Relationship with the Beginning Teacher

Pre-planning is usually the time I get to meet all of the teachers who are either new to our school or new to teaching. I keep good communication with the staff member in charge of processing new hires to our school to make sure I have their names and positions. On the first day back, I circulate the room before the first meeting of the day and introduce myself and get to know the new teachers a little. I also introduce the new teachers to at least one other member of their PLC (Professional Learning Community) if they haven’t met them already. Also on this first day back, I lead a meeting for new teachers/teachers new to our school. This meeting includes a checklist I created with actions to do that are second nature to returning teachers, a school tour and a time to team build. The goal is to help these teachers get acquainted with the campus and the initial understanding of our school’s goals, vision and culture. During this meeting, I ask this group to stand in a circle and we share something that we are excited about and something that is making us nervous. Then I open it up for questions. These questions can be anything they are wondering about. Sometimes the topics range from special themed dress days to how to request a substitute. I take notes during this share time and let them know I’ll get the answers to questions I’m not sure of, but I also take note of certain situations that may need extra assistance.

On day two of pre-planning, I facilitate a meeting where PLCs create norms for their meetings. I suggest that new teachers/new to our school attend with their PLCs. The beginning teacher I am working with in regards to this blog, attends with her PLC, which gives me another opportunity to continue building a relationship with her. I was able to hear what she values as a norm and observe how she interacts with her new colleagues.

On one of the other days of pre-planning, I am able to sit with her and one of her PLC members to plan for her first week of school. She brings ideas and we discuss some that I have shared with our staff in a shared Google folder. During this time, we learn more about each other and make some connections. Teaching is her second career, so in addition to learning all there is to learn about being a first year teacher; she will also be enrolled in an alternative certification program. I make a mental note to check in on her frequently to help her monitor her workload.

The next week, students return and this beginning teacher is quickly introduced to the demands and excitement of teaching. During pre-planning, I shared a calendar template I created using Google sheets, where teachers can sign up for my assistance with anything. I do this to convey to teachers that they are my first priority and that they can ask for my help during any open time slots on my calendar. This beginning teacher reaches out to me at the end of the second day of school and asks if I could come into her most two most challenging classes. I ask her what she wants me to look for. She shares how she has some behavior challenges and is having a difficult time getting students to listen to her, despite asking multiple times. I happily agree to come in the next day and we set a time to meet afterwards using my calendar. I regularly check in on the new teachers to our school, but I also love when they take the initiative to ask for help. I was looking forward to seeing this new teacher in action. The second blog in this three part series describes the process necessary to guide this teacher to be more effective in her classroom.