The Columbus Coaching Project

by Karel Kroos

The Columbus City Schools (CCS) received a grant from the Ohio Department of Education to fund a project to assist their lowest-performing schools in improving their scores on the Ohio Achievement Test and the Ohio Graduation Test. CCS then put the project out for bids to educational entities that could take on this project.

The Educational Service Center of Central Ohio (ESCCO) won the bid and for the last two school years has been providing instructional coaches to CCS to assist and support teachers in the areas of gathering and interpreting data, planning, and instructional strategies. The coaches are predominantly retired teachers who have an "instant" credibility with their staff since they are seen as having paid their dues in the classroom. All the coaches have marveled at the professionalism, integrity, and hard work they have observed within CCS classrooms.
     —John Dean, Grant Facilitator, Columbus Coaching Project, Educational
       Service Center of Central Ohio

The Columbus Coaching Project, now in its second year, has been a work in progress. In the beginning, this journey consisted largely of building relationships and trust among staff members. Teachers in the middle school where I have been assigned needed to be assured and to believe that when I entered their classroom, I was there not to evaluate them, but to observe, encourage, and help.

Instructional coaching is designed to build teacher capacity to implement effective instructional practices within a content area, with the long-term goal of bringing the school out of its “school improvement status.” Literacy, which is my focus area, and mathematics are priority subjects because reading and math scores on the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade Ohio Achievement Test are those which determine whether or not adequate yearly progress has been met. In addition, writing is assessed in seventh grade, while science and social studies are added at the eighth grade level.  

My coaching roles and responsibilities include making classroom observations so that I can determine how I can best assist the classroom teacher. As I observe, I use the following informal checklist—some common observation “look-fors” that I have found to work well:

Opening of lesson
Lesson started immediately
Grade-level indicator established

Middle of lesson
Student engagement throughout lesson
Teacher/student participation
Smooth transitions from one activity to another

Questioning techniques
Ample wait time for student to answer
Majority of students recognized
Varying levels of questions addressed (simple to complex)

Academics
Vocabulary building
Think-aloud strategies
Critical thinking skills
Checking for understanding
Formative assessment

Opportunities for differentiated instruction
Layered curriculum
Workstations
Evidence of awareness of different learning styles

End of lesson
Homework assigned
Wrap-up/closure
Exit ticket—examples: This is what I learned today or one important thing I learned

Management
Firm, fair, consistent
Ample time for materials to be collected and room straightened
Orderly dismissal

Coach’s reflections
Strengths—what went well
Challenges—what could be changed or modified
How I can assist
Follow-up—what I need to watch for the next time I observe

Then the teacher and I meet to share ideas in a post-observation conference, at which time I use cognitive questioning techniques that enable the teacher to reflect upon his or her teaching practice.

I also assist by modeling teaching and classroom management strategies as well as by coteaching lessons so that a strategy can more effectively be implemented in a small-group setting before doing so for an entire class. District curriculum guides, state standards, pacing guides, and grade-level indicators are the primary documents that support these practices.

Yet another critical component of my responsibility is to access and analyze data using information provided by both the state and the district. The goal is to identify the students’ strengths and weaknesses and then take this information to the next level—intervention. Going yet a step further, it is also the coach’s responsibility to fulfill the district initiative to help teachers learn to navigate the instructional management system available to them, so that they can eventually secure the data on their own and make informed instructional decisions accordingly.

The coaches in my district continually receive training on how to use data effectively, and we are members of our All School Improvement Teams, providing input into our schools’ plans. In addition, we take advantage of the many opportunities for professional development that are available to us and participate in valuable collaborations when we share ideas with one another during our monthly meetings. These factors enable us to serve our schools to the best of our ability.

Moving forward, I would like to share some activities, strategies, and resources that I have found to be successful and, consequently, share with teachers during my role as a middle school coach.

Literacy Stations

Our district’s Curriculum Review Team recently visited our school, and the first recommendation the team made was to provide literacy stations for students. The implementation of literacy stations for the reading/language arts class is most applicable where block scheduling is in place. This is a wonderful way to differentiate instruction, improve reading comprehension, and draw upon multiple intelligences. The stations focus on specific learning goals. Materials and activities span a range of levels and vary from simple to complex. Clear directions must always be provided, and there should be a plan for ongoing assessment. The stations involve independent work that is hands-on and self-directed.

The teacher sets up four to six stations in the classroom with a different activity going on at each station. Students are assigned to a given station, where they find support from one another as they work with those in their group during that class period. There is also the option of the teacher working with students at one station for the day or moving from group to group to monitor student productivity. The next time the groups meet, the students rotate to a new station. This process continues until students have the opportunity to work at all the stations. Ideally, students should work in centers two to three times a week for approximately twenty minutes at a time.

1. Criteria teachers can use when considering how to tailor activities for each literacy station:

• Reading level (My school uses the Accelerated Reader program—the Star reading test administered to all students at the beginning of the school year provides reports with this information.)
• Last year’s standardized results
• Quarterly diagnostic assessments as the year progresses
• Sample assessments taken from curriculum guides or other publications
• Grade book
• Gifted and talented identification
• Mainstream and lower-achieving student identification

The way students are grouped can vary. For some activities it could be advantageous to group by similar abilities, and for others a mixture is more beneficial.

2. Suggestions for managing physical movement into stations (good management is key):

• Cut a sheet of paper in half, and write individual student names and reading levels on them. Hand out the papers, and then assign four to five students with a common reading range to a station.
• Put station numbers on Popsicle sticks. Those who pick sticks with the same numbers on them proceed to the same station. (Student names can be added if the teacher wants to have more control over who goes to what station.) The novelty of this method makes it a lot of fun for students.
• “Clock buddies” can be arranged by putting various times on pieces of paper. Students who pick the same time are placed in the same group.
• Students pick their own groups.
• Students can be given numbers—1, 2, 3, 4; all the 1’s go to a given station for that day and so on.
• Random ways of grouping students keep them interested and on their toes.
• An egg timer is a great tool to use to gauge the amount of time students have to get to their stations.
• Train students to use their “low voices” while working in their stations.
• Create red, yellow, and green laminated card stock or construction paper signs to place at stations. These let groups know how they are doing as they work:
     Green—The group is doing a great job! I’m proud of you! Keep it up!
     Yellow—Warning. The group needs to lower voices and stay on task.
     Red—The group continues to be too loud and is not on task;
     appropriate consequences would be put in place.

3. Suggested activities for literacy stations:

Things to think about before you begin

• All supplies and directions need to be in place at stations.
• Graphic organizers are perfect to use with your activities, as the same lesson can be assigned for different ability levels. Resources for graphic organizers include Tools for Reading, Writing & Thinking for analytic organizers and Scholastic Teacher.

Activities

• Reading response journal
  Students fold a paper in half the long way. On one side, they list a quotation, phrase, or sentence they especially like; on the opposite side, they jot down their thoughts on the quotation, phrase, or sentence

• QAR (question-and-answer relationships)
  This activity focuses on analysis of a text using four types of questions:
  1. Right there (literal)
  2. Think and search (inferential)
  3. Author and me (evaluative)
  4. On my own (Students can use information from the text to support their opinions, but the answer is not in the text.)

• DRTA (directed reading thinking activity), adapted from Janet Allen’s Tools for Teaching Content Literacy
  In this step-by-step process, students read an article, a story, or a chapter in a novel and write questions based on their reading. Our quarterly test data have indicated that our sixth graders’ lowest scores in reading are in using informational text. This activity is ideal for addressing informational text both because it encourages students to be thoughtful about and accountable for what they are reading and because it is enjoyable to do. The activity spices up what can otherwise be somewhat dry material. Here is an example of how to structure this activity:

  1. Students read an article and write three questions. (10 to 15 minutes)
  2. Students share questions with a partner and develop responses. (5 to 8 minutes)
  3. The partners write three more questions together. (3 to 5 minutes)
  4. The partners meet at a table with others to share their questions and develop a “super question.” (3 to 5 minutes)
  5. Everyone shares.
     
     
• Online tutorials
  Students can go to computer stations and use sites that provide online tutorials such as United Streaming. Although there is a cost to districts to use this site, there are some excellent resources that are free. The teacher can access visuals and worksheet lessons and print blackline masters for student use that support language arts, reading, and writing activities. 

• Tiered activities
  Tasks are tailored to the stations, but the content is the same for everyone.

• Vocabulary question cards
  The teacher and coach can work together to prepare cards with higher-level-thinking questions for language arts using words from word walls, Robert Marzano’s power words, verbs taken from Bloom’s taxonomy, and words relevant to class work.

• Newspapers
  The newspaper is an ideal medium to be used in these centers. Schools can usually subscribe for a nominal cost. Newspapers are excellent for teaching vocabulary and parts of speech, recognizing different types of writing, and sharpening writing skills; and again, they provide us with another opportunity to help students use and understand informational text.

Note: It is best to create a form so that students can track their progress. The information on the forms should include the names of the centers the group has worked at during a given week, with space provided for a short summary of what the student accomplished at each center on each day he or she participated at that station. For example:

Name_______________                      Start Date___________
Name of Center________________________________________
Day 1         
Day 2    
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
   

Of course, many of these literacy station activities can be used in the traditional large classroom too. But because the stations afford students the opportunity to collaborate with others and to experience various levels of difficulty on assignments with support, rather than sitting quietly at their desks while they work on their own, the unique character of small-group instruction has a very different impact.

Reciprocal Teaching

Differentiating instruction and developing reading comprehension skills can also be accomplished through reciprocal teaching, a concept developed in the mid-1980s by Ann Brown and Ann-Marie Palinscar. Because of the way it supports reading instruction, reciprocal teaching is receiving renewed attention. After working with struggling readers as a former Title I reading coach, I appreciate its worth and so have shared Brown and Palinscar’s ideas with the other middle school coaches in our project. I am in the process of introducing reciprocal teaching to language arts/reading teachers in my building so they can use it with selected reading lessons.

In essence, reciprocal teaching enables students to read for meaning and monitor their own understanding. It is based on four reading strategies that, although practical for all readers, are especially useful for struggling readers. The fabulous four, the strategies on which reciprocal teaching is based, are predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing.

Procedure

The teacher introduces the four strategies by modeling think-alouds while reading text to the students, demonstrating what a good reader is thinking while reading. This prepares the students to move into small groups and apply what they have learned. The students then take turns assuming the role of teacher as they go through the steps listed below.

With practice, students develop the ability to participate in these discussions with little or even no assistance. The teacher continually monitors student performance and observes how the students work while unassisted. The final product is checked for understanding through oral presentations, which can be done individually or in groups. Written assessments can also be designed to accomplish this. 

Before I describe the four strategies, let me say that it is fun to use props to demonstrate the requirements necessary to carry out each role. For example, how about a crystal ball for the predictors, a large graphic of a question mark for the questioners, a magnifying glass to look for clues for the clarifiers, and a puzzle where all the pieces fit together for the summarizers.

Predicting involves using prior knowledge and encourages kids to make guesses about where the text is going next—they get to be detectives! It gives them a purpose for reading, keeps them engaged, and makes them think. This involves three basic stages:

1. Before reading. I have always had students begin by looking at pictures, thinking about the meaning of a title, and incorporating their own background knowledge into their thoughts—a great hook to make reading real and relevant to them.
2. During reading. Readers revise predictions or abandon what they previously thought.
3. After reading. Readers revisit their predictions and get to see how accurate they were.

Questioning builds the students’ ability to identify the important ideas in the text. Kids enjoy taking on the role of teacher, reading a segment of an assigned passage aloud while other group members are encouraged to think about questions they can ask as they follow along silently. To give them direction, I suggest that they might want to begin questions with who, what, when, where, why, how, or what if. I also like to encourage them to include one inferential question and explain how they picked it based on clues from the text. The questioning strategy improves comprehension and helps students become more active readers, construct better mental representations, and integrate information from the text.

Clarifying is designed to help students monitor their own comprehension by learning to make sense out of words, sentences, and passages of fiction or nonfiction text. It’s the time when teacher and students can work together to devise “fix-up” strategies for confusing or ambiguous sections from a passage. Students are encouraged to reread, read on, think about what they know, or talk with a partner to figure things out. A tip for slow readers is to make a movie in their minds of what they’re reading in order to help them hold on to its meaning.

Summarizing is thought to be the most complex of the four strategies because students must learn to recall and arrange the important events in a text in order. The organization for summarizing depends on whether the text is narrative or expository. When summarizing a story, the plot, setting, characters, events, and resolution come into play. A nonfiction text requires that important events be arranged in logical order and that students make use of transition words such as first, next, then, and finally. Summarizing holds a high place on the list of reading strategies because research has shown that it improves comprehension and understanding, which guides adolescents to become more proficient readers.

Useful in Any Classroom

I have found these instructional resources to be effective in my efforts to support teachers in their classroom practice. Our data drive our instruction. Regardless of where the scores indicate our students’ strengths and weakness are—whether they are in vocabulary, informational or literary text, or writing skills—these techniques can be tailored to fit the students’ needs for intervention and differentiated instruction. These methods can be adapted to any middle school grade level and to a variety of curriculum areas.

Additional Resources for Support

In addition to the links in the text, you might want to check out these resources for more information.

Teacher Talk on WCBE. Listen to a broadcast about the Columbus Coaching Project (CCP). Show host Sue Misiak talks with literacy coach Cyndee Schoenhoff, CCP administrator John Dean from the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio, and OSU professor Dr. David Andrews.

Publications

Diller, D. (2007). Making the most of small groups: Differentiation for all. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Oczkus, Lori D. (2003). Reciprocal teaching at work: Strategies for improving reading comprehension. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Tankersley, Karen. (2005). Literacy strategies for grades 4–12: Reinforcing the threads of reading. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Websites

CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology), strategy instruction assessments and lesson plans, http://www.cast.org/pd/resources/strategy.html.

Dade-Monroe Teacher Education Center, reciprocal teaching resources, http://www.miamisci.org/tec/.

Education Place, free graphic organizers, http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/.

www.Graphic Organizers.com, free graphic organizers, http://www.graphicorganizers.com/downloads.htm.

Karel Kroos is a graduate of The Ohio State University, where she earned her degree in comprehensive English and communications. She was a teacher in the Columbus City School system for thirty-one years. During this time, she taught junior high English and drama and middle school language arts and reading. Her final fifteen years with the city schools were spent as a reading coach. She is currently a literacy coach for the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio.

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