Teaching As Coaching

In light of what we now understand about literacy development, teachers around the world have been committing themselves to shifting from teaching content (the story) in their language classes to teaching skills (how to read it). This is no small feat because the goal of teaching skills requires a different model of teaching than what has been done in the past. Jeffrey Wilhelm aptly describes this gradual release of responsibility model as an apprenticeship model, based on the earlier work of Lev Vygotsky.

Teaching a student (regardless of their age) to read and write requires bringing these once elusive thinking skills into the light where they can be made visible and thus more readily appropriated by tose who need to develop them. If we think of learning literacy skills, like inferring and writing with voice, as being akin to the learning of any skill, including a lay-up in basketball, then it stands to reason that teachers have something to learn from coaches.

Coaching sports is a passion of mine that I've alluded to in an earlier post. When I want to teach a group of eager basketball players how to do a lay-up, I know that I can't describe a lay-up to them or ask them to read a chapter about it- I have to SHOW them what it is. (Sadly, this usually involves a player long-past-her-prime demonstrating a series of movements that usually results in the ball NOT going in the basket.) I tell them to watch me as I model what a lay-up is. I would likely do it a few times (to improve my shooting average), and ask them to watch with a different purpose each time. "Watch what my feet do." "Watch how I push the ball into the ground and then pick it up." "Look at what my hand looks like when I'm done and where I land."

When I've finished with the demonstration, I move quickly into breaking the skill apart into chunks and teaching them how to do each part explicitly. First, we get rid of the balls and just work on the footwork to learn where we would need to take off from and which is the correct plant-foot. I model this part again without the ball and then ask the players to try it on their own- no basket, no ball. After a few tries, I pick up a ball and then repeat a similar process by showing them what the hands do and then give them the chance to try out both movements together.

Then, I watch. To me, this is the most important aspect of coaching- analytical observation. I ask each player to try a lay-up with the ball and I look carefully for the parts that they have going well and where the skill breaks down. Based on a few observations, I am able to send some off to separate nets with some quick instructions of what to focus on as they practice. Invariably, there is a group that is still struggling to get the footwork, the foundation, right. I keep them with me and we drop the balls and go over the footwork again; I give them more instruction, more practice and more feedback. Then, while they practice their footwork, I can circulate to the other players who had the footwork down and observe their ball work to give them feedback. In this way, I am differentiating my coaching for the needs of the players and moving most efficiently to my target- a team of players who can all do a lay-up. (It bears noting here that I do not have 16 different coaching plans, one for each player. Rather, I understand the skill that I am teaching well enough to guide my observation to the parts that I know cause breakdowns and then group according to them which usually results in 2-4 possible groupings.)

By game-time, the players have been explicitly taught to do a lay-up, have been given descriptive feedback to support their progress and have had purposeful practice opportunities in scrimmages so that they know how to use it against an opponent. However, the work of the coach does not end here. During the game, I watch the team and analyze the performance of each player. I make mental and written notes about the next steps for individuals and what skills need to be reviewed again at the next practice. In this way, even their independent use of the skill is monitored, providing the opportunity for further skill development.

This analogy from the world of sports serves to illustrate how the instructional model of teaching literacy would need to shift if we truly wish to develop the reading and writing skills of our students. Teaching a thinking skill, like inferring, involves the teacher modelling the use of the skill, breaking the skill down into parts for explicit instruction, providing purposeful practice opportunities, observing student use to give descriptive feedback and ultimately monitoring the student's independent use of the skill.