Personalized Coaching

Energizing fluency activities provide distributed practice with previously learned material and prepare students for new learning by activating prior knowledge. Automaticity, or quick recall of basic facts or skills, is critical so that students avoid depleting their attention resources with lower-level skills when they encounter higher-level problems. In this session, teachers expand their knowledge of how to strategically use daily Fluency Practice to build students’ confidence and motivation by preparing them with the computational foundation to solve problems flexibly, efficiently, and accurately.

Daily Application Problems are designed to help students choose and apply appropriate concepts, strategies, and methods to solve real-world problems. To achieve this flexible thinking, lessons use tools, models, and a simple problem-solving approach to support students in thinking quantitatively and creatively. In this session, teachers expand their knowledge of how to strategically use the daily Application Problem to build students’ capacity to reason through problems by using a systematic and transferable approach.

The Concept Development is the primary lesson component in which new learning is introduced. Intentional sequencing of instructional segments ensures that students can build new knowledge on a foundation of prior learning, often through a deliberate progression of material from concrete to representational to abstract. In this session, teachers expand their knowledge of how to strategically use the lesson guidance in the Concept Development to help all students access and engage with grade-level mathematics content. 

The Student Debrief allows an opportunity for students to articulate the focus of the lesson and synthesize their learning. Intentional questioning develops students’ metacognition to make connections among content explicit and the objective of the lesson eminently clear. In this session, teachers expand their knowledge of how to strategically use the questions provided in the Student Debrief to facilitate a class discussion that helps all students mentally construct a multifaceted image of the concepts being learned.
 

The daily Exit Ticket gives teachers a snapshot of student’s understanding of the lesson. This snapshot helps teachers to uncover misconceptions and opportunities for learning that drive instruction for the following lesson in an efficient and responsive manner. In this session, teachers practice a replicable process for analyzing and sorting Exit Tickets and using the data to prepare for instruction of the next lesson. 

During initial implementation, teachers need ample support in studying and internalizing the content in each module they will teach. Teacher also need support in applying their knowledge of the module’s key concepts and learning goals to understand how the topics and lessons build upon one another, providing ways for all students to access grade-level content. In this session, teachers apply the Module Internalization protocol to prepare an upcoming grade-level module. 

During initial implementation, teachers need ample support in studying and internalizing the instructional sequences in lessons. Internalizing lesson guidance supports teachers in authentically facilitating student learning while meeting the purpose and intended pacing of lesson components. Internalizing lesson sequences also helps teachers anticipate students’ experience, prioritize instruction related to the lesson objective, and adjust instruction where needed to attend to learner variability. In this session, teachers apply the Lesson Internalization protocol to prepare an upcoming grade-level lesson. 

Purposeful, frequent observation allows leaders to provide teachers with specific, actionable feedback intended to improve their practice and establish instructional priorities that drive school-wide professional development based on common implementation goals. Effective observation relies on a leader’s capacity to collect and interpret objective data. Effective feedback relies on a leader’s capacity to use data to praise teachers’ strengths and to motivate and direct teachers toward a benchmark. In this session, leaders experience and practice data collection techniques that generate objective data so they can facilitate continuous teacher development that supports strong implementation. 

During initial implementation, teachers need ample support in studying and internalizing the content in each module they will teach. Teachers also need support in applying their knowledge of the module’s key concepts and learning goals to understand how the topics and lessons build upon one another, providing ways for all students to access grade-level content. In this session, leaders build the capacity to facilitate teachers’ use of the Module Internalization protocol to prepare an upcoming grade-level module.

During initial implementation, teachers need ample support in studying and internalizing the instructional sequences in lessons. Internalizing lesson guidance supports teachers in authentically facilitating student learning while meeting the purpose and intended pacing of lesson components. Internalizing lesson sequences also helps teachers anticipate students’ experience, prioritize instruction related to the lesson objective, and adjust instruction where needed to attend to learner variability. In this session, leaders build the capacity to facilitate teachers’ use of the Lesson Internalization protocol to prepare an upcoming grade-level lesson. 

During initial implementation, teachers need time and space to transfer the knowledge gained during the internalization process to their classroom practice. Lesson rehearsal provides teachers with opportunities to practice and receive feedback on key moments of instruction so that they can maximize the impact on student learning during a lesson. In this session, leaders build their capacity to facilitate teachers’ use of the Lesson Rehearsal protocol to prepare for instruction of an upcoming lesson.

Teaching math as a coherent story of connected ideas is one of the most important – and most challenging – shifts a teacher can make in their instruction. It requires teachers to deeply understand the key mathematical concepts students are expected to learn and how those key concepts build within and across the grade levels. Deep understanding of key concepts and their trajectory equips teachers with the knowledge needed to adjust instruction in the moment and provide multiples ways for students to access, engage with, and learn grade-level content. 

In the K–2 grade band, key concepts about numbers, place value, addition, and subtraction lay the foundation for all the mathematical learning in which students engage. This session supports teachers in building their knowledge of the key concepts through exploring the associated models and academic language. It also supports teachers in using their knowledge of the K–2 story to make instructional decisions that address students’ unfinished learning and ensures that all students can access grade-level content.

This session explores the importance of using collaborative conversations to build student knowledge while developing tools and strategies to support the nuances of crucial components of the instructional materials such as the anchor model, anchor chart, and driving question board.

Engagement is a crucial element of learning, and learners vary in the ways they feel engaged or motivated to learn. Instruction that prioritizes engagement supports all learners in finding a way into the learning experience, remaining persistent in the face of challenge or failure, and continuing to build mathematical knowledge. In this session, teachers will explore and build habits that work to offer flexibility in how learners engage with the lesson’s content. Making student engagement a priority during instruction will help students develop positive mathematical identities and become more confident and successful in learning mathematics.

Monitoring student responses involves paying close attention to students’ mathematical thinking and solution strategies as they engage with a task. Strategic monitoring allows teachers to collect critical in-the-moment information about students’ developing mathematical knowledge. In this session, teachers will explore and build habits that help them to routinely and purposefully monitor students’ work. They will use the data collected to more effectively adapt instruction that leverages students’ strengths and efficiently addresses opportunities for growth, supporting all students in accessing grade-level content. 

Effective mathematics instruction facilitates discourse among students to build shared understanding of key concepts by analyzing and comparing student approaches and solution methods. Meaningful discourse in the mathematics classroom lets students drive the learning by generating, sharing, discussing, and critiquing their own and each other’s ideas. In this session, teachers will explore and build habits that help them promote discourse during daily instruction. Facilitating meaningful discourse supports all students in developing a language for expressing mathematical ideas so that they can explain, justify, and connect ideas. 

Teachers can grow their instructional practice rapidly when a goal has been established and specific teacher actions are targeted for development. When teachers receive targeted support in preparing lessons to optimize actions that support high-quality, accessible instruction, they can immediately see the impact their actions have on student engagement and understanding. When that impact is visible, teachers are more likely to adopt this preparation process and be a catalyst for their own development.

This experience collaboratively prepares a lesson component by identifying opportunities within the lesson to use specific teacher actions from the Implementation Support Tool (IST). These teacher actions are aligned to an instructional priority set during Guided Observations for Leaders. Teachers consider the purpose and impact of an indicator’s actions, look for opportunities to use the action in a lesson, and annotate the lesson to increase the likelihood of facilitating that lesson with that action.