Coaching Teachers through Text Complexity |
By IU PIIC Mentors Amy Walker and Diane Hubona When an instructional coach is working with teachers around text complexity, there are three essential entry points to consider that should guide the coaching conversations. The first component for this work is choosing a text. The coach can be a great resource in helping the teacher match a text to a purpose. The notion of stamina building with text complexity is vital. If a teacher is teaching author's purpose, for instance, finding a text set that builds in complexity is ideal...coaches can help teachers think through when and how to use a particular text and layer the texts as well as activities they plan to use. Asking questions during Before portion of the BDA coaching cycle regarding the student's strengths and needs in a particular skill can help to guide the selection and layering. Many of the types of questions to enhance the Before coaching conversation can be found in the resources surrounding READER and TASK considerations. A second entry point when working with teachers is to guide a teacher's planning of scaffolds for student success in a task using a complex piece of text. The Golden Rule is the more complex the task is, the less complex the text should be. Without the coach’s guidance in the Before planning conference, teachers automatically make the leap to complex, grade-level text without any regard to the complexity of what the reader is being asked to do, namely, analyze and synthesize what is being read. Coaches can use effective questions regarding task demands and guide teachers as they plan in the Before conference, and reflect during the After conference, to assist teachers in determining and evaluating their instructional sequence and scaffolds. Click here to return to Mentor Blogs |
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