Shifting the Entry Point (and purpose?) of Supervision

All this time I have been doing it wrong. So wrong. Wasting so many hours typing feedback on lesson plans that is sometimes read and applied and other times never acknowledged. Last year, I decided to address this issue by foregoing written comments to hold writing conferences instead. I thought that if I could talk directly with my students about a limited number of questions/concerns in the form of a writing conference, perhaps it would better support their understandings and ability to use that feedback to actually revise their lessons. Overall, this was a great improvement on use of time and student outcomes. Yet, I still talked myself into circles when working with a few students. No matter how many subtle or explicit attempts I made to explain a high-priority issue that needed to be addressed...my students remained baffled. 

One example that comes to mind: a pair working on their Literacy Lesson Series. This large-scale project is an introduction to applying the backwards-design model...and preparation for the performance assessment they complete during student teaching. This pair of students needed to develop a three-part lesson series focused on a specific reading comprehension strategy to teach in their practicum classroom. While the first and third lessons they developed  were related (though not necessarily mutually dependent in a way that would actually deepen understandings), the second lesson just did not fit. No matter how we tried to approach it, the lesson was only tangentially related to the strategy and series focus.

But the problem was my students were already married to it. They were able to consider minor adjustments--adding in academic vocabulary, clarifying the assessment criteria, etc. But they were not able to 'see' their lesson series without this activity....this activity that truly had nothing to do with anything else. I finally gave up. They taught the lessons. We all survived. They finished the course with A's because they really were great students. We just could not escape from the black hole that was this lesson. typed. in. ink.

But then last night (after a year spent pondering this quandary) it hit me. The problem was not their inability to move beyond. The problem was that our collaboration needed to begin sooner. Instead of entering the process at the point of revision, I needed to enter at the point of initial brainstorming. If our conversations began at the beginning, we could look at student evidence, develop the learning targets, identify the appropriate strategies, and develop a series of instructional plans that would not only feel connected but might actually demonstrate development of the concept. We needed to talk during the act of planning so I could guide their decision-making--before it was written in ink.

Of course, it is often assumed that this stage of planning is guided by cooperating teachers. However, if we know that instructional coaches need greater support to develop strategies for co-planning with teachers, why would we just assume that cooperating teachers already possess this skillset? That they not only know how to guide beginning teachers in co-planning, but that they have the time and interest in doing so?

In fact, we know this doesn't often happen, which is further evidenced by the number of students who are given lessons to teach from canned curriculum or their CT's own materials. Either way, the preservice teacher misses out on the most essential part of the planning process: the just-in-time guidance a more experienced peer can provide.

So this is it. Co-planning as conceived in coaching partnerships, repositioned as an entry-point for supervisory partnerships. Next step --> Stephanie and I are beginning discussions to research and design this process for her upcoming practicum placements. We will tie these co-planning meetings into her curriculum unit project and develop an IRB plan to explore the impact on preservice teacher learning and the process of supervision. 

This might just change my life.