Recreated from the Innovative Teachers Network, PSCTLT, for a backup page during training

Explore Communication Skills

What roles do coaches play?

• Facilitator
• Collaborator
• Expert
• Coach

As a facilitator, you might:

• Plan and lead meetings.
• Provide teachers technology-rich lessons, templates, or Web sites.

As a collaborator, you might:

• Assist teachers in writing/adapting standards-based, technology-rich lessons, activities, or units.
• Provide teachers technology-rich lessons, templates, or Web sites.
• Work with a colleague as equals on a project.

As an expert, you might:

• Answer questions and take on the role of an expert.
• Model effective ways to integrate technology.
• Team-teach a lesson.
• Regularly share examples of student work.
• Present examples of technology-rich lessons at staff meetings.

As a coach, you might:

• Help your cooperating teachers to become independent learners.
• Use communication skills to focus on student learning.
• Build relationships and trust.

Explore Communication Skills  - use your Coaching Cue Card

How will you coach teachers who are at varying stages of integrating technology?

Communication Skills and Strategies:

Active Listening:

• Attend fully to the speaker, lock out competing thoughts, lean forward, make eye contact, and pause before responding.
• Attend to the conversation.
• Strive to pause for 5-10 seconds after someone finishes speaking to allow the speaker to think and to model thoughtfulness.

Paraphrasing:

• Restate what was said to indicate acceptance, encouragement, and understanding.
• Avoid "I" because it signals that what the speaker is thinking no longer matters and that the paraphraser is going to insert his or her own ideas into the conversation.

Paraphrasing can:

• Create a safe environment for thinking. It says, I am trying to understand you, and therefore I value what you have to say.
• Help to establish a relationship between you and participating teachers.

Clarifying Questions:

• Add clarity to the conversation.
• Are factual questions.
• Help the speaker to be more specific.
• Do not require a lot of thought to answer.

Examples of Clarifying Questions: How did you present the information? How many students were there? Were students working in groups?

Probing Questions:

• Push the speaker to think more deeply about a topic.
• Are often prefaced by a paraphrase.
• Are open ended and do not carry a solution (better if the questioner does not have the answer).
• Are questions that help focus the speaker rather than satisfying coach's curiosity.

Examples of Probing Questions: You said that _____. Have you ever thought about _____? Are there other strategies that you could use to introduce that lesson? How do you feel it went? What might a next step be? What did you learn from that? Have you seen or used other classroom assessments that are effective?

Adapted from, and used with permission of the publishers of Garmston, R.A. & Wellman, B.M. The Adaptive School: A Sourcebook for Developing Collaborative Groups. El Dorado Hills, CA:A Four Hats Seminars, 337 Guadalupe Dr, El Dorado Hill, CA 95762.

Explore Communication Skills  - Practice Communication Skills Exercise

How can you coach another teacher to think more deeply about a topic? How can you use communication skills to help another teacher integrate technology?

Now you will have an opportunity to practice these skills.

Practice Communication Skills Exercise
Introduction
A skillful coach uses communication skills to encourage a collaborating teacher to think more deeply about a topic or to help the teacher reflect during a planning conference. The goal of this exercise is to help the group gain expertise in using these important coaching skills by using a protocol.
Protocols are guidelines for conversations, and we use them in the coaching program to keep discussions focused. We also use protocols because they provide a structure for collaborative work and help build trust. As coaches become knowledgeable about the use of protocols they may use them with groups of collaborating teachers.
This entire exercise should take no longer than 25 minutes for one speaker. Prior to moving into a circle, the participants should get out a pencil, sticky notes, the Coaching Skills Cue Card, and their coaching plans.
Directions:
1.    Move into groups of four to six participants.
2.    Identify the following roles:
•    A facilitator to walk the group step by step through the protocol and keep everyone focused during the activity. The facilitator helps the participants follow the protocol by redirecting participants as needed.
•    A timekeeper to move the discussion along.
•    A speaker who talks about their coaching program using the Coaching Plan you brought to Session 2.
3.    The speaker describes their Coaching Plan, including background information, a coaching goal, and a challenge or dilemma faced by the coach.
4.    Three people take turns paraphrasing the speaker.
5.    Three people ask clarifying questions. The speaker answers these questions.
6.    The group takes a few minutes to write down a probing question on a sticky note. Participants may refer to the Coaching Skills Cue Card to develop the probing question.
7.    Each person in the group reads their probing question aloud, then hands the speaker the sticky note. The speaker does not respond.
8.    The speaker considers all the questions and then tells the group which probing question caused him or her to think the most deeply about his or her dilemma.
9.    If time allows, another participant becomes the speaker and the process is repeated.
Communication Skills Exercise Debrief
•    How do you think communication skills build trust?
•    Was it easy or hard to follow the protocol’s directions? Why?
•    How can you use these skills with another teacher or students?

Adapted from the Probing Question Exercise and used with the permission of the National School Reform Faculty.

Coaching Skills Cue Card
Communication Skills for Coaches

Active Listening

•     Is focused on the speaker.
•     Is blocking out all competing thoughts.
•     Is leaning forward and nodding.

Paraphrasing

• Is restating what was stated.
• Is used to check for understanding.
• Clarifies what was heard by summarizing.
• Indicates acceptance and encouragement.
• Establishes relationship between speakers.