Week SEVEN

Non-Directive Planning: Cycle 1

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Week 7: April 18- APRIL 25

EXPLORE

Please do the following:

Journal

Read the quote at the top of the page:

What does that quote mean to you?
What, if any, insights does this give you about coaching?

Watch this video

Keep the quote above in mind as you watch this video about creativity.
As you watch, think about the role that creativity and design thinking play in the work of a teacher.

Share with your WhatsApp group something that came up for you in either the quote or the video.

Journal: Review and Reflect

Review the Arc of a Collaborative Coaching Conversation below. So far we have focused on the UNDERSTANDING half of the conversation and the EXPLORE part of EXPERIMENTING. This week we are looking at the Non-Directive Planning stage .

Write in your journal:

How am I feeling about the arc of a collaborative conversation right now?

What am I appreciating about it? What is challenging?

What would I like to learn more about?

Questing Questions REVIEW:

Join our class on Quizlet by clicking this link.

After you request access to join, we will admit you to the class.

After you are admitted please practice the Questing Questions review. You can use the flashcards, play the games and take the test as many times as you find useful.

If you would like, you can also practice the empathy review or the empathy blockers review.

NON-DIRECTIVE PLANNING

When the teacher has gotten to the point that they feel they have explored their story and are ready to move on, the final part of the EXPERIMENTING half of a coaching conversation is Non-Directive planning.

What is non-directive planning?

In this stage the coach works with the teacher to make his or her own plan. Non-directive planning strives to help teachers develop the confidence and strategies they need to take charge of their own learning and development. In this spirit, non-directive planning is not telling teachers what to do or how to solve their problems. It is not contextualizing, giving advice or wisdom. In non-directive planning the coach stays in a generative space that maintains the spirit of questing. The intention of the questing in non-directive planning is to accompany the teacher as they themselves brainstorm and prioritize ideas that they would like to act upon in the coming week(s).

Collaborative coaches pay close attention to when teachers move from sharing their story (in the listening and empathy stages) and exploring their story (in the questing stage) to being ready to try out new ideas and solutions. Instead of giving teachers new ideas, this is the point where coaches encourage and collaborate with teachers to brainstorm ideas, prioritize the ideas the teacher wants to try, and design a variety of learning experiments, that the teachers then try in their classrooms and perhaps integrate into their daily practices.

What are some advantages of non-directive planning?

Teachers are more likely to act on plans they have freely decided to do rather than on plans that others have tried to persuade them to do, or commanded them to do.
Through participation in the process of thinking, deciding, and planning, teachers will develop greater confidence and competence in their own abilities to plan, teach and reflect.
Teachers are more likely to have the interest and confidence to modify their plans/experiments if they themselves created them.

Collaborative coaches draw on the notion of Design Thinking

Design thinking is a way of seeing and working with our challenges. It requires us to see ourselves and our teachers – for them to see themselves, as designers. In this case, as designers of learning experiences for students. They could also be designers of their own personal learning experiences as they grow as educators. This mindset is especially important in the non-directive planning stage of Collaborative Coaching.

Watch these two short video and then do the journal assignment that follows:

In this video, teachers talk about what being a designer means to them:

In this second short video you'll hear an example of one teacher’s experiment that came from design thinking

Journal:

What ideas or comments stand out for you from these two videos?
Do your teachers see themselves as designers of learning experiences for English language learners?
Do you see yourself as a designer of teacher-learning experiences? Why or why not?
What experiments have you done as a teacher or as a supervisor to help create better learning experiences for students or teachers? What happened?
What thoughts and questions do these questions evoke for you?

Collaborative coaches pay close attention to when teachers move from sharing their story (in the listening and empathy stages) and exploring their story (in the questing stage) to being ready to try out new ideas and solutions. Instead of giving teachers new ideas, this is the point where coaches encourage and collaborate with teachers to brainstorm ideas, prioritize the ideas the teacher wants to try, and design a variety of learning experiments, that they teachers then try in their classrooms and perhaps integrate into their daily practices.

Coaches assist teachers to come up with new ideas and how to implement those ideas in the classroom. To do this, coaches can engage teachers in the process of design thinking which involves brainstorming solutions, prioritizing those ideas, and choosing one or two that you create a plan for and a way to evaluate that plan which answers the question “what would I see/feel/notice if this worked?”

Design thinkers work with this innovation formula:

Inspiration + Ideation + Implementation = Innovation

Brainstorming:

I have a challenge and a story. I play the role of explorer and artist to brainstorm as many possibilities as I can. I ask myself: What are all the possible and all the impossible ideas that I can think of in this moment?

Some ways to support brainstorming:

Sharpen the focus: How can we focus on students learning needs in this situation?
Set playful rules: don’t evaluate or debate while brainstorming and accept any and all ideas that come to you. You never know when the impossible might become possible.
Gather much more than is needed: It can help to look for more than one "right" answer by aiming to get at least 6-8 ideas before choosing one.
Build & Jump: combine and expand on other ideas. Think about how others might have worked with this challenge. How might that help you find inspiration?
Make it visible: write down ideas on a visible medium (paper, computer, whiteboard). Sometimes the act of writing the idea helps not only remember it but also work with it.
Get Physical: move around, take a walk and brainstorm out loud, act out your ideas or sketch your ideas. Get your body involved in your thinking!

Prioritizing:

I see an opportunity and an idea I’d like to try. I ask myself What experiment do I create?

Questions that might help you choose an idea for an experiment:

What is an idea that is possible to do soon?
What ideas stand out as the best ideas?
Which ones would push you the most?
What do you hope to learn from them?
What kind of impact might they have?
Which ones do you want to try first?
What ideas stand a chance?

Choosing and Planning:

I develop my chosen idea. I ask myself: How do I build my experiment?

Questions that might help your guide a teacher/educator in choosing and planning:

What do I need to know in order to do this idea??
What needs to be organized?
Who is involved in the experiment? do I need to get permissions or include anyone in the planning?
What else?

Implementing and Reflecting:

I tried an experiment. I ask myself: How did it go?

Questions that might help teachers/educators in reflecting after implementation:

What evidence do I see/feel/notice that helps me understand the impact of my experiment?
Who might I talk with about my experience ?
What documentation or reflection might help me learn from this experiment?

Closing the Coaching Conversation

Written plans

Each coaching conversation should end without some sense of what teachers will do differently in the days and weeks ahead. Collaborative coaching recommends writing down the details of the teacher’s planned learning experiments and encourages the teacher to think about what they would see that would let them know the new action or idea worked.

Finish with feedback

Checking-in on how the coaching experience was is an important way to close the conversation that can provide information for the coach and the teacher:

How was today’s conversation for you?
What is something useful you’re taking away from our conversation today?
What is the best experience you’ve had so far through the coaching process?
What do you value most about our coaching relationship?
If you had three wishes for our coaching relationship, wishes that would make the relationship serve you better, what would they be?

Be sure as the coach that you also answer the question or offer your take on something you learned in the conversation.

EXPERIENCE

This week we would like you to have at least two conversations with teachers or peers who are educators (in person via Skype or WhatsApp or Zoom) in which you help them solve their own problem by using presence, active listening and empathy to understand their challenge., We'd like you to shift to asking a Questing question, to open up new possibilities, remember that, as soon as you ask ONE question your job is to step back and return to listening and understanding. This next round of listening will support the speaker in exploring whatever new options or issues the question has opened, they will be "thinking out loud" as they consider possibilities. You listening will be reflective. The goal is for the speaker to be/feel understood, both before and after you ask a question. What may happen is that the definition of the problem may change as they think about it and become more clear.

After exploring 1-3 questing questions, we'd like you to try non-directive planning. Remember the stages of BRAINSTORMING, PRIORITIZING, CHOOSING AND IMPLEMENTING AND REFLECTING

In order to have these conversations your speaker will need to have a problem or challenge that they are facing but haven't solved. You might be talking with teachers about teaching online. You might be talking with friends or family about how they are handling their experience of lockdown, or about something that is completely different. What is most important is that it is something on the speaker’s mind and/or heart.

Your work is to be and remain fully present. Build on your listening and empathy skills, and to practice using questing kinds of questions and then moving back to listening and understanding. When the speaker reaches a stuck point, try using a question about their "stuckness" -- and open-ended or perspective challenging question (See above), then return to a focus on active listening and understanding.

REFLECT

After your coaching conversations please fill out your coaching journal and your skill journal so you can keep track of your own thoughts, feelings and learnings in this experience!