Have you ever gotten overwhelmed by the amount of color swatch options at Home Depot? Initially, you're amazed by the array of options but then you start to ponder things you never thought would matter such as if pea green or lime green is better? What really is the difference between walnut and cream beige? The point is that gradients are important as we look for the finer details to find the right match. In the the world of coaching, being aware of the "gradients" to teacher development is equally important.
In the past several years, the word norms and norming has become so prevalent that just like any other education buzz word, we must dissect and analyze what we really mean by this term. An oversimplification of anything runs the risk of becoming a misunderstanding and missed opportunities for development. What we really mean by "normed" is that schools and academic teams should be normed in mission, goals, and values. Beyond that, each person needs and requires something different. Even veteran leaders often have different strengths and areas of specialty which drives their work. Schools that become too systematized run the risk of removing teacher autonomy; schools that lack vision run the risk of being misaligned in purpose. So what is the balance of these gradients? What happens when we have this grandiose vision for a team but then realize some teachers need a different version of a "norm" or expectation to continue to drive outcomes?
This week, an academic leader recognized a teacher development area which required the teacher to frame and front-load content in a different way than other team members in lesson facilitation. This fact is important; if a teacher is told to do something that differs from the rest of the team framing is very important to not negatively impact mindset and to foster strong habits in the teacher. The leader assisted with helping the instructor adjust the methods for how answers were collected in order to encourage higher student engagement and participation. This did not change the alignment of the department or grade band goals for the week but helped the teacher move from "light pink" to "magenta" in order to ramp up content delivery. It is important that leaders provide rationale to newer teachers when differentiating their focus areas to help them see the link between the feedback and the outcomes that will be achieved as a result. In fact, this was how this leader approached this change - highlighting for the teacher how the feedback improved engagement and prompting them to reflect.
A key part of making norming work is for all people to be on board but also understand that differentiation is not just for students. By the leader communicating with me, I was then able to have a follow up lesson planning meeting with the teacher where I reinforced the leader's feedback and coached through scripting out a lesson plan. A part of norming is also the collaborative work that leaders do in order to ensure that your team has a culture of reinforcement. This will be especially important if more than one team member coaches or mentors a teacher to avoid conflicting messages or focus areas. Being on the same page as leaders also helps teachers adopt strong teacher practices which become habits. Through emphasizing one another's feedback to teachers there becomes a culture where the gradients start to blend into each other to produce clarity and consistency in instructional delivery.
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