Take a minute to think of your coaching toolbox. What are some of your go-to questions? Go ahead and list a few.
Now reflect on those questions.
Though we know that open-ended questions are the best way to prompt educator reflection, it helps to remember that we want to do this with intentionality. And to ask questions intentionally, we need to think about what response we are hoping to get from a educator and which question would be best at getting that answer.
Let’s look at this example using a myTeachstone video below: Lights Out Freeze Game.
Now, imagine you have just completed an informal observation on this educator, focused on how she is using Behavior Management strategies during the clean-up transition from free play to small group time. You noticed several effective moments including clear and consistent expectations, monitoring of the classroom, and redirection when appropriate. You also noted moments to build on--including inconsistently anticipating problems and attending to children’s positive behavior.
Your goals for the feedback conference are to help the educator:
Here we have identified four types of questions you might ask based on your goals for the conversation, the educator's learning goals, and the specific observation at hand: identification, analysis, comparison, and brainstorming.
Type of Question |
Potential Starters |
Specific Examples |
Identification |
At what point did you notice …? Describe what happened when … Tell me more about … |
How did you attend the the children’s positive behaviors? Tell me what you said and did. |
Comparison |
What do you think went well? What do you think did not go well? What was the difference in these moments? |
Tell me about a moment when you did not attend to the positive. What was different? Why is it harder to attend to the positive at that moment? |
Analysis |
How did you know [a behavior] was effective? Why did you decide to …? What is the value of …? |
Why is it important to attend to children’s positive behaviors? How do you see your children respond when you note their positive behavior? |
Brainstorming |
How will you plan to …? What are some ways you can …? How will you include …? |
What are some common positive behaviors the children show during transitions? What statements can you use to attend to those behaviors? |
Here you can see several effective questions with various goals for educator learning. Used together, these questions can help the educator think about specific interactions in her classroom, analyze those moments, and brainstorm ways to implement her effective behaviors more consistently.
And this is just the beginning! In addition to the ones above, you might ask questions that:
Let’s go back to the beginning and look at your list of go-to questions. In what category do they fit? How do these categories change how you think about your list of questions?
Please share your ideas, as well as other categories or questions that you have found especially effective in conferences! You can log into the CLASS Learning Community to be part of the conversation.
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Originally published October 18, 2021
There is always an opportunity for interaction. Some opportunities are easily recognizable: times of play, free choice, centers, small group. We often see teachers engaged in activities alongside children during these times or hear questions being asked. Other opportunities might be a little less obvious. These are the times of your day that you might see as mundane moments that merely require your supervision or monitoring. The times where you’re going through the motions. “I’m doing this thing so I can move on to the next thing.”
In a previous blog, colleague and early childhood environment extraordinaire, Heather Sason, discussed how your classroom environment can help promote effective teacher-child interactions. In this blog, I propose we explore some of the often overlooked times in your day that are ripe for interactions with children and that do promote exploration, learning, and development!
Imagine you’re a cook in a restaurant. It’s what you do every day, you are passionate about it, and consider yourself pretty darn good at it. One evening, the owner of the restaurant decides he is going to attend a meal “as a guest” and is served one of your featured dishes: chicken pot pie. You emerge from the kitchen, excited to find out what he thinks, and his response: “Taste this. What would you do differently next time?”
Imagine classrooms filled with children who are comfortable taking risks, sharing ideas, and working cooperatively with their peers. Can this become the norm in classrooms across the nation? Yes, because this is what consistent and effective Teacher Sensitivity (TS) cultivates in the classroom. Research tells us that teachers who are aware of and respond to each child, supportively facilitate the ability of all children in the classroom to explore actively and learn.
If you've ever been through a CLASS Observation training, you are probably familiar with the graphic below. Research tells us that improving teacher-child interactions is a process that includes many pieces.
The first step is to identify a teacher’s strengths and opportunities for growth, which can be done through a CLASS observation. Once you have this data, you can share it with teachers through a formal report, a face-to-face conference, or a feedback session. You’re off to a great start, but now what?