Erica Daniels and Lillian Zayas are instructional coaches in the Syracuse City School District in Syracuse, New York. Ms. Daniels is the English as a New Language (ENL) coach for the district, and Ms. Zayas supports both teachers and students in the dual-language program at Seymour Dual Language Academy in her role as a Multi-Classroom/Academic Instructional Support Leader.
We asked Ms. Daniels and Ms. Zayas for their advice for coaches who specialize in English language learner (ELL) instruction and support educators in a variety of roles, including English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers or classroom teachers. Here is a summary of their coaching advice, based on their interviews with Colorín Colorado.
Laying the Groundwork
1. Build a relationship with the teachers you are coaching.
First and foremost, both Ms. Daniels and Ms. Zayas strongly encourage coaches to build relationships with the teachers they will be coaching, especially before any observations take place. Ms. Zayas starts that process by getting to know teachers and their interests and letting them know she is someone they can come to with questions. She says, "We include them when we do social events outside of school and in our community so that they feel comfortable. A lot of our teachers in our dual-language program are not from Syracuse, so we try to build a family feeling together."
Ms. Daniels notes that this relationship is essential because it establishes trust within the context of what can be an intimidating situation. "A lot of new teachers have this idea that we're there to critique," she says, "but I think that developing a really trusting relationship with teachers is essential in getting to the goal of improving student outcomes." This is especially important in building a non-evaluative relationship between the teacher and coach.
2. Identify a checklist or rubric that helps establish shared expectations.
In order to get everyone on the same page, Ms. Daniels and Ms. Zayas share rubrics and walkthrough tools with teachers they will be coaching from the beginning. These tools highlight the best practices of language instruction that the coaches will be looking for in their observations, which helps the teachers understand expectations and helps the coaches identify and keep track of what they are seeing. The tool gives them what Ms. Daniels describes as a "snapshot of what's happening in the classroom, what the teacher's doing well, what practices they're incorporating, and then how we can start to see more of those best practices infused in their lessons."
Some sample tools include the following. (Please note that some of these documents may not reflect recent changes.)
- Dual-Language Walk-Through Tool
- Multilingual Learning Observation Checklist (SupportEd)
- Multilingual Learner (ML) and English Language Learner (ELL) Program Quality Review and Reflective Protocol Toolkit (New York State Department of Education)
- English Language Learners Walk Through and Program Review Tool (Colorado Department of Education)
- Promoting Success for Teachers of English Learners through Structured Observations (American Institutes for Research)*
*This tool was developed for a teacher evaluation context and aligns with widely used teacher evaluation rubrics to ELL criteria, which can also apply to coaching contexts.
ELL Considerations
3. Help teachers identify students' strengths.
One key area that Ms. Daniels and Ms. Zayas focus on is changing the "deficit mindset" regarding ELLs, encouraging teachers to identify what students can do rather than what they are still learning to do.
Ms. Daniels says, "As a coach for English language learners, my primary responsibility is to be an advocate for our students. We want to make sure that all of their needs are being met, that our teachers are culturally responsive in their practices and holding ELLs to high standards. We want to make sure that we're capitalizing on all of our students' linguistic and cultural resources...their toolbox full of skills and competencies. I'm really trying to help teachers to identify the skills that our kids have and capitalize on them."
4. Increase student engagement and academic language development for ELLs.
Another area that Ms. Daniels and Ms. Zayas focus on is student engagement and increasing "student talk time" while decreasing "teacher talk time." Ms. Daniels notes that when teachers see themselves on video, they often note that they talk a lot more than the students do. This can lead to important conversations among the teachers and coaches about how to encourage students to talk more and engage with peers. "That's where coaching will come in," Ms. Daniels says, "eliciting teachers to identify where their areas of need are, and then how they can address them."
The coaches also suggest ways that teachers can increase students' academic language production, such as using more peer interaction and scaffolds such as sentence frames with language that students can use in their classroom interactions. Ms. Daniels notes, "When you set those expectations, kids know exactly what you want them to do, and you can model that linguistic load. They will have a language frame that they can build off of each other, which increases the rigor of the activity."
In addition, when Ms. Zayas talks about using "turn and talk" activities with students, she encourages teachers to model what "turn and talk" conversations should look like and then ask students to report back on what their partner said to hold them accountable for that conversation they shared.
Collaborative Coaching Conversations
In order to continue regular communication with the teachers they coach, Ms. Daniels and Ms. Zayas meet with teachers informally after observing them in the classroom. These are collaborative conversations that allow for a chance to discuss the lesson and how it went. Ms. Daniels says, "My goal is not to strong-arm teachers into decisions. My goal is to build on our joint expertise to have a positive impact on instruction."
Here are some of the tips that the coaches recommend for making the most of these conversations.
5. Start conversations on a positive note.
The coaches talk about the importance of starting conversations on a positive note. This helps build the teacher's confidence while also letting the teacher know that the coaches are not just looking for areas of improvement. Ms. Zayas says, "I always start with a positive...The way you communicate the information to the teacher impacts how they're going to take the feedback," she says. "Being as positive as possible is important, so we're framing this as, 'Let's do this together. We're a team. How are we going to work on this?'"
Something positive to highlight might be:
- something that went well in the lesson
- a particular skill or strength the teacher exhibited
- an area where a student is progressing
- something that has improved since the prior observation
6. Share specific strategies for areas of growth.
When it comes time to talk about areas of growth, the coaches take a few different approaches. For example, they offer very specific strategies instead of vague comments. They also ask the teacher for ideas and to provide feedback on what they would like to work on. Their recommended ideas may involve steps such as:
- ideas to help with classroom management
- showing the teacher how to provide more modeling
- working towards more student-driven elements in lessons.
The coaches also share that they use a lot of modeling. "Sometimes, we model the entire teaching sequence, but more often we model the kinds of conversations/feedback we want to hear with students. This helps teachers to regularly see implementation ideas or teaching concepts in action within the context of their own classroom and with their own students," Ms. Daniels notes.
7. Leave time for the teacher's questions.
During their collaborative conversations, Ms. Daniels and Ms. Zayas also allow time for questions. That way the teacher can address specific concerns and also take a turn guiding the conversation for a bit. For example, if a teacher has a question about classroom management, Ms. Daniels and Ms. Zayas will help the teacher break down what's happening and then figure out which part of the challenge to address first.
8. Refer back to the teacher's strengths in the course of the conversation.
Ms. Daniels and Ms. Zayas also make a point to refer to the teacher's strengths throughout their conversations. Ms. Daniels says, "Sometimes our teachers don't know what their strengths are, and we have to help them to identify that. We'll say, ‘Look what a great job you're doing. Look at this data, and look at how you've helped your students to grow.' We want to build their capacity by showing them what they are already doing well while supporting their growth."
Building a Network of Support
9. Recommend mentor teachers.
Ms. Daniels and Ms. Zayas also encourage the teachers they are coaching to observe other educators -- and they often will make recommendations on which teachers to observe based on a particular focus area. This expands the teacher's repertoire of ideas and strategies while also building their network of support in the building.
10. Consider offering more training and professional development for coaches.
Finally, the coaching team in Syracuse has advocated for additional training and professional development for their ELL and bilingual coaches through local or national opportunities, such as those offered by Syracuse University, the local RBERN office (Regional Bilingual Education Resource Network) and the NYSABE conference.
This advocacy was especially important in the early days of the district's coaching program when the coaching team they worked with Dr. Diane Staehr Fenner and SupportEd for intensive training around some coaching cycles — training that helped their coaches develop their practice and develop shared expectations.
Concluding Thoughts
For both Ms. Daniels and Ms. Zayas, the goal is build a positive, constructive partnership that makes a difference for students — and makes teachers feel supported. "Without coaching, teachers can feel very isolated, like they're on an island and they're not sure which direction they're supposed to head. Coaching helps to provide that direction," says Ms. Daniels.
Related Resources
For more ideas and resources, please see:
- ELL Teacher Leadership in Action: The SWEL Model
- You Are Already a Leader: Identifying Your Leadership Skills on Behalf of ELLs
- Co-Teaching ELLs: 8 Strategies for Success
- Best Practices for Evaluating ELL Educators: Lessons Learned in Syracuse, NY
- ELL Strategy Library
Video: How Coaching Conversations Can Support New Teachers of ELLs
This video from Syracuse, NY highlights the coaching relationship between a first-year teacher, Alexandra Galán, and two coaches who specialize in ELL best practices, Erica Daniels and Lillian Zayas. Learn more about how coaching has supported Ms. Galán's teaching and her perspective on the coaching experience at the end of her first year in the classroom.
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