School+-+Camberwell+South+PS

Camberwell South Primary School is in Glen Iris, in the inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne. At the moment we have around 500 students who are predominantly from an english speaking background. The school was established in 1925 and has seen many changes since to its buildings and grounds. Many of our students come from families with professional parents and as such we have

All our classes are multiage classes except for Prep - Junior - Year 1/2, Middle - Year 3/4 and Senior - 5/6. We are lucky to have a number of specialists teaching Art, Music, PE, Italian and IT. At different times we run Philosophy groups, Tournament of the Minds, Instrumental Music, Bike Ed, Drama, and a number of other programs. In 2010 our school is also participating in the Patrick Griffin program run through University of Melbourne with the Boroondara Network. This is an assessment project designed to find students zone of proximal development in reading and maths, to assist teachers to move students forward in their learning.

We are able to provide Reading Recovery and literacy support in small groups to children in the Junior, Middle and Senior Units. We currently have our AP, a leading teacher, and an expert teacher providing coaching in some form to our graduate teachers.

As somebody new to coaching I found Day One a challenging one - especially learning about the concept of 'agency'. I am looking forward to learning more about being an effective coach to assist teachers to develop their skills in the teaching of literacy. It could be a challenge to see how I will fit into our current model of coaching at our school.

Annie Saunders Literacy Coordinator

26/2/11

Okay so I'm not sure this fits into I used to think and now I think, but it is a bit of an issue that I have been thinking about after days 6 and 7.

After a few discussions with some of the group and reflecting on some issues that are happening at my school I'm struggling with a big question - Do we want **compliance** in using a strategy or practice, or, do we want teachers to do it because they are given space to **value** it and understand it fully?

The dilemma is that if we respect teachers and we give them space to value it, what happens when teachers choose not to take on that practice? Do we lose consistency in the ways teachers are working - with everybody doing only what they personally value. How do we empower teachers to develop their own ideas of effective practice while at the same time attempting to develop a consistent approach in the way we work in the school? I haven't got an answer yet but I guess it's something to think about.

Annie, Questioning where you position yourself with regards to teacher compliance reflects a shift in your thinking. It implies that you are not so sure about the effectiveness of compliance. I agree it is unlikely that a strategy or practice not valued, by a learner, will be enacted or sustained. So how would you feel if a consistent approach in which your school work is to always start with the student? Could having conversations at all levels of evidence gathered of your students support you in defining a focus and informing actions? Could you design opportunities for teachers to unpack the evidence they have gathered? Would it help if a focus was chosen and that became the inquiry of what practices an strategies are most effective at your school? Could a number of practices be acceptable if teachers knew what was being done, why it was chosen and how it benefited their students? I am looking forward to our visit in a few works Annie and would like to continue this conversation. Joan

Then and Now reflection

Prior to this program I thought being a literacy coach meant to act as the resource provider, to assist with assessing students, modelling lessons for teachers and acting as the expert in literacy. I thought that an effective literacy coach would sit in on teachers' lessons and give feedback to the teacher who would then work to improve based on the given feedback. I believed that being an effective literacy coach meant that you need to be the model of good literacy teaching.

Now I believe that being an effective literacy coach means that rather than acting as the "good literacy model" and the "expert" in all things literacy my role is actually to draw on teachers current knowledge and engage them in conversations to develop their thinking further. I can now see that there should be a far greater emphasis placed on moving teachers to a more reflective level, so that they are more likely to consider the effectiveness of their teaching whether I am there or not. I should not set out to make myself known as the expert, although it is important that I have very good understandings of how students develop strong literacy skills. I need to help teachers find the opportunities to consider carefully what it is they are doing and whether they are achieving the purpose they wish to achieve. For coaching to be effective it is important that decisions and discussions are centred around evidence and not simply what the teacher and the coach chooses to discuss. I also recognise that it is important for Literacy Coaches to be flexible in their approaches, just as we need to be flexible with our students. It may be necessary to be the resource provider for some teachers in order to help them to develop trust in the coach. For graduate teachers, it may be that there is more emphasis on consultation rather than coaching. Ultimately a coach is to work with the individual (or team) to assist them to move forward from their own baseline. They need to ask carefully considered questions to focus the discussions. They need to work closely with the Leadership team to ensure there is a clear goal in mind and to ensure that a strong and positive learning community is able to develop.

Annie, Your reflection reveals the depth of your understandings of effective coaching. I'm interested to know if you have observed a change in how your staff respond after a conversation, particularly now that you centre the conversation around evidence. Joan