Blackburn+Lake+Primary

Blackburn Lake Primary School is situated in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The school is responsible for 440 students. Over the next three years we aim to improve student achievement in both literacy and numeracy.

This year I have had the privilege of coordinating whole school teaching and learning. In addition to this role, I have had the opportunity to work as the school based teaching and learning coach focussing on both differential education and literacy.

=**__Reflections__**= Thankyou Esther for reminding us that every text brings with it an emotional reaction and that if the text or reading situation brings about a negative experience it is only natural for our readers to shut down.
 * Day Two &Three**

The focus on managing change and the specific workshops on the 'literacy elements' highlighted the need to spend time working with teachers on their capacity and its subsequent transfer to student literacy understandings. My greatest challenge is to document a way to map teacher understandings around specific comprehension skills and their overall literacy capabilities. Any assistance, or direction here would be greatly appreciated.

I enjoyed the discussions with my colleagues around coache's roles and responsibilities. The article written by Joellen Killion and the Coach Client Interactions Table was invaluable. It highlighted the many aspects of coaching within a school and finally placed a name beside the components of my coaching time.

The opportunity to practice coaching converstations and focus on 'pause, paraphrase and probe' has had an impact on conversations with my colleagues. Unfortunately I am a green horn and will need many more practice sessions and conversations before I feel comfortable with this area of coaching life.

... We finished day four discussing the power of the metaphor and applying this to our role as coaches. There were many thought provoking analogies that we shared as a table group and took away with us. My real learning is now in the application of the metaphor in my coaching experiences. How will the 'oil in the oil painting' enhance the teaching and learning practice of staff and add to the final product of student learning and student engagement in our school?
 * Day Four & Five**

Considering 'Who I would most like to be coached by?' sharpened my thinking on the role of a coach and subsequently the role of a literacy coach within my school. Perhaps even more powerful than that question was 'Who would you like to coach?' This second question prompted me to consider the unconscious possibility of bringing a bias or a set of beliefs or educational philosophy to a coaching session or worse still that my thinking may not be shared by a coachee! It was timely to unpack the different educational philosophies that may exist in our schools.

The information and work around team coaching gave me something to take away. Team coaching is something I would like to see as part of the professional learning culture of our school. I hope to revisit this area again and give it more of my time and energy.

Addressing the power of assessment and feedback on day five was motivating. The research around formative assessment and the excellent reading material from 'Lay of the Land' helped to sharpen my understanding on assessment, particularly formative assessment. I've taken away a personal assessment mantra //'Feedback that feeds forward' .// I was reminded again that feedback must be related to the task and that one or two things are plenty to focus on when giving feedback. Revisiting the idea of an assessment toolbox, which students and teachers can access, highlighted a current need in my school. Once again, I came away from the literacy coaching days inspired!

Over the past seven professional learning days, I've been challenged to explore many aspects of the literacy program within our school. I used to think that I had a sound understanding of literacy practices within my classroom. However, after participating in the program, I now realise how much more there is to learn. You don't know, what you don't know, so to speak. **//Aha moment!//** The Literacy Caoching Program has brought me to a new understanding about my own capacities and a realisation that perhaps other staff members would have the same experience. This has led me to ... **//'I used to think but now I think'!//** __I used to think__ that as a spin off from our sessions, one of my aims was to work with teams to introduce Literacy Learning Walks. Although still a worthwhile goal, __now I think__ that in working toward this goal, I need to take a step back and explore what teachers really know and want to know about literacy. Rather than jump into Literacy Learning Walks, my greatest challenge is to have a conversation with teachers to understand their specific literacy needs and literacy capabilities.
 * Day Six and Seven**

**Now I believe that being an effective literacy coach means** listening to what is said and to what isn't said. To ask questions, to guide the discussion and to set attainable goals. Coaching is about building relationships and supporting as well as mentoring staff. It is about sharing the coaching experience and have staff share their learning with each other. Whilst it may still be about modelling, it is ultimately about building teacher understanding and their capacity. Those unnamed elements in a coaching day have become part of my strategic coaching process. 'Planning assist' with a curriculum leader looks very different to 'planning assist' with a graduate teacher. Revisiting the role of formative assessment and its impact on teaching and learning highlighted the ongoing need to keep myself informed with up to date research and engage in my own continuous learning. = **__ Determine Evidence of Impact __** = The Literacy Coaching course provided me with new understandings around literacy, presented fresh ways of looking at literacy, provided strategies in approaching staff and outlined many opportunities that could be developed and revisited within the school. After a good deal of thinking and in consultation with the literacy coordinator, it was decided we would tackle individual and whole school literacy needs through school professional development. Using the seven principles of effective professional development, we began our work. //Principle 1:// //Professional learning must be focussed on student outcomes:// The needs between staff professional learning and student needs were made explicit in each workshop. For example - Analysing a running record is necessary __for any child__ in our school who has not reached level 30. //Principle 2:// //Professional development must be focussed on and embedded in teacher practice:// A coach and or time for specific mentoring are currently available to support learning into practice. //Principle 3: Professional learning must be informed by best available research//: Research and theory were presented within each workshop. Differential learning/ different learner profiles were considered. //Principle 4: Professional learning must be collaborative, involving reflection and feedback:// Small groups ( based on need) provided opportunities for staff to discuss, reflect and ask questions. After the assessment workshop, a number of staff changed their understandings and the way they approached individual assessment of reading.
 * Prior to the program I thought being a literacy coach meant** that I would assist teachers in their classrooms to improve their skills and that I would model good practice. I thought that literacy coaching was about having some sort of 'coaching conversation' that would change the way things were done around here! I understood that using data to support teaching and learning was important and building teacher capacity and having high expectations of ourselves and our students would also assist in moving the school forward. I felt a sense of relief when I read the article by Joellen Killion who outlined the reality of a ( literacy) coaching day. She spoke about the numerous roles that coaches take on and how we need to ‘broaden the lens through which we see coaching.’ I felt liberated! The unstructured elements of coaching all of a sudden had a name.

//Principle 5: Professional learning must be evidence based:// An evidence based tool was created and handed to staff to complete so the literacy team could frame up professional learning opportunities to individual and school based need. This is attached below. //Principle 6: Professional learning must be ongoing, supported and fully integrated into the culture and operations of the school:// Literacy professional learning was endorsed by the Principal, is allocated a timeslot and is and will be supported by documentation and followed up within classrooms. //Principle 7: Professional learning is an individual and collective responsibility//: Staff were approached and ran specific literacy workshops. ** Specific Impact ** · The use of Seven Principles of Highly Effective Professional Learning Model when considering staff professional development Audit: Leading the Literacy Learning Culture in your school · The development of Literacy teaching audit that will support ongoing individual and whole school literacy professional development · The development of a literacy document that contains the ongoing documentation of continuums and teaching and learning practices. (this is an ongoing and fluid document) · The involvement and ownership of staff in literacy professional development across the school

=__** A Digital Learning Resource **__= In response to the literacy audit, four workshops were offered each time literacy professional development was scheduled. Teachers chose to attend two. As the audit opened the way for conversations around literacy needs, I approached each teacher about their response. Individual discussions highlighted two additional needs. 1) To explore guided reading skills and behaviours 2) To explore the format of the literacy block Attached is a guided reading checklist that was developed to assist teachers when planning their reading lessons. This eventuated as some teachers were uncertain about its purpose. Whilst reading was happening in all grades, some teachers felt it was happening to them, rather than taking control of the assessment and teaching and learning. The checklist has provided a structure to their teaching and greater understanding about student learning. The checklist is now part of our whole school English documentation.