Bridging the Belief-Practice Divide in Literacy Instruction

Three steps to help teachers align their values with their instruction

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I recently visited a friend’s house for a party. Their son had just graduated from high school. In the room where they set up all of his learning artifacts from the past thirteen years, several journals were displayed. It was fun to go through his entries from 1st and 2nd grade, trying to decipher what he was trying to say. “I dresd up as a gost, yeld boo to my mom, and she skremd,” was translated as “I dressed up as ghost, yelled ‘Boo!’ at my mom, and she screamed.”

What’s interesting with these collections is what parents and families don’t keep and display for these events. For example, I didn’t see any cheap trinkets bought at a school store and given from the student to his parents during Christmas. No worksheets, of course, but also no formal essays or research papers. Just invented spelling and a genuine voice.

Spotting this type of writing is like discovering a rare animal or plant in the wild. Literacy blocks are overflowing with activities from purchased resources that often sacrifice student passion and choice in the name of fidelity to the program. We teach reading and writing at the expense of the reader and writer.

No one is immune to this. Good teachers who hold core beliefs that align with facilitating authentic literacy experiences for their students often succumb to teaching the curriculum vs. the kids.

For example, as a new classroom teacher I thought I valued student ownership and empowerment. Yet I spent an inordinate amount of time straightening the classroom library and selecting all the titles to be faced out for students. It took my frustration in not seeing my 5th and 6th graders becoming independent readers plus professional reading to shift my actions so they were more aligned with my beliefs.

How do we help educators see this disconnect between what they say they believe and value, and what actually happens in the classroom?

It takes time and patience and several classroom visits, but I have found three steps that help clients become more honest and reflective about their practice without creating defensiveness or blame:

1. Guide clients to identify their core values.

2. Visit classrooms and take notes.

3. Invite the client to review what you observed through the lens of a core value.

Next is a description of each step, including an example of how I supported a middle level teacher who valued student voice and choice but struggled to live this principle out under the constraints of an ELA curriculum.

1. Guide clients to identify their core values.

I have used multiple versions of this exercise. Elena Aguilar offers one specific to coach-client interactions here.

1. Circle your top ten values.

2. Narrow those down to five.

3. Narrow those down to three.

If a client is struggling to select only three, share that this is specific to their role within education.

Important to note that these values can be aspirational, a state we are striving for. As an example, I hold the value of self-discipline. Overall, I think I live this out pretty regularly; I post weekly here. Yet I don’t always meet these expectations in my actions. For instance, I still have a tendency to procrastinate on big projects.

2. Visit classrooms and take notes.

I refer to these classroom visits as “instructional walks”.¹ They are nonevaluative and informal observations facilitated by a school leader. The purpose is to build trust, affirm what teachers are doing well, and offer feedback when appropriate.

My notes are framed in three parts:

• Observations: Documenting what you see, hear, and experience, including what students are saying and doing.

• Wonderings: Posing on paper questions from a source of genuine curiosity, usually connected to what was observed.

• Next steps: A short summary of what was observed along with an invitation to take action, such as through reflection or trying something new.

Below are my notes I took and shared with the ELA teacher who valued student voice and choice.²

Image: Observation notes during an instructional walk

Notice the first two elements of my notes:

A. I asked the teacher what they wanted me to focus on. In this case, she wanted me to attend to how much time she spent teaching, and how the students were perceiving the learning experience. In response, I time stamped my observational notes and asked students what they were learning and why it was important to them.

B. My questions encouraged teachers to reflect on their practice. In the second wondering, I first affirmed what was right with her instruction. Then I invited her to reflect on who exactly she was supporting in her classroom with the videos. In the final wondering, I celebrated her student’s response while encouraging her to use this way of thinking as a reader as a model for the rest of her class.

These honest and affirming observations set up a call to action at the end of my notes.

3. Invite the client to review what you observed through the lens of a core value.

Here’s how I closed out my notes

C. I connected what I observed with her expressed value. This is where true professional learning occurs: not in the delivery of new ideas, but rather in documenting the potential distance between what is and where one aspires to be. It’s clear that student voice and choice were not present in today’s lesson. By encouraging the teacher to review my observations through the lens of this value, tension is created.

People are uncomfortable with gaps. How they arrive at this reality is important. If I were to have simply told the teacher student choice and voice were absent, I would be doing the work for them. They would lose the opportunities to engage in self-directed learning, such as learning how to self-monitor their instruction. Additionally, resistance is more likely when the leader is the one offering the suggestion.

Of course, there are times, such as repeated observations without increased awareness or progress, where leaders need to be straightforward with teachers about what needs to improve (“May I offer a suggestion?”). But we also have to be open to feedback ourselves. For instance, have we created the conditions where teachers feel they need to use every component of a purchased literacy curriculum. Have we not defined what is tight and what is loose with a program? How am I, as a leader, reflecting on my own practice based on what I'm seeing across classrooms?

Feedback is most effective when it goes both ways. When everyone positions themselves first as a learner and are willing to regularly examine the beliefs they hold about literacy instruction, collective practice improves.

1. For more information on instructional walks, see my book Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H. The concept comes from Regie Routman’s book Read, Write, Lead (affiliate link).

2. I have changed some details of this interaction to protect the privacy of my client.