How Curriculum Development Led to Increased Trust and Confidence

Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H. Book Study

Photo by Sarah Noltner on Unsplash

Have you ever taken part in meetings where you felt pressured to agree with the majority, uncomfortable stating your opinion, or feel questions would be unwelcome?

Have you ever felt like you’re teaching on an island or that you don’t have anybody to learn or celebrate accomplishments with?

Have you felt your confidence slipping because of limited support from school leaders?

In Matt Renwick’s book, Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H.: 5 Strategies for Supporting Teaching and Learning, he identifies trust at the core of building the confidence of teachers. When leaders support their teachers, welcome their thoughts and convey to teachers that their input matters and is valued, teachers become more content in their schools.

Matt highlights four conditions that help develop trust in schools (Vodicka, 2006):

• Consistency

• Compassion

• Communication

• Competence

In my 23 years in education, I have been involved in curriculum development multiple times. I would like to share about one of my most memorable curriculum development experiences and how these conditions were present and their impact on the teachers that took part in the experience.

In other situations, curriculum development involved looking at what was available from publishers, choosing a few resources we were most interested in, sharing the materials with other staff, and then often the leadership team would make the final decision on which materials to adopt. Once a publisher was chosen, representatives would often come out to train teachers on how to use the materials.

Then we would be on our own.

Through this process of curriculum development, I experienced some surface level excitement about getting new materials.

But I can’t say that I grew in my professional expertise from receiving the training or materials. These new materials did not lead to collective learning and professional growth among teachers. Nor was this process of choosing materials truly curriculum development.

Was trust missing?

Four Elements of Trust in Action

About 10 years ago, I was involved in an experience that was quite different from what I described above, likely because of the presence of the four elements of trust.

Consistency

It all started with a group of kindergarten teachers who desired to change their literacy centers.

This included adding independent reading time in their day. The team approached one of the building’s literacy coaches to see if she had any resources to recommend. Coincidently, the building coach and I had been reading the book Growing Readers: Units of Study in the Primary Classrrom by Kathy Collins together.

The literacy coach thought this book would be a good starting point for this group, who ran the idea of a book study by the principal who completely supported the idea.

From this point on, the school principal showed consistency by providing each teacher with the book, supporting our efforts over time, and consistently giving us the message that the work we were doing was important.

Although the literacy coach and I facilitated the book study meetings, the goals, format, frequency, time and location of the meetings were all decisions of the group.

Compassion

Compassion was shown by the group when some members were having trouble keeping up with the reading.

In response, we decided that time for reading would be built into each of our book study sessions. We also:

• took time to highlight teaching that we saw going on in each other’s classrooms,

• showed genuine interest by asking questions about teaching decisions made that we were curious about, and

• didn’t hesitate to lift each other up by celebrating each other’s accomplishments.

I can see more clearly now that, through this book study, we were building trust in each other.

This trust led us to a place where we could be honest and vulnerable enough to share our struggles, ask questions, and even disagree with each other. We didn’t feel pressured to take on something the weren't ready for. Rather, we saw each others’ successes as helping us take baby steps.

Communication

As a book study group we developed a system for communication.

For example, we created an online space where we could share how things were going between meetings. In this space, we developed common goals together that helped guide our conversations. We also had group norms that assisted us with having safe and productive conversations.

The book study led to what I perceive as true language arts curriculum development that took place over a few years.

The curriculum created consisted of suggested grade level-appropriate language arts goals, a suggested framework for creating inquiry lessons, and lists of suggested resources. It was the most comprehensive curriculum development I had ever been involved in. Other grade levels became interested in our book study during the first year which led to the start of more book study groups.

Competence

The group showed competence as each member followed through with their responsibilities. Over time, the group showed that we were competent enough to stray from our published manuals to create a curriculum that was more beneficial and responsive to our students.

Through this experience, I felt like I was part of a true learning community.

With the four conditions present, my level of trust in my colleagues, the literacy coaches and the principal grew. This experience led to a feeling of confidence in myself and the school to provide the type of teaching that our students needed.

When leaders foster trust through making sure that these conditions are present in their schools, they will have not only better teachers but also happier teachers that feel valued, confident, and invested in their schools.

Rhonda Precourt is a Reading Recovery teacher/literacy specialist teaching in upstate New York.  In her 20+ years of teaching, she has been a Kindergarten teacher, 2nd grade teacher, literacy coach, and instructional coach and is also a National Board Certified teacher. She enjoys blogging at Literacy Pages with her friend and blog co-founder, Gen Arcovio.