Setting a Vision for the Work
Leading Like a C.O.A.C.H. Book Study
“Goals are important. But without context, inspiration, or a clear plan for success, they ring hollow.”
There are times when we read and we come across a sentence, a section, a paragraph and it requires us to pause. It’s as if it grabs hold of us and says, “You’re not going anywhere. Take a seat and reflect on this.”
This is what happened when I read this quote from Leading like a C.O.A.C.H. Author Matt Renwick had just shared about how his building had set a goal to increase student writing scores 10% from the fall to the spring.
He reflected on this goal:
“Yet, we did not examine more deeply why we wanted to increase writing scores, or whether the results really meant our students had learned. For example, would more students see themselves as writers than before? The goal was technical and lacked a vision for the broader purpose of our organization.”
In other words, could the initiatives and professional activities we ask teachers to do - data teams, vertical alignment work, etc. - ring hollow because we do not get a collective understanding of the vision behind the work?
Developing the “Why” Behind the Work
I think about all the initiatives I have seen come and go over the nine years while supporting teachers as a mid-level instructional leader:
Data teams
Project-based Learning
Reading workshop
Units of Instruction
Implementation of Marzano strategies
Through all of these, you would have some teachers latch on and run with it, some that would be compliant, and some who were vocal in not seeing the value in it.
So many times we ask teachers to do these types of instructional practices, all of which are research-based. We train them. We have them fill out forms. We have them observe each other. We have them attend workshops. We provide professional development. And sometimes, there is still not buy-in. There is still not implementation at a deep level. And, unfortunately, initiatives often die off, leaving little to no lasting impact.
Why?
Because we have not set the vision for the bigger purpose of why we are doing the work.
We bog them down in the paper work of data teams while ignoring the collective understanding of the vision. Without this process, our students may not become agents of their own learning as they reflect on progress towards a goal. This reflective habit can carry over into other areas of their life.
We ask them to write units of instruction with intention and purpose without discussing the power in this work: that this intentional lesson design has power in moving them to master teachers.
We train them on the mini-lesson, conferring, and share time in workshop without gaining a collective understanding that the workshop structure is about creating a community of learners, about having conversations with readers where you learn about their reading process together, where they learn to be agents of their own reading lives which will impact whether they become lifelong readers.
The lesson: Spend time establishing the vision.
And to take that one step deeper, develop the collective vision together.
What’s the purpose of the initiative beyond the results of student scores, implementing a new resource, or using a new strategy or structure? Our work is greater than scores, programs, resources and strategies. Our work is about kids who will later become adults that we hope are well adjusted, contributing members of society.
Think bigger when walking through initiatives with teachers. The buy-in, effort, fidelity, and success of the initiative will be exponentially better. And thus, students will be impacted at a deeper level.
Annie Palmer is a K-12 ELA curriculum coordinator and literacy coach in the Kansas City area. She is also a consultant with the FiredUP Consulting Group. After spending ten years in the classroom, she then partnered with teachers for the past nine years as an instructional leader, facilitating work in curriculum, instruction and assessment. Her approach to this work is grounded in best practices, reflective thinking, and dialogical thinking. Connect with Annie on Twitter at @palmeram.
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Annie, working in a school where our vision extends beyond test scores to our true purpose of our work with students sounds heavenly to me. Then this vision can guide all of the curriculum created, resources adopted, materials used in our schools (and any other decision making). Also, the ability to use a common language when talking with each other helps to create a culture of collaboration.
Annie, Your post made me reflect on how important it is to determine collective rationales for the work we do together. Time works against us in education and it can feel like time is running out to move shifts and initiatives forward, especially when leaders understand the “why.” If those who are necessary to the execution of the plan don’t have enough opportunity to learn about it, it can feel like an initiative is being done to them, and success will be hard to come by. Thank you for this insightful post!