This summer, my husband and I taught our two sons how to ride their bikes without training wheels. There were times my husband and I demonstrated, or modeled, while other times we ran alongside giving prompts (watch out for the pole, slow down, use your brakes!). There were plenty of crashes, but we just said, "That's part of learning something new." There were times our boys thought they'd "never learn," and wanted to put their bikes back in the garage. My husband and I had lots of pep talks, thought about next steps, and researched best practices (thank you, Google, for the tip to take the bike pedals off). There were times we were exhausted. Imagine running full speed down hill just in time to stop your child from biking full speed into your neighbor's garage door. But, in just about a week, we reached our goal of transfer and our boys could ride on their own! The pride we all felt was tremendous!
My husband with our youngest.
Whether I'm teaching students or coaching teachers, I find it's a lot like the experience of teaching someone to ride a bike. The ultimate goal is for the student or teacher to be able to feel confident and to do the work on his/her own. But, to get there, you have to research best practices, assess current understanding, sometimes demonstrate or model, plan next steps, and always run alongside prompting and guiding for support. And, you can't forget the pep talks!
I encourage you to reflect on the questions:
- How is teaching or coaching in the classroom like teaching someone to ride a bike?
- How does that fit with what you know about the gradual release of responsibility (shown below)?
Gradual release of responsibility from "Student Centered Coaching" by Diane Sweeney.
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