4. Describe your Coaching

We used the guidebook to go through the different parts of the Concept Mastery Routine.  We discussed the importance of using Cue, Do, Review to maintain fidelity of the routine.  We then drafted a concept diagram together so he would understand the process better.  He liked that the routine allows students to come up with examples and non-examples. A challenge he had was with the sometimes present characteristics because he feels science tends to lean more towards always present or not present, but because I co-taught with him in the past, we were able to come up with some content areas that might have sometimes present characteristics and I explained that it's okay to not always have sometimes present characteristics.

Draft we created together:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dqVIDx9G-leyvLKD9XJfOd83u9OXXMc4/view?usp=sharing

The Concept Mastery Routine was a bit challenging for the Math teacher.  She has been used to using the FRAME and the LINCing Routine.  However, she began to see how brainstorming keywords to the targeted concept can then connect prior knowledge to an overall concept.  She also liked seeing the Examples vs. the Non-examples and the extension of knowledge.

During my discussions with Mrs. Blevins detailing my own preparation for demonstrating the Concept Mastery Routine with her students, and subsequently in discussions about her preparing to use it, I used the guidebook to follow the steps for preparation and implementation. We talked about the Cue-Do-Review sequence at length, and then discussed how she might identify appropriate content with which to use the routine and when to use it. She had participated in construction of diagrams alongside her students during my instruction on the Figurative Language concepts, and I shred the examples within the guidebook as well as examples created during my own initial training for the first badge. Mrs. Blevins indicated early on (during my instruction to her students) that she felt using the Concept Mastery Routine would be a useful and effective technique for her language arts classes--especially with her inclusive classrooms. During her implementation, she provided some of her students with partially completed diagrams to meet their support needs, and shared that this was an effective tool with which to provide the necessary accommodations for individual students. Following Mrs. Blevins' use of the routine to introduce Nonfiction Text Structures, she used their completed diagrams as a review aid prior to a short quiz on that topic. All students passed the quiz. As with the diagrams the students completed with me, they stored the diagrams completed with Mrs. Blevins in their review binders for future use.

  I trained the Science Department Head. I had her watch the video I prepared for the Level 2 Badge. I chose this so that we could stop the video and discuss. As we watched the video, I had her walk through the Guidebook and mark pages. I emphasized the importance of the “Cue Do Review” sequence. We discussed how she could use this as a review for a unit. I asked her to decide on a topic that she would like to use and chose a time to meet. At our second meeting, we created the routine together. I used the guidebook to walk us through so that she would have a reference. I completed the Concept Mastery Routine Device Checklist. A copy of the routine is attached. She stated that she could see how it would help the students make the connections in the concept but felt she would need to practice a couple of times to make it flow.  We picked a time to implement with a class. She chose to use her inclusion class which is not co-taught but there is a special education teacher in the room for support. Since he was not familiar with the routine, we were able to expose him to the routine and hopefully he will want training next year. The routine worked very well for this topic. She was able to review all the key points and have the students complete organizer in the short class period. I completed the Implementation Checklist

During our second bell PLC meeting, Mrs. Walker and I went through the elements and steps of the Concept Mastery Routine from the instruction manual.  Then, we explained how to cue students through the Concept Mastery Diagram and record any answers that students found relevant based on the questions asked.  Ms. Hansen thought that the figurative language skill review would be great to implement with her students because, as English teachers, we've observed that students often confuse figurative language with sound devices. 

After Ms. Hansen felt comfortable implementing this process with her students, we observed her in action. She followed the routine in step order and supplied her students with positive feedback.  She feels that students have a better understanding of poetry as a result of the implementation of this routine.  She indicated that she would be able to use this strategy in the future.  The only challenge that she noted and that we observed was to get the students initially responding with answers relevant to the topic.

I worked with Kim Kelly on the Concept Mastery Routine. Kim has experience with the Frame from prior training at school. So when I approached her about learning about the Concept Mastery Routine she was very excited. We created a draft of a Concept Diagram on Personification as part of Figurative Language. Once we got the concept down the creation of the draft was relatively easy. 


Here is a link to the draft we created: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3Oe-B6PSzDnZ0RSZXJROEQ0YUl1aE9YRXVCLWU0eVNGNFdz/view?usp=sharing

Here is a link to the Device Checklist I went over with Kim after we created the draft so she saw all the pieces that needed to be included. 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3Oe-B6PSzDnbEZGa19Ud1NsUFowcWx5VGFva0tDRWFlUVNN/view?usp=sharing

During our instruction, Mr. Hall  and I constantly referred back to our prior experiences when we initially utilized the concept diagram for written expression / mechanics. Since both of us had prior experiences with this instructional strategy, we were able to anticipate questions or concerns that Mrs. Ferrell might have. Another success is that Mr. Hall and I both see the validity of this tool, and we were excited to see Mrs. Ferrell working with her students in the classroom to benefit their reading comprehension abilities. One challenge was finding a common planning time for all of us to meet initially in addition to follow-up classroom observation. Overall, Mr. Hall and I enjoyed working with another colleague in such a collaborative manner. Often times as educators, we worked in our individual classrooms, but this was an opportunity to strengthen our professional learning communities.

Amy and I coached Brittany Oliver, 7th Grade Science Teacher, on how to use the Concept Mastery Routine. We started the session with explaining the importance of using the Concept Mastery Routine with students and asking her how she felt it could be utilized in her classroom. With the use of the attached Power Point, we explained each section of the Concept Mastery Routine Diagram and how to implement it in the classroom. In addition to the Power Point, we used the Concept Mastery Routine manual to further explain the Cue-Do-Review Sequence. After sharing with Brittany various examples from the manual, we then had her create her own Concept Mastery Routine on prokaryotic cells that she felt she could use with her students. 

I feel that Brittany completely understood the routine and how to use it when we finished with our coaching. She was confident and ready to implement it in her classroom. She was also very easy to work with and flexible in her schedule as we were setting up our coaching date. On the other hand, I found it difficult to help her develop the Concept Mastery Routine diagram because I do not have a science background; however, we were able to share with her a few science examples which seemed to help. Also, we have different planning periods, so we had to make adjustments in setting up coaching sessions along with the observation date. We had to request a half day substitute to provide the training, and Amy and I had to observe her during our planning period.


Link for the Concept Mastery Routine Power Point:
https://drive.google.com/a/frco.k12.va.us/file/d/0Bwlrrk4Hc2y8U3ZEb2VQZV9HeG8/view?usp=sharing

Our training session began during our PLC time with myself and Ms. Gyori showing our demonstration video to our colleague, Ms. Hansen.  We then took time to walk through the important sections of the book and discuss how they related to the video demonstration.  After discussing the important sections of the book, we began working on a co-constructed draft.  We selected the topic of figurative language.  We selected this topic because figurative language is often confused with sound devices.  We discussed appropriate examples and non-examples, as well as tied down a definition of the concept. 

After our training session during our PLC meeting, we observed Ms. Hansen implement the concept mastery routine in her English class.  Ms. Hansen did a great job following the cue-do-review sequence and keeping her class engaged.  She taught her class how to use the concept mastery routine, and they will likely be able to use the routine again in the future successfully. We provided feedback to Ms. Hansen regarding her implementation in the classroom, as well as the concept diagram created by her class.  Overall this training session was successful and we feel that students at our school will benefit from the use of new instructional strategies.

Following my initial introduction of the Concept Mastery Routine to Mrs. Blevins' 5th grade inclusion classes, I began instruction with her in using the Routine. She assisted with the development of the subsequent Concept Mastery Diagrams that I presented to her students while she observed my implementation and the student co-construction of the diagrams during class. Following this instruction, Mrs. Blevins developed and introduced her own Concept Mastery Diagram to her students.

Angela and I met with Brittany, a science teacher, to provide coaching on how to implement the Concept Mastery Routine in her classroom.  We started by explaining the importance of using the CMR for concepts her students found challenging to understand.  We provided Brittany with her own Concept Mastery Routine manual and walked her through the Cue-Do-Review Sequence.  We also used the attached Concept Mastery PowerPoint to explain each section of the diagram.  After showing Brittany some examples of completed diagrams in the manual, Brittany completed a diagram prokaryotic cells that she planned to use during our observation.  

A success we encountered was that Brittany was confident and quickly understood how to complete and use the Concept Mastery Routine diagram using a concept she was teaching in her science class.  Brittany was eager and easy to work with.  A challenge we encountered was finding the time for the three of us to meet for our coaching session.  Angela and I do not have a shared planning period with Brittany; therefore, we had to schedule substitute teachers to cover us for half a day so that we had enough time to successfully coach Brittany. On the day of the observation, Angela and I observed Brittany during our planning period.

Link for Concept Mastery PowerPoint
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1QkIeJfdYTyZFdqYWJRWW5LZ2M