4. Describe your Coaching

I used the LINCS table, steps, and Cue-do-Review sequence to coach the instructor.  It was a success with her  inclusion class.  The students were able to visually see the picture that related to the vocab and reminding word, as well as link it to a one sentence story.  The class really enjoyed coming up with pictures to draw related to the story.  

The teacher I partnered with had lots of prior knowledge of SIM Routines.  She is a veteran special educator and wanted to learn this routine to support her students.  She is used to teaching vocabulary during instruction when students come to an unknown word.  She has not formally-pre-taught vocabulary before reading a passage.  The only problem she had was predicting what vocabulary students might need to know before reading because her students had varying ability levels.  We talked about how using the Table could help students with individual needs when they determined a vocabulary word that they needed to know the meaning of.  So the class may have different vocabulary words on their tables.  We talked about how this would look during reading instruction in her small group.  Students could scan a passage and circle words they needed support with and then work with her to complete the vocabulary Lincing table with their words.  She was eager to get started and see how her kids enjoyed and learned from using this routine.  She suspected that by using a reminder words (something she'd not done before) and having them draw a picture they would be able to retain the information longer.  She drafted her table (inserted above) during our session.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Yl2GFBLWUtD0DkeTT3RTzhuXDaqgvC-W?usp=sharing ; STUDENT WORK

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11JG6ER6WAt9dVwtl4Z4CrR0c1majBByb/view?usp=sharing Implementation checklist

I worked with my colleague to develop the LINCing routine that we would use during the Disability Awareness event in June.  We worked together on this since we were developing terms using federal definitions.  As we developed the  routine we talked about the difference between the negative connotations between the definitions and how we wanted to prompt the audience towards a more positive reminding word and LINCing story.  At first, my colleague was very apprehensive, feeling uneasy about how to ensure that she would get the answers that she would like.  I assured her that with the right prompting the audience/students would respond accordingly.  We also decided to set this up as a powerpoint so that if the responses were not what we were hoping for, we could pull up the answers as we went. (We had each area animated) I reminded her the significance of the cue-do-review, which she understood from the onset.  The trainings were repeated several different times during the week, so I had the opportunity to model the routine for her two times before she had to "fly solo".  As always, the audience's/student's responses were better than we could have hoped for.

Successes: I presented initial PD to a small group of alternative education teachers. The teachers were interested and engaged in the presentation. Although they were reserved at times during the session, they provided positive feedback:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_mCRUJUV9kTUGU5MkVKR2dGeU00eTVJVzFFMF91UXhXZnc0
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_mCRUJUV9kTZzFKUHY0Yy1LVUhFRGJ2YlBZSjJxb3lQeU40
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_mCRUJUV9kTamVOVU8wRTVua1RfYlEyandDVmEtTF84bElv
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_mCRUJUV9kTdEpBSi1uSnc3SmFObElDTHBSNVhyR2hNY1FB
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_mCRUJUV9kTWkhZYU1CLUJBNXAxck44VmhYWlB6Y1plOUI0
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_mCRUJUV9kTQjZCZ1Zyc2ZLVTY5QVNCX2tmQ1VWckZsbHlZ


Challenges: This group of teachers works under challenging circumstances. They are responsible for content across seven different grade levels, they have no content teams to collaborate with, and their curriculum is mostly computer-based. They have a new administrator this year. Co-construction poses a challenge with their students, who have low motivation and behavioral issues. I worked with the teachers during the session to come up with appropriate vocabulary terms and instructional scenarios. A science teacher, who had some previous familiarity with LINCS, created and shared LINCS tables for several words, but other teachers struggled to find any suitable words or opportunities within a unit to implement. I followed up with the teachers by email to offer coaching or other support, but got no response at all. I believe it will be a challenge for LINCS to become a true routine in their program without more meaningful commitment and follow-up from the teachers. This is unfortunate because students from my school, who are familiar with LINCS and other CERs, go to Alt Ed and come back. They would benefit greatly from consistency of instructional approaches between schools.