At this very moment, Ellen and I are having the totally delightful experience of working with 35 coaches from throughout the state of Utah.
What an amazing group of people! Our topic today is deepening your coaching skills. We are focusing on the three P’s: Pause, Paraphrase and Probe. Are you an instructional coach – read on!
First ponder, what is the difference between a coaching conversation and an interrogation – other than the dangling lightbulb : ) ?
The difference revolves around paraphrasing – restating (NOT parroting) what someone said so that they know you are truly listening – truly attempting to understand. Here are some sample paraphrase stems for you to try:
-Just to be clear in my own mind…
-It sounds like…
-You’re considering…
-You’re wondering if…
-So, your experience…
-Your perception of the problem is…
Tomorrow, we will be with these same fabulous coaches headed into local schools to practice data collection from a non-evaluative stance.
Stay tuned!