Eleven respondents (47.83%) reported that coaches addressed classroom or behavior management during the course of coaching, even though it was not an explicit part of the curricula the coaches supported.
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Respondent’s 3 and 4 recognized that classroom management was a struggle for some of their teachers, Respondent 3 (administrator) said:
Those teachers [who have] been receiving reading coaching, their [behavior management is] about the same. Still screaming and it is and it is really hard because you can only focus on so many things at once… I thought some [classroom and behavior management] would rub off but it didn’t and now it is really blatantly you can really see and hear it because it is not happening. First it was the norm because it was happening - boom boom boom - in all these spots and now… they are just trying the same thing and it just isn’t working
Respondent 4 (administrator) echoed similar concerns saying:
Yes. I think towards the beginning more our newer teachers this year struggled [with classroom management], because of the curriculum and FRF program they don't know quite how to involve their paras. So there is one teacher trying to manage something that's really new and then trying to make - because they will have like 5 kids. Or 5 or 4 kids. And the rest of the kids are sitting off doing other things. And they are not quite well- versed enough to know how to manage that while they are working with their small group. Even though they have a para. They don't know how to delegate, like I'm going to do this I need you to do this while I am doing this. But also monitor this. And also teach their students how to be more independent like ask three before me kind of things.
Respondent 2 (administrator) described ways in which the coaches indirectly impacted classroom behavior:
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Ultimately better planning decreases behaviors in the classroom. And then tailor what they are doing to meet the needs of the students. So that level of engagement from the students is higher which decreases the behaviors in the classrooms.
Respondent 7 (teacher) shared that the coaches provided classroom management advice, although she sometimes struggled to implement that advice. She said “I was given a few
[classroom and behavior management suggestions and I did try to implement them as much as I possibly could. There were some slips and slides… back to my original behavior but I tried.” Respondent 12 (teacher) described the coaching helping with behavior management an indirect way.
[The coach] helped me know how to keep students on track. I feel that if I keep the students on track and I have a better flow of the lesson that we have less behavior issues. And if there is a student off task I can easily redirect them most of the time.
Respondent 13 (teacher) when discussing her challenges during the coaching program focused on classroom behaviors. She said:
There were a lot of battles or struggles that, you know, took place this year that I wasn't familiar with. With behavior needs and aspects of it. So [my coaches] gave me tips. And one of the strategies we received over the summer and one of the tips they gave me was like a reporting system. Like it was a reward system and we used to do it on a dry erase board. And then I went from the dry erase board to putting like a sticky note in front of each student and then giving them like a little point system. And one student I had to support more often… Like I said, the behavior issues. Like you know basically making sure that I acknowledged when students are facing those challenging moments and I was
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just positive more. Because I felt, not to be arrogant or anything, but I felt like I was on the right track and this was like "Yes! Give me those resources."
Respondent 16 (coach), described directly helping with classroom and behavior
management in order to let the teacher focus her attention on delivering the intervention they had been working on together:
We would try to deflect anybody that would try to interrupt [the intervention group]. And we would try to address that and then if we noticed something else in the room we would buzz over there and see if we could fix something on the computer or in a small group. Just so that the teacher wasn't distracted. Because you need to be focused.
Respondent 17 (coach) described giving a teacher classroom management advice:
Yes, the issue [of behavior management] came up a few times. With children interrupting the group and they had - mine told me there is a set way you can handle interruptions, you just say "when I'm in group no interruptions unless someone is bleeding!" Or you know something important. There are different little things on how to settle them down. If one teacher would always do individual turns and the rest of the group was always off because they were not participating, well, you would just recommend doing more unison so you can get them involved and following along. Little Things.
Respondent 18 (coach) reflected on small behavioral problems she saw during coaching and he impact a teacher with poor behavior management skills might have on instructional coaching:
Well it’s sort of funny they sort of misbehave a little bit, but they can’t sit in their seats when we have the book they’re always trying to touch it and they’re standing up and they’re shouting over each other. They’re so excited and it’s all about the book. So I think
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to see them kind of misbehavior, in her words, and not sit in their seats and be quiet, but to see them be so excited was really, maybe, a good indicator for her of that.
I think – and I didn’t – have any [significant behavior] challenges because my teacher was so great, but I think it would be really hard if your teacher has poor
management skills because the teacher needs to be really engaged when you’re modeling. I know some of my colleagues had trouble getting their teachers to watch them model because they were dealing with behavior problems in the room, so that would have been a real struggle had my teacher had poor management, but she didn’t.
Respondent 23 (teacher) described how the coach helped directly with behavior management: When their behavior – I have a lot of behavior problems in here and sometimes we couldn’t get started right away, but [the coach] would find a way to go and help calm some of the other kids down that maybe weren’t in the group and I would just go ahead and start and then he would come back. Once I knew how to do it that’s how it worked. So it went pretty smoothly once we got settled.
Respondent 19 (coach) discussed this direct behavior management help from the coach’s perspective:
There was a lot of kids in [the classroom] with behavioral issues that she became really frustrated with so typically I would also help her. I would come in once a week [to coach] but I would help with the kids, [too]... it was classroom management, to be completely honest, so she enjoyed having me there in that regard.
Taking it from- I don’t want to say a more realistic standpoint –but some of these schools and [the school I worked at] specifically is a very high needs school and a lot of the kids in [the teacher’s] classroom at least had a lot of behavioral issues. It was difficult during those times… I
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felt like I had to almost watch over the classroom as she was doing that but I also realized that I wanted to watch her as she was [working with students]. So it was almost like a push and pull that we both kind of tried our best but there would be times that she was reading a book – this only happened once or twice – but she was kind of going through the books and going through the prompts and there would be something going on on the other side of the room and she needed to go deal with that, so I would take that time to just refresh with the kids and go over what we had gone over and sometimes if she wasn’t able to come back I would finish the rest of it.
Theme 9: Respondents Recognized a Need to Improve Reading Proficiency Among Their