Teaching WalkThrus 3: Five-step guides to instructional coaching

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Teaching Walkthrus, written by Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli, was developed with precisely this purpose in mind. In less than a year 1,000 schools and colleges have joined our community in the UK and in 20 countries worldwide” The first volume has been a huge success selling over 50,000 copies worldwide with volume 2 due for publication in March. Using the best evidence from cognitive science and teacher development research, they have curated a superb set of five-step visual guides for teachers, covering all the key aspects of teacher practice:

If there has been anything modestly positive about the global experience with moving out of classrooms in March and setting up ‘virtually’, it has been how powerfully it confirmed for teachers this central principle: clarity.Crucial to the success of this process is that teachers, leaders and coaches have a strong shared understanding of the most effective strategies and why they work. This is just what most of us are in teaching are here for (the section Mode B Teaching continues to explore this). In contrast to many other resources which are overlong and hard to navigate, teachers love how the visual format and clear structure of Walkthrus supports them to form a shared understanding of the key ideas in a direct and engaging manner.

I have two quibbles with the book but neither is worth demoting it from a solid five-star rating. The subtitle, Five-step guides to instructional coaching doesn’t quite capture its full breadth and scope for teachers generally. More importantly perhaps, while colleagues who teach younger children will benefit from the vast majority of the WalkThrus, I struggled to find specific examples that primary teachers would directly identify with. That seems an unfortunate oversight and an easy bias to have remedied. Still, in spite of that, Teaching WalkThrus has easily become my go-to reference from the many educational titles lining my bookshelves, and I have no doubt it will be for any who read it. There’s nothing quite like it out there. All the material can be adapted for different contexts including online training as well as small and large group sessions.If you’ve used the books with your teachers feel free to leave some of your tips for implementation in the comments below. I think coaches should consider taking a look at WalkThrus 1 (Yellow) and, if they can make it work with a few eager teacher volunteers, consider purchasing WalkThrus 2 (Blue) as well. While I’m a fan of the WalkThrus books, I hope you gleaned from the preceding paragraphs that it takes an intentional problem solver and a knowledgeable coach who can adapt and modify the offerings of WalkThrus 1 & 2 if they’re to make any difference to teachers’ practice. Anything less and they’re destined for paper weight status. Cognitive Load Theory. Dual Code Theory. Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction. How do I connect all of these concepts, and many others, to use in my classroom? If you have ever pondered the same question, Teaching WalkThrus is the solution. Subtitled Five-step guides to instructional coaching, this practical, informative and insightful book provides 50 effective, research-informed techniques. With 19 years of teaching and leadership experience in primary and secondary schools, I can confidently recommend this book to all teachers regardless of their experience. It forms a truly unique repository of key teaching methods, valuable to any classroom practitioner in any setting. The question is how best to do it? Research into teacher development suggests that one of the best bets is to develop programs of instructional coaching where teachers engage in sustained periods of practice, focusing on specific teaching techniques supported by an expert coach who can guide, support and model effective practice.

Leaders often still want additional support to get started. So, in addition to providing the materials, monthly webinars are held with Tom and Oliver in person to provide ongoing support and guidance. WalkThrus is primarily a book of 5 step guides for doing stuff in the classroom. As you can imagine, not all teaching “moves” can be perfectly divided into five. Cold Calling, for example, is a move that could be described in one step (call on a student without asking for hands up), two steps (pose a question, call on a student without asking for hands up), three steps, (pose a question, pause for a moment, call on a student without asking for hands up), and so on. For something as simple as Cold Calling, while only one step would suffice, describing it in five steps provides a richness that helps with implementation. It would be difficult to make a “lethal mutation” out of the WalkThrus version of Cold Calling because its lengthy description leaves little room for flawed interpretation. Educators across the globe widely recognise that high quality professional learning programs are essential to raise the quality of teaching in schools and colleges and this is vital if we’re going to improve outcomes for learners. As always, each technique is concisely explained and beautifully illustrated in five short steps, to make sense of complex ideas and support student learning. This is an excellent resource for all teachers. I wish I had had it when I started to teach (cough) years ago.Tom Sherrington and Oliver Caviglioli team up to present 50 essential teaching techniques, each with five clear and concise illustrations and explanations. Alex Quigley, Martin Robinson, Claire Stoneman, Bennie Kara, Zoe Enser, Mark Enser, John Tomsett, Simon Breakspear, Bronwyn Ryie Jones and Oliver Lovell bring a huge wealth of expertise as they help to further expand and elaborate this essential teaching manual.