Coaching

Experience
Mandi Urgo

Problem
As a new teacher, Sara is having difficulty engaging
students in the subject area of science. My goal was to first
observe her current teaching style and then identify areas
of strengths and weaknesses. This will assist in the
development of the implementation of activities and
strategies that will engage her students in the subject area
of science.

Goals
Students will be actively engaged in the subject area of science through problem-based learning.
SMART Goal #1: Student engagement will increase by 80%, after the implementation of
problem-based learning in the subject area of science, during the coaching cycle. Student
engagement will be enhanced, monitored, and observed through the use of Table 3.6: Strategies
for Elements 24-32 (Marzano 2013). Sara will identify students who show signs of low attention
and engagement. She will use questioning to reengage disengaged or unfocused students.
SMART Goal #2: Problem-based learning will increase the engagement, which will lead to
increased comprehension of taught content in the subject area of science with 80% mastery on
an individual measure used to evaluate student created products or processes. Sara will ask
students to identify their expected goal or outcome of the project, identify obstacles or
constraints the achieving their goal, find solutions, and predict the effectiveness of different
solutions for the problem-solving task. She will then ask students to reflect on the process they
used for their problem-solving task.

Research
The research study, by Riasat Ali, Aqila Akhter, Saqib Shahzad, Najma
Sultana, and Muhammad Ramzan (2011), will give Sara a further
understanding of potential outcomes of my plan. According to John Larmer
(2014), Editor in Chief at the Buck Institute for Education, PBL typically
follow prescribed steps: 1.) Presentation of an "ill-structured" (open-ended,
"messy") problem, 2.) Problem definition or formulation (the problem
statement), 3.) Generation of a "knowledge inventory" (a list of "what we
know about the problem" and "what we need to know"), 4.) Generation of
possible solutions, Formulation of learning issues for self-directed and
coached learning, and 5.)Sharing of findings and solutions. These resources
will help guide the planning and implementation of PBL.

Strategic
Activities

While learning about habitats, students are given a

problem that they have to solve that specifically identifies
with habitats. Problem: A video game company needs help
with a design of an animal for their new video game. The
animal has to be able to survive in the desert. It doesnt
have to be a real animal. Students will draft the design and
use specific materials, such as clay, felt, tape, toothpicks,
paper, paint, and index cards to create their design.

Indicators of
Progress

Each student will be given a pre-test that measures their

knowledge of the content, as well as their interest in the
content area. After implementation of the lesson, students
will be given the same pre-test, which will now serve as the
post-test. Throughout the lesson, Sara will implement the
specific strategies outlined in the SMART goals that we
developed. Our expected results are that through the use of
problem-based learning, students will demonstrate active
engagement in the subject area of science. The
engagement will allow students to want to dig deeper into
the content.

Solution/Intervent
ion

According to Marzano (2013), there are three strategies that Sara could apply when identifying
students are not engaged. Sara could scan the room and take notes of students behaviors during
instruction. She could also monitor levels of attention by graphing with the students their levels of
attention throughout the day. Another strategy involves measuring engagement by using pictures,
stories, or videos to describe concepts.
I believe these strategies will assist with identification of engagement. On the other hand, I
believe that full engagement will be reached through problem-based learning lessons.
In my opinion, students are not engaged in the subject area of science because they require more
active and complex lessons that accommodate their learning needs.
Through the application of Marzanos (2013) strategies, Sara will be able to effectively identify
students who are not engaged, as well as their displayed behaviors during those times. Through the
implementation of problem-based learning in the subject area of science, lack of engagement will
dramatically decrease in Saras classroom.

Reflection
I believe that after the implementation of problem-based learning, Sara will identify the effects and
benefits of this type of instruction. She will see that students will want to dig deeper in the content
and be actively engaged.
If I demonstrate an example of a problem-based learning lesson, Sara will have a better
understanding of the strategies outlined in the specific SMART goals that we developed and expected
outcomes.
If Sara is unable to effectively implement the strategies described in the SMART goals, I could
discuss with her about revising the SMART goals, strategies for meeting the desired outcomes of our
goals, or demonstrate examples of the specific strategies in her classroom during science instruction.
If I monitor her lessons and gradually release my coaching observations, Sara will begin to take
ownership of her teaching and develop her own problem-based learning lessons.
If I coach the coachee to develop effective systems for assessment, Sara will identify the benefits of
problem-based learning through increased comprehension of the content by her students.

Before meeting with Sara, I asked her to take some time to reflect on her instruction and complete the
Teachers Self-Audit Ratings on the Personal Profile (Marzano 2013). Our first meeting began with the review
of her self-assessment. After reviewing the self-assessment, we identified the area of student engagement as
the area that needed the most focus at this time. This area demonstrated the most areas consisting of not using
to developing. I then asked Sara which subject area she would like to begin implementation during our
coaching cycle. She chose the subject area of science. I agreed that science would be the most beneficial
subject area to begin with because it is an area that involves more hands on activities, which should promote
student engagement.
Next, we discussed the lesson that she would first like me to observe. The students had difficulty engaging
in learning about habitats. Immediately, I thought of a lesson that I had used, concerning the current epidemic
of bees. This lesson allows students to research and observe, through video, the habitat of honey bees. I feel
that this lesson would be beneficial to her students because it involves a current situation in the United States
that affects all of us and it is a problem-based learning lesson, which has been found to increase student
engagement and comprehension. In this lesson, students first research the honey bee epidemic and learn about
their habitat. Next, students are asked to create a machine that will help with pollination if the honey bees
were to ever completely disappear. Students first develop a draft that includes labels of their required
materials. Next, students construct a small model of their creation with materials, such as clay, pipe cleaner,
paper, crayons, markers, or any other materials that are available or required for the model.
Then, we discussed how we are going to assess the engagement of the students. I suggested a pre-test to
give the students prior to beginning the lesson. I explained to her how the pre-test can include questions about
the content, concerning habitats, and also include questions about the students current feelings towards
learning about habitats. I also suggested that the pre-test also serves as the post-test after the lesson. This
would give us true results, concerning student engagement and comprehension.
Last, we discussed SMART goals. The SMART goals that we developed together include:
SMART Goal #1: Student engagement will increase by 80%, after the implementation of problem-based
learning in the subject area of science, during the coaching cycle. Student engagement will be enhanced,
monitored, and observed through the use of Table 3.6: Strategies for Elements 24-32 (Marzano 2013).
SMART Goal #2: Problem-based learning will increase the engagement, which will lead to increased
comprehension of taught content in the subject area of science with 80% mastery on an individual measure

References
Larmer, John (2014). Project-based learning vs. problem-based
learning vs. x-bl, www.edutopia.org/blog/pbl-vs-pbl-vs-xbl-john-larmer
Marzano, R. J., Simms, J. A., Roy, T., Heflebower, T., & Warrick, P. B.
(2013). Coaching classroom instruction. Bloomington, IN: Marzano
Research.
Riasat Ali , Aqila Akhter, Saqib Shahzad, Najma Sultana, and
Muhammad Ramzan (2011). The Impact of Motivation on Students
Academic Achievement in Mathematics in Problem Based Learning
Environment, 3(1), 306-309