Running head: REFLECTIVE SELF ANALYSIS

Reflective Self-Analysis of a Learning Focused Conversation

Melanie Gamache

Brandon University

030060

01.757 Supervisory Policy and Practice

Dr. Cathryn Smith

April 12, 2017

REFLECTIVE SELF ANALYSIS 2

For this assignment, I conducted two separate learning focused conversations (LFC), one

focused on planning and the other a reflective LFC, but recorded only the reflective

conversation. Several weeks prior to spring break, the teacher had received communication from

a parent who was concerned about the expectations of grade 9 ELA. The questions from the

parent were legitimate and in my eyes indicated her lack of understanding about assessment

practices in high school likely because this was her daughters first year outside of an elementary

school. After meeting with the teacher informally first, where she expressed her concerns about

how she would settle the parents concern and maintaining her own integrity, I suggested a sit

down meeting to plan and role play through the meeting. The teacher accepted.

During the planning conversation, my goal was to develop confidence in this teacher. I

knew she had a good understanding of assessment practices but I knew that if she began to doubt

herself in the meeting she might give the impression that she did not. With the added pressure of

the principal attending the meeting without any prep or a pre-meeting consult with the teacher,

the teacher had made it clear that she was worried the principal might lose faith in her practice if

the meeting went poorly.

The planning meeting gave me an opportunity to meander through the Calibrating and

Consulting stances readily. My invitational questions prompted the teacher to refer to the grade

9 ELA standards and the assessment practices supported by our division. We used a one-page

document with all of the standards and samples of the students work as a third point when the

teacher found difficulty in answering my questions or when her body language told me that her

anxiety was rising. When I posed a difficult question for the teacher like, How might you

explain the grade in relation to learning when mom asks what [student] can do to bring up her

mark? I realized right away that the teacher was answering defensively and not using principles
REFLECTIVE SELF ANALYSIS 3

of assessment practice. I was able to shift from the calibrating stance to a collaborative one by

offering how I think about our divisional assessment principles in relation to grades and learning.

The teacher and I met to have a recorded, reflective conversation less than 30 minutes

after the parent meeting occurred. I planned this purposefully so that if it went well, the details

would be fresh in her mind and if it went poorly, there would be time to decompress before her

next class. Walking into the room, I could tell by the teachers body language that the meeting

had gone well for her. I used my planning page to open the conversation and begin the first two

questions, but after that I referred to it only twice during the conversation to check on wording

and choose another question. This demonstrates some skill in knowing my plan and responding

to the teachers answers in a natural way that allows me to navigate between stances and through

the arc of conversation.

Looking at the self-assessment, it is clear to me that my strengths lie in paraphrasing and

using invitational elements. I asked the teacher what she took away from the meeting, she

explained that she felt the mom wasnt really concerned about grade 9 ELA expectations, but

about the teacher providing opportunities to redo assignments so the student could be a 95 or

above kind of student. I acknowledged and clarified that by paraphrasing, So the concern was

really about feedback, not about expectations? When reflecting on the tone of the meeting, I

acknowledged the teachers role with the paraphrase, So, from your perspective, it was your

confidence that gave the meeting this relaxed tone. These are two examples of my strength in

acknowledging and clarifying the teachers position. When the teacher responded to my

question, Thinking about the mom walking out of the meeting, what might have been her

impression about how things went? she spoke at length about her perception of the moms

understanding of the conversation around assessment and continued to speak about the role of
REFLECTIVE SELF ANALYSIS 4

mental health in the family and her role was in supporting that student with mental health. I

should have taken the opportunity to pause and summarize/organize the teachers thoughts but

instead, I responded with It sounds like youre thinking this issue has more to do with mental

health. Had I been more effective at organizing what the teacher had been saying in my

paraphrase, it may have guided the conversation more naturally into helping the teacher

determine what should be her course of action for the social-emotional support of this student.

Prior to this conversation, I had felt that shifting levels of abstraction during paraphrase

were areas of difficulty for me. Watching the recording allowed me to see that I had more skill

than I had originally thought. At one point, the teacher spoke at length using a series of

examples and steps that she would follow in her class as a result of the meeting. My shifting up

paraphrase was, so you mean your next step with this is to invite your students to be part of the

conversation about assessment so they understand the expectations. She took the opportunity to

clarify that she meant she would have to be more purposeful about having conversations with her

students about feedback and their grades. Interestingly, my paraphrase as a response to her

clarification was to shift down with, So your next step is to invite students to be part of their

assessment and take an active role in receiving feedback.

Using invitational elements was a strength for me, according to my video and the self-

assessment. I consistently included elements of the invitation in my questions (What might

have, Reflecting on, Given what you know, What seems, How might you,

and Thinking about) and used language to focus on specific cognitive processes by shifting

between reflecting, recalling, and predicting.

Considering areas for improvement, my focus will be on controlling my listening blocks

and asking questions to surface specific evidence or examples. From the in class self-
REFLECTIVE SELF ANALYSIS 5

assessment, I knew that detail listening was a natural block for me. After the LFC with this

teacher I felt I had controlled that well, but as I watched the recording I realized as the

conversation became less rigid and more fluid I reverted to my old habits. I interjected at least

three times to clarify details. When the teacher explained that the pressure that she perceived the

mom was putting on the student to achieve a specific grade, I interjected with, was the student

part of this meeting? Less than 30 seconds later, the teacher was explaining how the mom

provided feedback to the daughter over spring break and used she to refer to both people. I

interrupted to ask, and she is the mom or the student? Within a minute, I had interjected

again to detail-clarify, you mean mom admitted to reading her daughters journal? To combat

these blocks, I need to remain in a professional frame of mind because when I relaxed a bit, I

resorted to my old listening blocks. I can remain in this kind of mind frame by keeping the

questions in my line of sight as a visual reminder of why Im conducting the meeting and

reminding myself to wait for a natural pause before asking those clarifying details.

Lastly, I was disappointed that I did not ask more questions related to surfacing specific

evidence during the conversation. During the part of the conversation where I asked the teacher

to think about the moms perspective of the meeting, the teacher provided general understanding

of the moms perspective, mostly that the mom left and thought the conversation was good and

helpful. I wanted the teacher to think more deeply about that so I asked her, whats making

you thinking thats how she took it? which was my only attempt to surface evidence.

Throughout the conversation, the teacher drew a lot of conclusions but I didnt press her to think

about what led her to these conclusions. During the meeting, I wouldnt say looking for the

specific evidence was a priority on my mind because I was concentrating on pausing and

paraphrasing.
REFLECTIVE SELF ANALYSIS 6

As I reflect on this conversation and my skills in facilitating a LFC I have come to realize

that it is difficult to juggle all of the necessary pieces of facilitating a conversation, while fully

attending to what the other person is saying, and trying to appear natural and genuine. During

the Laura Lipton (2017) presentation in February, Lipton had mentioned that its normal for

many facilitators to have a map or a cheat sheet to follow or remind themselves of specific

parts of LFC and I can understand how it would be helpful and necessary, especially for

beginners. Moving forward, I plan to continue practicing this skill and focus specifically on

asking about specific evidence or indicators and reducing the number of interjections with detail

questions. To preserve the authenticity and naturalness of the conversation, this will become a

slow step process for me as to change rigidly or rapidly may come across as robotic and hinder

the conversations flow or block the goal that is intended.

REFLECTIVE SELF ANALYSIS 7

References

Lipton, L. (February 13-14, 2017). Learning focused relationships: Coaching, consulting, and

collaborating for growth and change. Change Leadership Field Led Course, Session 3. Manitoba

Teachers Society.