Effective Coaching of New Teachers

In this Kappan article, Paul Bambrick-Santoyo (managing director of nine charter schools in Newark, New Jersey) says teachers need “dress rehearsals” before working with students. “Actors would never perform a play without running it successfully many times before opening night,” he says. “Teachers need the same thing – especially rookies. Getting them to practice teaching in advance makes the difference between accepting them as they come to us or making them better… If we don’t coach our rookie teachers, at least one of them will fail. For our students, that’s one too many.”

The New Teacher Project recommends focusing on ten key competencies so new teachers won’t be overwhelmed. Bambrick-Santoyo has his principals focus on three:

• Rolling out routines and procedures – How and when to teach students exactly what they will do at each moment and how non-compliance will be handled.
• Giving directions – Learning how to control body language and voice tone so students really hear what the teacher is saying.
• Writing effective lesson plans – Writing precise learning objectives that are anchored in the curriculum, data-driven, and can be accomplished in one lesson, planning exactly what to say and what questions to ask, and designing a brief final mini-assessment aligned with the objective.

A key component of summer PD in Bambrick-Santoyo’s schools is having new teachers role-play these key skills with colleagues and receive immediate feedback. They start with a simple component like greeting students at the beginning of class and getting them working, fine-tune that (Do it with fewer words. Add some warmth.), and then throw in some curve-balls, like a misbehaving student. “Practice it correctly multiple times,” says one principal. “Multiple strong run-throughs are necessary for real learning to happen.” 

“Rookie Teachers Need Dress Rehearsals Too” by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo in Phi Delta Kappan, October 2013 (Vol. 95. #2, p. 72-73); the author can be reached at

pbambrick@uncommonschools.org 

From the Marshall Memo #508