Content-Focused Coaching: Transforming Mathematics Lessons

by Lucy West

What kind of supports would keep teachers well equipped to help all of their students succeed? What if these same supports kept teachers energized, passionate, and informed about their fields? Content-Focused Coaching offers just such a sustaining system. CFC is a long-range professional development practice in which coaches work individually or with groups of classroom teachers to design, implement, and reflect on rigorous, standards-based lessons that promote student learning. Authored by two educators closely involved with the design of CFC, this book is perfect for K-8 staff developers, teacher leaders, administrators, and others interested in improving mathematics education. Lucy West and Fritz Staub explain the general tenets of CFC and the fundamental foundations upon which it rests. Then they provide a wealth of examples of coaching in action in New York City's Community School District #2, a district known nationally for its progressive, innovative, and rigorous focus on professional development. To give readers a richer picture of what CFC entails, the three accompanying CD-ROMs contain extensive video footage of coaching sessions, including the preconference, lesson, and postconference. Full transcripts of the video segments can be used with the book or as independent tools for study groups. Improve mathematics education. Rekindle teachers' passions for their profession. Read West and Staub and implement Content-Focused Coaching in your school or district.

Genres: Education

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2003

Reviews

[Kristina]

I really liked the set up of this book. I didn't have time to view the cds but I would love to get this book again and sit down and view them as a summer project/research. I really thought the questions a coach should ask the principal and teachers were outstanding. I used them as I started my new position as a coach.

[angrykitty]

another book for work....this one is directly related to what i'm supposed to do.....even if it is written with math in mind, and i'm ela......

ok, but it contradicts some of the things i've been taught about coaching, and so at times it could have been more helpful....

[Andy Mitchell]

I am a brand-new math coach. It's an interesting transition moving from my own classroom.

Definitely watch the videos! That's what makes this book such a valuable resource.