In This Issue:

1. When to use different styles of coaching

2. How police officers (and other authority figures) can defuse distrust

3. Effective use of technology in classrooms

4. A Connecticut teacher tries AI with student writing

5. Overcoming student attitude problems in high-school math classes

6. Implementing a districtwide family book reading program in Virginia

7. Children’s books about World War II

 

Quotes of the Week

“Exceptional leaders master the art of seamlessly blending various coaching styles. They know when to take charge, when to offer guidance, and when to step back and empower others to lead.”

            Ruchira Chaudhary (see item #1)

 

“The common refrain that teaching experience doesn’t matter after the first few years in the classroom is not supported by the evidence. Rather, it has become increasingly clear that teachers continue to improve well into the second decade of teaching, albeit more gradually than they do initially.” 

            Anne Podolsky and Linda Darling-Hammond in “Think Again: Do the Returns to 

Teacher Experience Fizzle Out?” Thomas B. Fordham Institute, June 11, 2025

 

“The most impactful teacher development tends to be little and often (as with instructional coaching) rather than big and infrequent (as with training days). Days are fine for igniting the fire, but we must be careful not to confuse the value of an initial spark with the need for ongoing fuel.”

            Peps McCrea in “Development Bandwidth” in Big Idea, June 12, 2025

 

“Kids are not born lazy; they have just developed coping mechanisms that can lead to learned helplessness.”

            Lindsay Keazer (see item #5)

 

“Never do with a small group what you could do just as well with whole-class teaching.”

            Timothy Shanahan in “Should Reading Be Taught Whole Class or Small Group?”

            in Shanahan on Literacy, June 14, 2025; see Memo 1033 for another Shanahan article 

on this topic.

 

“Who does what by when?”

            A closure question for meetings, Dan Rockwell in Leadership Freak, June 12, 2025

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. When to Use Different Styles of Coaching

            In this Harvard Business Review article, executive coach Ruchira Chaudhary says that among the qualities people most often identify in good bosses, strong coaching consistently ranks at the top. This finding echoes research on the impact of coaching: when people are coached well, they understand their strengths, have better morale, solve problems creatively, and tackle challenges assertively. 

            Coaching doesn’t come naturally, says Chaudhary. Many leaders think they’re coaching when they’re actually giving instructions. Others hold back because they believe they have to have all the answers to coach an employee. “The good news,” she says, “is that coaching is a learnable skill, and like a muscle it’s a skill that can grow stronger and more intuitive with practice.” 

            Chaudhary’s definition of coaching is maximizing the performance of others through non-directive and self-enabling actions. “In an effective coaching relationship,” she says, “both actions are used in tandem to guide people toward self-sufficiency and personal growth.” There isn’t one right way to coach; one’s style depends on experience and expertise and the proficiency of the person being coached. There are two parameters, similar to those used in athletic coaching:

-   Push – providing clear instructions, guidance, and feedback;

-   Pull – asking open-ended questions and encouraging self-reflection to guide and support the person to discover solutions on their own.

Chaudhary combines these in a 2x2 matrix, with Pull on the y-axis and Push on the x-axis, each quadrant containing a different combination of pull and push. Chaudhary encourages leaders to find the style that is right for their skills and the demands of a particular coaching relationship and situation.

            • Telling/instructive/directive (high push + low pull) – The leader draws on their experience and knowledge to help the employee achieve goals. This style is best suited to people who need more oversight and for situations that require urgent or immediate attention. It should be used sparingly, says Chaudhary, because it can stifle creativity and autonomy, be demotivating, and feel like micromanagement. 

            • Hands-off (low push + low pull) – The leader acts as an advisor and gives the coachee tools and resources and lots of autonomy to make decisions and be successful. This style is best for experienced, competent employees who just need guidelines, support, and check-in meetings to make sure everything is on track. 

            • Asking/listening (high pull + low push) – This style is closest to the traditional definition of coaching, with active listening and compelling, open-ended questions to guide the coachee’s thinking – questions like:

“What do you think is the best way to approach this challenge?”

“What in your mind seems to be the core of the problem?”

This approach “helps the coachee self-reflect, think deeply, and own their decision-making instead of being told what to do,” says Chaudhary. “This style is great for coaching new leaders or those on the path to leadership, as it helps them build and enhance their critical thinking, accountability, and problem-solving skills.” It does require more preparation than the first two styles because the leader needs to be up to speed on what is happening in the employee’s domain to ask the right questions and have that amount of trust. 

            • Collaborating (high pull + high push) – This is the sweet spot of coaching, says Chaudhary, where most leaders aspire to be. It’s a combination of asking open-ended questions and mentoring, providing counseling and jointly coming up with a way forward. Like the third style, it requires a fair amount of preparation; it’s suited to situations that need a combination of guiding and advising. 

            “As you continue to hone your coaching skills,” Chaudhary concludes, “you’ll naturally develop the intuition to adapt your methods to the unique needs of your coachees. Exceptional leaders master the art of seamlessly blending various coaching styles. They know when to take charge, when to offer guidance, and when to step back and empower others to lead. This journey is about continuous growth, both for you as a coach and for those you guide.”

 

“4 Styles of Coaching – and When to Use Them” by Ruchira Chaudhary in Harvard Business Review, March 18, 2025; her 2021 book is Coaching: The Secret Code to Uncommon Leadership. 

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2. How Police Officers (and Other Authority Figures) Can Defuse Distrust

            In this Boston Globe article, Andrea Dittman (University of Southern California) and Kyle Dobson (University of Virginia) report on what they found in more than 500 hours shadowing police officers making their rounds on foot and in squad cars. One cold January evening, an officer pulled up beside a man huddled on a park bench, rolled down the window, and said, “Hey, are you OK?” The man immediately tensed up with suspicion. 

Dittman and Dobson frequently saw this kind of immediate disconnect between the officer’s good intentions and a community member’s fear of trouble. Officers feel like they’re being respectful and polite, but their words are often taken as a threat – especially by people of color and those who have had negative interactions with law enforcement. 

Researchers have found that the first 45 words exchanged in a cop’s encounter with a citizen can predict how the whole scenario plays out. Officers often start with a trust deficit, so interactions get off to a bad start. But if the officer conveys personal concern and gives the reason for the conversation, the dynamic quickly changes. “Knowing this,” say Dittman and Dobson, “officers can use these earliest moments to neutralize the idea that they’re a threat, prevent escalation, and facilitate a more-positive interaction.” 

The choice of words is important. Joking around, even using what seems like a neutral question – “How are you?” or “Can I talk to you for a minute?” – because of the power imbalance, puts people on edge. What works much better is a transparency statement – a simple sentence that quickly and clearly explains why the interaction has been initiated. “While it sounds simple,” say Dittman and Dobson, “our studies with real people and police officers show that a transparency statement can make a difference.” 

It's not a script, and officers need to adapt their choice of words depending on the situation. An example:

“Hi, I’m Officer Smith, how’s it going? I’m out here walking around just trying to get to know my beat and my community. Is it OK if I talk to you for a minute?”

For transparency statements to be effective, say Dittman and Dobson, they need to contain four key elements:

-   Timing – The statement happens right up front, setting the tone for the interaction from the outset;

-   Benevolence – Conveying an honest, positive rationale for the interaction, ideally to help the community and specific individuals;

-   Genuine – Feeling authentic;

-   Personal and addressing the situation at hand, in the first person – “I’m worried about your safety” – versus institutional – “Our department has a new initiative to get to know community residents.”

Researchers have found that when police officers use well-formulated transparency statements, community members are more relaxed and talk more during the interaction, using words associated with rapport and trust-building. Surveys also found that people felt less threatened by the officer. 

            Training cops in transparency statements takes “mere minutes,” say Dittman and Dobson, “though making it second nature takes practice.” They and their colleagues are training officers in one city and testing outcomes across the department and community. “Transparency statements are a simple concept, and that’s part of their beauty,” they say. “Law enforcement officers face a high cognitive load when they’re out in the field trying to assess uncertain situations in real time. Having a simple template to follow that’s been proven to work can make their jobs easier and help community members breathe easier.” 

 

“A Simple Statement That Can Help Cops Win People’s Trust” by Andrea Dittman and Kyle Dobson in The Boston Globe, June 15, 2025

 

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3. Effective Use of Technology in Classrooms

            In this Edutopia article, Youki Terada and Paige Tutt report that over half of employers say technological literacy is essential for the workplace – more important than empathy, curiosity, and dependability. How can teachers help students build those skills? Here are seven ideas:

            • Student video presentations – An intriguing experiment asked small groups of college students to prepare a short science lesson for high-school students. Half of the undergraduate groups prepared for in-person presentations, the other half made 3-5-minute video recordings. The video groups used a wider range of narrative techniques, took more risks, were more creative, edited their thinking, and demonstrated better understanding of the content. This study indicates that for the TikTok generation, making videos is an effective way for students to consolidate and demonstrate their knowledge and skills.

            • AI as a tutor and quiz-giver – When students ask chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude for answers, very little learning takes place, but when AI tools are programed to give students hints as they solve problems and create formative tests on the content, learning gains are significant. “As long as students are using AI in ways that support their own review practices,” say Terada and Tutt, “the tool is capable of adding significant value to a student’s study habits.” 

            • Digital texts and self-recordings – While recent studies have shown the advantage of students reading paper texts, when digital materials (e.g., a novel) are used effectively, students can excel. One high-school English teacher created rotating stations with collaborative digital text annotation, designing character profiles and movie posters, conducting mock interviews, and recording video reviews. By offering a mix of digital and traditional activities and student choice, she said, engagement and learning improved significantly. A middle-school teacher used the Scribble app to share his comments and feedback, guiding students as they analyzed, annotated, and discussed complex texts. An elementary teacher had students use GarageBand to record their work, listen to themselves, and decide what they needed to improve. 

            • A teacher’s well-organized digital space – Students tend to judge teachers’ effectiveness by how well they communicate in e-mails and how logically their learning management system is organized. By modeling good presentation of course objectives, instructions for submitting assignments, feedback, and answers to common questions, teachers are teaching students how to organize their own work. “Students who are lost in a digital maze may quit in frustration rather than send an e-mail asking for help,” say Terada and Tutt.

            • Strictly limited cellphone and online access – “Away for the day” is the best policy for cellphones, they say, and laptops need to be closed during most classroom activities. One study found that when this is not the case in college classrooms, students spend 34 percent of class time checking social media, shopping, and watching videos. Even sitting next to a classmate with a digital device open is a major distraction. But used well, say Terada and Tutt, online resources can help students explore new ideas, discover different approaches, and empower them as content consumers and creators. The key is teachers enforcing clear limits, using technology in areas where it can excel, and managing students’ attention.

            • Reducing “friction” for students with disabilities – Assistive technologies like text-to-speech software, Livescribe digital pens, automated captions, audiobooks, live transcriptions, digital handouts and highlighters, on-touch dictionaries, and on-screen magnifiers help bridge the learning gap for students who need accommodations. “The key is to match tools to student needs and teach students how to use them purposefully,” says Xin Wei of Digital Promise.

            • Using short lesson videos – Long video lessons have the same problem as long in-person lectures – information overload and flagging student attention. The trick is to keep videos to 5-8 minutes, chunking content, and maximizing engagement through follow-up discussions and activities. Videos tend to be more effective than in-person lectures because teachers have the opportunity to edit their thoughts, fine-tune their ideas, and draw attention to important details with annotations, arrows, labels, and other visual cues.

 

“7 Research-Backed Tech Tips You Can Use Today” by Youki Terada and Paige Tutt in Edutopia, May 30, 2025

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4. A Connecticut Teacher Tries AI with Student Writing 

            “Every time I give a writing assignment to my students,” says seventh-grade ELA teacher Katie Durkin in MiddleWeb, “I am overwhelmed by what they create, but also disappointed in myself that I can’t provide more support. I try my hardest to give feedback to all of them during the writing process, but I always feel like I’m falling short.” In the past, she’s been hesitant to use artificial intelligence, but this year decided to try using SchoolAI, an educational chatbot. 

            Durkin offers three provisos up front: (a) AI didn’t replace the writing conferences that have always been part of her classes. “There is something extremely important about feedback from a human being that changes the way a writer approaches their writing,” she says. (b) Before using SchoolAI with a whole class, Durkin gave it a trial run with a few students to see if the feedback was helpful and grade-appropriate. She and her guinea-pig students were impressed and kids were excited to put the bot’s feedback to work. (c) Durkin did not use the chatbot for students’ final grades. Here’s how she used SchoolAI:

            • The Education Coach feature – This gave students immediate feedback on their realistic fiction stories. Durkin drafted the following prompt for all students to use:

I am writing a realistic fiction story that develops a main character who is dealing with a conflict. This conflict will unfold in multiple scenes in my story. I will need to develop a setting, an organized and logical plot, and a major theme for my realistic fiction story. I must include a flashback. This is in draft form. I would like for you to give me feedback on my story, using multiple author’s techniques such as creating believable characters, grounding dialogue in scenes, SHOW, don’t TELL details, and proper grammar.

After each student entered the prompt, SchoolAI asked them to import their story. What happened next, says Durkin, “was nothing short of magical.” Students got specific suggestions in bullet-point paragraphs on what could be improved in parts of their stories that needed work. Students also got compliments on what was effective – for example, on how a character was developed. Most important, says Durkin, SchoolAI did not provide students with polished texts showing how a passage should read; students had to use the questions and suggestions to craft better prose. Suggestions also served as a starting point for in-person conferences that she and classmates led. 

• The Essay Grading Assistant feature - This assessed students’ edited stories on the criteria in the rubric Durkin provided. As with the Coach feature, the chatbot gave students specific suggestions and compliments as well as a point-by-point assessment. Durkin was most impressed with the grammar feedback, with prompts on capitalization, punctuation, and run-on sentences. Looking at a detailed SchoolAI data report, Durkin was able to plan follow-up conferences with students in certain areas. After making final edits and revisions, students handed in their stories and she decided on final grades. 

“I personally believe that AI is going to change education,” Durkin concludes. “I think finding ways to teach students to use AI for good rather than evil can only be beneficial for them. It will be important for teachers not to allow students to use AI as a crutch and not to use it as a crutch ourselves. But I don’t think it will take away the personal touch that teachers provide, especially in our role as readers and critiquers of student work.”

 

“How I’m Using AI Bots with My Writing Classes” by Katie Durkin in MiddleWeb, May 4, 2025; Durkin can be reached at [email protected]. 

 

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5. Overcoming Student Attitude Problems in High-School Math Classes

            In this Mathematics Teacher article, high-school math teacher Jennifer Raab and her professor and mentor Lindsay Keazer (Sacred Heart University) describe Raab’s first year teaching in a high-poverty school. Asked to write a “Letter to Math,” most students said they hated the subject. “Math is boring,” said one. “I’ve always failed math,” said another. “I never understood math,” said a third. Data from a district benchmark test revealed a range of achievement among her students from the third to eighth grade level. 

            Following an approach suggested by Peter Liljedahl (Building Thinking Classrooms), Raab tried to establish a collaborative classroom community by beginning with non-cognitive tasks and getting students engaged with accessible math before teaching the ninth-grade curriculum. She gave her classes the Four 4’s Challenge, where students had to use four 4’s and choose from a variety of math operations (addition, subtraction, division, exponents…) to create expressions equivalent to numbers from 1 to 20 (for example, 4 + 4 + 4 – 4 = 8).

            Students were hesitant to get started, so Raab showed one possible answer, formed groups, encouraged students to share ideas, and said, “Do not ask me for help unless everyone in your group is stuck.” It wasn’t long before students were so engaged they didn’t want to stop. For two weeks, Raab continued to give non-cognitive, low-floor/high-ceiling problems, showing the whole class a starting-point strategy to nudge students’ thinking. They began jumping in more quicky, enjoying the feeling of thinking through challenges. 

            But when Raab began assigning tasks from the regular curriculum, students regressed to their previous mindsets, crumpling up papers before even trying. “Miss, I’ve been failing math since 4^th grade,” said one. “I don’t know how to do math.” Raab recalled something Keazer had said in her methods class: “Kids are not born lazy; they have just developed coping mechanisms that can lead to learned helplessness.” 

            Raab gently refused to accept blank papers and encouraged and supported students to keep trying. Three factors were responsible for gradually turning things around:

            • Building trust – Raab got to know each student personally and built relationships based on empathy and respect. 

            • Providing confidence-building experiences – She found the only way to break through students’ shutdowns and negative attitudes was scaffolding lessons that started with students’ current familiar knowledge.

            • Thin-slicing math tasks – Raab broke concepts down and experimented with sequences that moved from simple to more-advanced concepts and skills. These problem strings helped students incrementally discover new material. 

Here’s an example with solving equations or formulas for a given variable. Raab started with a low-floor problem she knew students could solve:

If 2x + 3 = 13, how can we solve for x?

“Subtract 3, then divide by 2,” students responded. 

What if I said, ax + b = c, solve for x?

Students hesitated but eventually came up with the parallel steps.

Then Raab presented a set of problems where the left column was a less-abstract problem, the right column a more-abstract literal equation with a parallel structure:

x + 3 = 0                     x + y = 0, solve for x

x + 6 = 3                     x + 6 = y, solve for x

p – 2 = 4                      p – q = t, solve for p

2a = 12                        ab = 12, solve for b

5y = 15                        xy = z, solve for y

7b – 2 = 12                  7b – c = d, solve for b

x/4 = 2                         x/4 = y, solve for x

w/5 = 6                        w/p = r, solve for w

3w/5w = 6                   3w/r = s, solve for w

3/5w + 1 = 10             3/5w + y = x, solve for w

“You only have to complete the right column,” Raab told students, “but you can use the left column as a scaffold if you get stuck.” As she circulated, she was delighted to hear comments like, “Wow, Miss, that’s actually really smart! I just got stuck and looked at the other equation and remembered how to solve it!” Students found the new content accessible and their confidence grew.

            As the year progressed, Raab gave students positive reinforcement whenever they took risks and celebrated even the smallest successes. One day, after a test, a student looked defeated and Raab said, “Great job, I am very proud of you!” The student replied, “Why? I still failed.” Raab pointed out that the student’s score had improved 40 percent from the previous test and daily engagement and learning was steadily improving. “You grew!” she said. “That itself is a win!” 

Gradually, students began to see themselves as mathematical thinkers. There were still times when they shut down and wanted to give up, but Raab had built trust and established the norm that she would not accept quitting, and continued to redirect and support students to persevere.

At the end of the year, Raab reflected that there was still more she needed to do connecting math to students’ cultural knowledge and interests, but she celebrated the progress that had been made. One student wrote a thank-you letter: “You’re everything I’ve always needed in a teacher, and one of my weakest subjects has become much more comprehensible.” Another student wrote, “I woke up getting excited about math class and getting to engage in the fun activities and lessons you had planned. Even more than that, I was excited about being in the classroom environment.” 

 

“Teaching Is a Journey: Developing My Culturally Relevant Pedagogy” by Jennifer Raab and Lindsay Keazer in Mathematics Teacher, June 2025 (Vol. 118, #6, pp. 472-475); Raab can be reached at [email protected], Keazer at [email protected].

 

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6. Implementing a Districtwide Family Book Reading Program in Virginia

            In this article in School Administrator, superintendent John Gordon III (Suffolk, Virginia) says the district’s All Suffolk Reads program has been a huge success. All families in the district’s 11 elementary schools read and discuss the same children’s book in the same time period. “For three to four weeks,” says Gordon, “reading is the hot topic of discussion in home and schools and across the community as nearly 7,000 families experience the joy of reading together.” Some key features:

• Frequency and distribution – There’s one all-district book each semester, and all families get a free copy. For the first two years of Suffolk’s program, the nonprofit All District Reads supplied books; now the program is a line item in the district’s budget. 

            • Book choice – District leaders consult with teachers, looking for stories that are simple enough for primary-age children to understand, with enough complexity to engage upper-elementary students, featuring characters who are strong role models, and with plotlines to which students can relate, and that are likely to sustain readers’ interest (books are sometimes part of a popular series). Here are books recently distributed by the All Districts Reads program, with brief summaries of each.

            • Real-time engagement – Each book is rolled out one chapter a night, with the superintendent, other educators, and community members taking turns reading chapters out loud (video recordings are available for families who can’t join synchronously). “For 20 to 30 minutes each night,” says Gordon, “families unplug and bond over a book. This involvement can carry over into other school activities.” 

            • Classroom links – Teachers follow up each chapter with vocabulary and skill building, asking students what they think will happen next, and making curriculum connections. The program supplements the rest of the district’s literacy program, injecting the all-important element of students reading for pleasure and fun. 

            • Student achievement – Gordon reports there has been an increase of 4-5 percent in standardized reading scores over the last couple of years. “We cannot attribute the increase solely to All Suffolk Reads,” he says. “However, this program is certainly an important piece.” 

            • Broader impact – The program has increased family engagement and, by providing a shared experience across classrooms, grades, and schools, boosted community involvement. “It’s hard to ask more of a program than that,” says Gordon. 

            [Many other schools have implemented similar programs, for example, several Newton, Massachusetts schools have had one-book programs. Among the book choices for Newton high schools were Zeitoun, The Hate U Give, Eleanor and Park, The Fault in Our Stars, and The Hunger Games. Here are links to articles on some of the programs: Newton South 2012, also here, and Brown Middle School.]

 

“Reading as a School Community Lifts Students’ Skills” by John Gordon III in School Administrator, June 2025 (Vol. 82, #6, p. 12); Gordon can be reached at [email protected]. 

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7. Children’s Books About World War II

            This School Library Journal feature provides a curated list of books on World War II covering under-explored events, figures, regions, and angles:

Picture books:

-   Twist, Tumble, Triumph: The Story of Champion Gymnast Agnes Keleti by Deborah Bodin Cohen and Kerry Olitsky, illustrated by Martina Peluso, grade 1-3

-   Violin of Hope by Ella Schwartz, illustrated by Juliana Oakley, grade 2-4

Middle grades:

-   Scattergood by H.M. Bouwman, grade 4-7

-   Fighter in the Woods: The True Story of a Jewish Girl Who Joined the Partisans in World War II by Joshua Greene, grade 3-7

-   When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary by Alice Hoffman, grade 3-7

-   Lifeboat 5 by Susan Hood, grade 4-8

-   At Last She Stood: How Joey Guerrero Spied, Survived, and Fought for Freedom by Erin Entrada Kelly, grade 4-8

-   Safiyyah’s War by Hiba Noor Khan, grade 5 and up

-   The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story by Daniel Nayeri, grade 3-7

-   The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin, grade 6-10

-   Wolves at the Door by Steve Watkins, grade 5 and up

Young adult:

-   The Ballerina of Auschwitz: Young Adult Edition of the Choice by Edith Eva Eger, grade 8 and up

-   The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II by Candace Fleming, grade 8 and up

-   Wrath Becomes Her by Aden Polydoros, grade 9 and up

Graphic novels:

-   Pearl by Sherri Smith, illustrated by Christine Norrie, grade 7 and up

-   Song of a Blackbird by Maria Van Lieshout, grade 10 and up

 

“Life During Wartime: A Curated List of Untold World War II Stories” in School Library Journal, June 2025 (Vol. 71, #6, pp. 42-45)

 

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