Most of my time in classrooms is spent coteaching or teaching a demonstration lesson. My role as a literacy coach is a nonevaluative one, so I aim to be actively involved in the teaching as often as possible. There are instances, however, when it is necessary for me to step back and simply observe the classroom teacher at work. When I do observe, I use transcribing as my go-to coaching tool.
Transcribing is a method of capturing classroom conversation in written form. When I am transcribing, I type all the talk I hear in the classroom. For example, here is a portion of a transcription taken during a read-aloud in a kindergarten classroom:
Teacher: These are all great inferences, because we don’t know for sure. The book does not say that. But we’re using our thinking. We’re thinking about the story.
— Continues reading aloud from The Wednesday Surprise —
Teacher: I really want you to think about these words and the picture and what they’re doing. Close your eyes and think about what you are inferring that the surprise might be. Turn and talk.
— Students turn and talk for about one minute. —
Teacher: I asked you to use what you knew about the words and what you heard and the pictures. Who has something to share?
Alex: I think the surprise is a cake.
Teacher: Why do you think it’s a cake? What made you think that? . . . Was there something that happened in the story that made you think that? . . . I heard a couple people talking about cake. There is no right or wrong; I just want to know what you’re thinking and where maybe you got that from. Could it be because she made the picture of the cake?
Alex nods.
When to Use Transcribing
Transcribing is a useful tool with teachers who are looking to improve a specific aspect of their teaching practice. For example, I used transcribed notes as the preassessment and postassessment of a coaching cycle with a fifth-grade teacher who was working to refine her one-on-one reading conferences. I transcribed a reading conference at the beginning of our cycle and transcribed another at the end of our cycle. We were able to easily compare the two conferences as we discussed her growth. Other areas of teaching practice where transcribing might be helpful are looking at questioning techniques, oral feedback to students, or minilesson presentation. Transcribing teacher talk is a concrete way to capture instruction for later discussion.
Transcribing can also be used during a coaching cycle to examine student talk. The coach and teacher might transcribe turn-and-talk conversations or small-group discussions. These notes can be used to look at student engagement, progress toward a learning target, or even speaking and listening skills. The tool turns student talk into tangible data that can be used for analysis and assessment.
Some Tips
When transcribing classroom talk, you will want your notes to be as accurate as possible. I do my best to capture every utterance and pause in the conversation. However, it can be difficult to maintain the necessary typing speed when classroom discourse is in full swing. Here are some tips to get you started.
Be clear about your intentions.
Be sure to tell the classroom teacher you will be using transcribing as a coaching tool. There is nothing more nerve racking to a classroom teacher than an outside observer clacking away on the keyboard during instruction. I tell the teacher, “I will be writing down—word for word—all of the conversation during your lesson. I will not be adding my own thoughts or interpretations; I will simply be transcribing the lesson. I will email the notes to you immediately afterward, and then we can discuss them during our scheduled debrief.”
Use technology to your advantage.
Bring your laptop or tablet. On which device can you type the fastest? Although I am fairly adept at typing on my iPad, I know my words-per-minute rate is fastest on my laptop keyboard, so I bring my laptop on days I know I will be transcribing. Also, choose a program with easy formatting and quick sharing capabilities. For these reasons, I prefer Google Docs, since it operates just like a word processing program. All I need is a quick tap of the Enter key to note a change in speaker, and I can instantly share my notes with the classroom teacher. If you do not use Google Docs, you can always email your notes to the classroom teacher immediately after the observation.
Find a happy medium for your use of abbreviations.
Abbreviations are a great way to increase your typing speed. For example, I always use T to represent “teacher” and S to represent “student.” I may also abbreviate commonly used words such as rdg for “reading.” This helps me keep pace with the classroom conversation. However, I recommend using some restraint in the number of abbreviations you use. As you will see in the upcoming section on debriefing, you want the classroom teacher to be able to read your transcribed notes. Too many abbreviations may interfere with his or her ability to decipher your notes.
Do not panic.
Depending on the pace of the conversation, you may fall behind. Do not panic. Your notes will still be valuable. Simply use ellipsis dots to show that you lagged behind, and do your best to catch up to where the conversation is now. (I use ellipses to show I missed some classroom talk and a string of hyphens to show wait time, as seen in the example above.)
Debriefing
Once you have completed your observation and shared your transcribed notes with the teacher, it’s time for the fun part! Schedule a time to debrief with the teacher. You will want to use reflective questioning to discuss the notes with him or her. But first, I recommend reading the transcription aloud. The teacher can read his or her part, and you can read the student talk. You may feel silly at first, but I have found this to be an essential step. Reading the transcribed notes out loud allows you and the classroom teacher to share the experience of the lesson all over again. You will pick up on certain nuances of the language that may not be evident in a silent reading.
After reading the notes aloud, be prepared to guide the conversation with reflective questions such as these:
· What did you notice?
· What surprised you?
· What worked well in that lesson? What would you change if you had a do-over?
· What patterns did you hear in your language (or the students’ language)?
It is sometimes difficult for me to let the teacher’s observations guide our work here. I am tempted to point out what I noticed or to tell the teacher what I thought worked well. I try to refrain; instead, I look for opportunities to coach into the teacher’s observations. The learning is always more meaningful when the teacher discovers it for herself. For example, in the transcription from the kindergarten classroom above, our debrief sounded like this:
Me: What do you notice?
Teacher: Well, I think I defined inference for them a few times during the lesson.
Me: Yes, you sure did! You were very explicit about that. Look here; you said, “These are all great inferences, because we don’t know for sure. The book does not say that. But we’re using our thinking.” And here, too. You named and defined the strategy several times throughout the lesson.
Teacher: This last part, though, with Alex, I asked him so many questions about the cake! It was like pulling teeth.
Me: Yeah, let’s look at that. Okay, so you asked him four questions in a row. I call it “leading the witness.” An alternative to that line of questioning might have been . . .
Transcribing is a simple and effective way to turn classroom conversations into an artifact that can be examined and analyzed. It is a nonthreatening way for a coach to observe classroom instruction, since there is no judgment or analysis attached to the notes. The coach and teacher work collaboratively to dissect the notes, and the coach can then offer guidance and support to move teachers and students forward. Transcribing is quickly becoming one of my favorite tools in my coaching toolbox.