Katherine Collier

Dr. Brereton
EDSL 506/509
4/10/2021

Performance Improvement Plan

Teacher: Meghan Groff
Coach: Katherine Collier
Principal: Luke Hostetter
School: Baldi Middle School

Duration of Coaching and Performance Improvement plan: 5 months or 10 months conducted by the
Principal, who is referred to as the Coach in this document.

Tenure Status: Tenured or Temporary Professional Employee (Non-Tenured)

Growth Areas: Place a mark in the box next to any domain below that is in need of growth.

1c: Setting Instructional Outcomes 3a: Communicating with Students

x 1e: Designing Coherent Instruction 3b: Using Questioning and Discussion

Techniques

2b: Establishing a Culture for Learning 3c: Engaging Students in Learning

x 2c: Managing Classroom Procedures 4a: Reflecting on Teaching

2d: Managing Student Behavior 4c: Communicating with Families

Growth Area 1 Supporting Teacher Student Outcome Activities,

Teacher & Actions/Goals to Goal Professional
List Domain Student Address Growth (if applicable) Development,
Evidence/Data Area Resources to
for Growth Area Support
Improvement

1e: Designing Teacher expressed The teacher will Students will be The Coach
Coherent in the beginning be able to unit able to build upon provided the teach
Instruction of the year plan on a monthly prior unit with unit plans
Coaching basis and design knowledge she created as a
Classroom Vision the necessary through model to use as a
meeting on 9/25 resources prior to differentiated and guide as well as
that unit/lesson beginning the unit modified continued
planning is an in order to design resources Observations and

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 area of growth for coherent appropriate for Feedback
her. This was instruction and each child IOT meetings centered
corroborated in allow time for learn the current around unit/lesson
conversations in differentiation and unit’s grade planning. In
Feedback modifications for appropriate addition, the
Meetings on 10/2 our SPED/ELL standards and teacher can use
and 12/4, where students. skills. Friday afternoon
the teacher PD time towards
expressed how she unit/lesson
used her mornings planning for the
prior to class to following weeks.
design her lesson Teacher was also
for the day. advised by her
Coach to engage
in professional
development by
joining Need in
Deed, an
organization that
provides teachers
with a service
learning
curriculum that
can be easily
implemented into
the Social Studies
classroom.

Progress Update towards Growth Area 1: Meghan has made considerable growth in this area since the
Fall and Winter. This Spring Meghan has been able to develop two units: one for social studies and one
for ELA, both subjects that she teaches. She developed these plans after looking at her Coach’s unit plan
used when she was a teacher and taught The Giver, by Lois Lowry. The coach had documented the
standards the novel is useful for, the resources she collected, the vision for the unit, and the tangible items
for the students like Google Slides with direct instruction and Google Documents with Literature Circle
questions. Meghan developed two units on a weekend in early February.
For Social Studies, she developed a long term podcast unit complete with a resource document
that contains hyperlinks for students to be able to navigate each section: grading/rubric, interview
document, podcast planning document, and voice-recording stepper. This she assigned as a Google
Classroom assignment where students can click through and fill out the necessary sections. Students here
were able to engage in conversations about current events and social issues that mattered to them,
therefore her project was culturally responsive. Since starting the project, the Coach and Meghan have
spent time in Feedback meetings discussing how to differentiate the steps of the project for SPED/ELL
students as well as her Focus students (five regular education students who perform the lowest on the
Reading STAR assessment, which assesses vocabulary and reading comprehension). These conversations
have led to modifications where students are provided more structure for how to do the writing portion of
the assignment and access to their support teachers who provide them with small group instruction. A

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Google Doc version of the project can be found here: Podcast Planning Document. (Please note the
hyperlinks do not work here since it is a copy of the project).
For ELA, she developed a long term Symbolic Self-Portrait Project/Poem, again with a resource
document that contains hyperlinks for students to be able to navigate each section: grading
procedures/rubric, prewriting document, final draft document, and symbolic self-portrait. This she
assigned as a Google Classroom assignment where students can click through and fill out the necessary
sections. Students here were able to take their learning about poetry and symbolism and creatively
demonstrate their knowledge, therefore allowing for different student strengths to come to light and be
seen and appreciated in the classroom community. Similarly to the social studies project, the Coach and
Meghan have worked in our Feedback Meetings to modify this assignment, in particular for a student of
concern, who is a low ELL student. After probing with questions like, “at the end of the project, what is
the learning outcome here?”, “which part of this document would you like the student to demonstrate a
mastery of?”, and “ now that we have determined it is this section that we want to focus on, what supports
can we put in place so he can access it?”, Meghan was able to go into her class the next day with a plan of
support in mind for this ELL student, but ultimately, all her ELL students. A PDF version of the project
can be found here: Symbolic Self-Portrait. (Please note the hyperlinks do not work here since it is a copy
of the project).
Perhaps most importantly, Meghan was able to reflect on this process and express her excitement
in a Feedback Meeting on 2/25 that she is now able to feel more confident going into her lessons for the
day given that she has unit planned. She shared that while working for a weekend was a change for her,
she loves that she can now start her school day morning less stressed than before. She also expressed that
students are liking this change of pace and feel more secure going into class, knowing the routine of the
day. This was observed on 3/25 when her peer coach went into class and students wrote in the chat “are
we doing the final draft document today?” without prompting by Meghan, demonstrating the students’
enthusiasm and knowledge of the assignment and routine of the class.

Growth Area 2 Supporting Teacher Student Outcome Activities,

Teacher & Actions/Goals to Goal Professional
List Domain Student Address Growth (if applicable) Development,
Evidence/Data Area Resources to
for Growth Area Support
Improvement

2c: Managing Teacher observed The teacher will Students will be The Coach and
Classroom on 2 separate be able take able to spend the teacher can
Procedures occasions by her attendance after increased time on use the
Coach, once on the class ends by the instructional organization tips
1/12 and once on using the Google activities sent out by the
2/9, spending time Meet Attendance themselves IOT School District of
taking attendance. Report sent to her allow for more Philadelphia for
In January, class email in order to content and skills email, to keep
started at 8:30 be able to start the learning time. track of the
AM and teaching content of the attendance reports
the content did not lesson quicker. to reference.
begin until 8:49
AM. In February,

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 class started at 1
PM and teaching
the content did not
begin until 1:17
PM.

Progress Update towards Growth Area 2: In a Feedback Meeting on 2/25, the Coach began the meeting
praising Meghan’s ability to develop relationships with her students, who are dedicated to the norms of
the class: educate, respect, and grow. Students are excited to attend class and often express their
enjoyment through saying hello in the chat at the start, unmuting to share out about their day so far, and
turning on their cameras. However, after providing Meghan with the low inference note data that the
process of reading each child’s name, having conversation with them, and awarding them a ClassDojo
point for attending took roughly 15-20 minutes, Meghan realized that this is not perhaps the best use of
her time since she already has those positive relationships built with students at this point in the Spring. In
order to get to the meat of her lesson, her Coach expressed “I was really excited to see your lesson today
on symbolism in poetry, but I didn’t get to see a ton of it. I looked back at my notes from the lesson and it
looks like the heart of the lesson did not start for about 15 minutes because of attendance. Do you think
there is a way for this process to be edited to get to the heart of the learning activity more quickly?”, and
Meghan, who is deeply reflective, realized herself that she is sent the Google Meet Attendance Report and
she could easily reference this after class to take attendance. Her Coach promised to offer her further
support around organizing her emails and creating a category for the attendance reports, labeled
“Attendance”.

Growth Area 3 Supporting Teacher Student Outcome Activities,

Teacher & Actions/Goals to Goal Professional
List Domain Student Address Growth (if applicable) Development,
Evidence/Data Area Resources to
for Growth Area Support
Improvement

N/A

Progress Update towards Growth Area 3: N/A

Reflection
My experience being a peer coach has contained two turning points. The first occurred early on
and I was able to reflect on it in the Support Process for a New Teacher assignment in the Fall, where
Meghan expressed how comfortable she was with myself being a peer and not an administrator. This
really opened up the door to open, honest dialogue which has pushed the work further. In particular, by
the early Spring she had already accomplished her first PD goal which read “Using a variety of virtual
tools, resources, and/or platforms, lessons (texts, tasks, and/or activities) during synchronous time are
anchored to grade level standards and connected to prior learning experiences, so that all students can

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engage cognitively as well as social-emotionally in the content” in that she was unit/lesson planning
effectively for herself and her students.
The second occurred more recently during our March 18 feedback meeting. We were discussing
my observation the week prior of her small group instruction of her focus students, and in my low
inference notes that I took while observing, I noted that Meghan’s questioning asked the five students to
recall a section of the text that Meghan said out loud. However, not all of the students were able to recall
this section, with the exception of the highest reader in the group. After probing Meghan with an opening
question about how she thought her small group went, she was able to reflect immediately and say that
she thought it went well, but that she did not think she reached this one student, David. I asked then “how
could we help him access the text so that he is able to answer your pre-planned questions?” and she
suggested that she could pull it up and highlight a certain section to read over. Since the questions are
pre-thought out before the small group instruction, Meghan knows that she is going to reference this
specific part of the text, I agreed that this is a great strategy. I also mentioned that on her Google Slides,
she could even screenshot the section of the text, a strategy that I learned after talking with a 7th grade
ELA colleague. At this point, I think we hit another turning point in our coaching relationship and she
exclaimed “I love it. See something like that is so simple, but I had not thought of it. I can easily
implement this and David would be able to do better.” I believe this strengthened the level of trust that we
have between one another and indicated to me that those small, bite size action steps are really the way to
go when building up to achieve PD goals, which in her case for the Spring has been: “In synchronous
learning, small group instruction will be frequent and targeted for those who need support in engaging
virtually cognitively and social-emotionally. All students will be held accountable to themselves, their
peers, and the teacher for the work and/or discussion done there.” At this time, we are still working
towards this goal.
Ultimately, I learned that as a school leader, peer coaching must be a practice schoolwide for all
staff. As I commented on in the Fall version of this assignment, social-emotionally depending on the
teacher’s stage of personal and/or professional development, having someone coach you who is not your
formal evaluator/supervisor could be beneficial. This conclusion is supported in the first turning point
discussed above. In addition, something I had not quite realized when I was doing the Fall assignment, is
also how true this was of myself. When I was a first year teacher, my coach was our ELA SBTL (School
Based Teacher Leader) at the time, who over the course of that year and the years to follow has become
one of my mentors, role models, and biggest supporter. Having her wisdom for how to teach ELA
effectively and her ability to tie that directly to her weekly observations of my classes, was life changing.
On the other hand, I remember feeling odd when the ELA SBTL did not do my formal observations and
instead it was one of the three Assistant Principals, so I was super nervous for my first year Fall formal.
So, I also would like to discuss the value in having administrators serve as coaches as well. For myself,
my coach is also my 7th grade administrator, Mr. Mina, who does my formal observations. While Meghan
did not love that experience and to her it felt like she was always being evaluated, for me I love that Mr.
Mina knows my classes, my students, and my teaching style throughout the year, so that when it comes
time for the formal observations, he is able to speak on my teaching from not only that one lesson, but
months of my teaching. In addition, perhaps due to my fairly strong willed nature, I love the opportunity
to have a feedback meeting with a thought partner about how to improve my instruction. One of my
greatest areas of growth as a teacher is actually small group instruction, as growing up I never had this
modeled for me in a small private all girls school where the class size was 15. There, the teacher was able
to check in one-on-one, or if needed, in pairs, with students. Therefore, having this relationship of trust

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with Mr. Mina, where he knows my background and my instructional areas of growth, really allows me to
work through my reservations or hesitations surrounding that practice, and, ultimately, implement
whatever suggestion he is asking of me. I know that he has my best interests and the best interests of my
students in mind. Therefore, as a school leader, I know that one of the first things I will implement in a
school building, or enhance if it is already in place, is coaching, both by peer teachers and administrators.