tailored their observations and feedback based on each teacher’ s strengths, concerns, and needs.
Strategists also used modeling. For example, Leti, a bilingual instructional coach, described how she modeled open-ended questioning:
During the read aloud, I noticed the teacher was asking basic recall questions. I asked her if it was okay for me to read with the children. I paused at various points for children to turn and talk about a question I had posed. For example, I would say,“ Why do you think the very impatient caterpillar is so anxious to get out of the chrysalis? Turn to your partner and talk about it.” Children immediately started talking. After the read aloud, I talked with the teacher about her thoughts. She just needed a little help adjusting her questions to encourage lengthier responses from the children.
Modeling helps bring strategies to life: It shows what each strategy looks and sounds like and how it affects children’ s engagement and learning. When teachers feel the strategy is feasible to implement, they are more willing to try it and learn through the process, regardless of their proficiency in the child’ s home language. The trust built from creating a collaborative learning community is integral to this mindset shift.
named the strategy they wanted to develop, then wrote down how they would achieve that goal. We encouraged teachers to start with something small, simple, and meaningful for their pedagogy. Once they wrote down their action plan, they shared it with a peer. We also asked teachers to continue bringing photos, videos, or audio recordings of their progress to the professional development sessions. This way, the group shared in and celebrated the teachers’ successes and could also continue to offer ideas, resources, and perspectives they may not have considered.
A written action plan leads to commitment and follow-through and can be done as part of any program-wide professional development and continuous improvement efforts. It helps to foster shared responsibility, increase accountability, and ultimately improve practices over time.
Capture Insights and Plan Next Steps
As educators try new practices, it’ s important to summarize key takeaways and identify how they will continue to refine or expand these strategies. Reflection is essential for sustained growth and requires ongoing feedback and dialogue through professional development.
In our case, after we reviewed what teachers did and reinforced what they did well, we asked them to develop an action plan. They
56 Educating Young Children
Fall 2026