Action Plans: The Road Map of Practice-Based Coaching

The Road Map of Practice-Based Coaching:
Coaching Corner Webinar Series

Joyce Escorcia: Hello, everybody. This is Joyce Escorcia with the National Center of Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning.

Thank you for joining us today for the latest installment of the Coaching Corner webinar series, Action Plans: The Road -- The Road Map of Practice-Based Coaching.

I'm excited today to be joined with my Coaching Corner cofacilitator, Sarah Basler, and during the Coaching Corner webinar series, we're really excited to have you guys here and give you opportunities to explore specific topics that are relevant to your role, identify resources and strategies specific to whatever topic that we're focusing in on for that webinar and also having a chance to put things into practice through scenarios, videos, and even opportunities for questions and discussion. And we want to invite you to go ahead and put on your calendars our next Coaching Corner webinar, which is going to be May 22, 2019, at 3 p.m. Eastern. So, go ahead and mark your calendars for our next webinar.

And we also -- Before we get started, we just wanted to go over just a few little housekeeping things with our ON24 platform. And this will just kind of make your webinar experience even -- even better today. So, you're going to see at the bottom of your screen, you're going to see different widgets. So, you'll see, like, these different little visual widgets there. And if you have any questions during the webinar, you can always submit questions through the Q&A widget. And so, we're going to keep an eye out at the Q&A widget, so we're going to answer any of those questions that might come through. And then, please know that we do capture all questions, so if any question -- any tech questions, or anything that kind of comes up, please just use that Q&A widget, and we'll be right there to help you along the way. And also, a copy of today's slide deck and additional resources are available in the resource list, which is the green widget, and we really encourage you to download any of those resources or links that you may find useful.

And we're actually going to be using one of those resources today, the Action Plan, the checklist. And so, we encourage you to go ahead and download that, and then throughout the session, we're going to be using the group chat widget to kind of engage with each other, and then you can also find additional answers to some common technical questions located in the yellow Help widget at the bottom of the screen. So, that can be helpful. And then, each of these widgets are resizable, and you can move them around to kind of make them best fit your screen. So, just click on the widget and then move it by dragging it, dropping it, or you can resize it, or you can also minimize it. So, if you have trouble, you know, with kind of sound or, you know, with lag in the slides, then be sure and refresh your browser by pressing F5.

And also, log off of, you know, any kind of VPN or any other kind of those networks because that can also slow things down. And then also, I found just closing out other tabs while I'm on the webinar helps the streaming of the -- of the webinar itself. And then finally, at the conclusion of the webinar, please complete the evaluation using the link on the last slide, and so we'll put that up there for you and in the chat box. We request, and we just kindly ask you to please do that because we really use that information to drive our future webinars and just resource development.

So, just in an effort to better support you, we really look forward to seeing those better evaluation data come in. So, evaluations will be closed three days after the webinar, and certificates won't be -- will no longer be available after those few days. So, once you complete the evaluation, then you can download your certificate of your completion for your participation today. I just kind of wanted to go over some of those basics, and I think we're just excited to kind of be together, and talk about action planning, and excited to hear what's going on with you guys in your work, and also maybe talking about some tips and tricks to help you along the way. So, you often here action plans kind of referred to as a road map for coaching, and that because action plans guide how we implement other components of the PBC cycle. The action plan focuses the observation, and reflection and feedback is based on coaching implementation of the goal. So, having a clearly written action plan is important to help both the coach and the coachee. It really helps them have a clear understanding about the goal that they're working on, the steps they need to get to their goals, and how to determine when the goal is accomplished.

So, at the end of this presentation, we really hope that you're able to identify different action plan formats, to describe the components of an action plan, and then also be able to kind of compare action plans and decide if goals are specific -- if they're observable and measurable. so we're really looking forward to making this kind of a back-and-forth conversation with you as we look at some sample action plans, as well. And so now, we want to kind of hear from you, and this is going to be using your Q&A widget. And so, we want to know what do you find most challenging about action planning. So, what's most challenging? So, remember, here, in the Q&A widget, you're going to see this question go out. And I believe, Sarah, you're pushing that out for us, correct?

Sarah Basler: Yes, I'm doing that right now.

Joyce: And so, you'll see that question pop up, and you'll also answer, and you can answer via using the question of the question and answer. And so, we'll see those come up in our question-and-answer box. And so, we're just kind of wanting to hear from you, kind of starting out. What do you think is most challenging about action planning? And while we're kind of waiting for some of those responses to come in, and it's not just -- there's more than one kind of right answer. There's, really, not a wrong answer to this. And let's see. Things are starting to pop up. Our Q&A box is filling up. So, I see that Katalina said being specific and writing the goal. And that definitely can be a challenge. Kevin says, ensuring the coachee is thinking through all the components and ensuring it's a sustainable goal.

And then, let's see. Got another one from Christina. Writing action plans to achieve the goal. So, actually just going through and writing achievable goals. That's a great point, as well. Anita brought up that, just deciding when, you know, when the action plan is complete. I think that that's also something that can be a struggle, and we're going to look at a resource today that may be able to help with that, as well. Again, Sheila also shares that just writing the goal can be difficult, and figuring out where to begin, and not overwhelming yourself with multiple plans.

And that -- So, Stephanie, that's a great point, as well. Again, just kind of starting small, so starting with one very specific goal in mind, I think, would helpful. Lance, we're going to talk a little bit about that today. We'll minimize that. The responses are really coming in, so thank you so much. I'm just trying to scroll through and get -- get some of the responses in. Writing the goals.

Sarah: Oh, Mandy...

Joyce: Yes, Sarah?

Sarah: ...writes that if... One of the hard challenges is determining if it's a realistic plan, and that's something we'll talk about, too, is making the goal achievable.

Joyce: Yeah, I see that one kind of coming up a few times in the -- in the Q&A box. So, I think that that's a common challenge as well, goals that are too broad. That kind of falls in there.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Joyce: Helping staff. So, Chasity shares helping staff determine how to break the plan into multiple steps rather -- rather than trying to have one goal can be difficult. And so, that's right. Those action plan steps can, really, kind of help you to reach your goal. I also kind of like -- Sarah and I, we have a colleague, and she referred to it the other day as, it's really like your GPS directions on how to get from Point A to Point B, those action plan steps. Right? So, those action plan steps can really play an important part there. So, thank you for that. And we still have --

Sarah: I saw agreeing on appropriate time lines is something that people struggle with.

Joyce: Yeah. I could see, definitely, how that could be a struggle, as well. I'm just kind of scrolling through here. And then, Isa shares that just having, you know, goals that are realistic and that are measurable. So, I think that that -- that's also something we're going to talk about today. And so, Isa, actually she gave us -- she gave us that in Spanish. So, she said, [Speaking Spanish] So, thank you for that, Isa. We're going to be talking about that today, about really setting goals that are realistic. We're going to have a chance to kind of look and use the new resource with that. So, looking forward to that. Anything else there before we move on?

Sarah: No, I think you've covered it.

Joyce: Yeah, so thank you, guys, so much, and we're going to kind of keep going through this and may be able to pull some of these later on in the conversation. So I think now I'm going to turn it over to Sarah, and she's going to talk to us about action plan components and performance.

Sarah: All right. Thanks, Joyce. So, we're going to start today by reviewing the components of a practice-based coaching action plan. And we're going to show you some different formats of action plans that you can use with your coachees. So, action plans, we call them working documents, and that's because they are constantly evolving, and it's okay to revise as needed. But we really use action plans to help guide our coaching. And they may have different formats and look different. But one thing that PBC action plans do have in common are that they contain the following elements.

So, PBC action plans are going to have goals, and the goals are the immediate focus of coaching. And those are selected by the coachee based on the -- the needs assessment. And then, there's also going to be a goal achievement statement, and this is going to be an explicit statement about how you will know when the goal has been achieved. There's also action steps, and these are going to be the planned actions or things that the coachee or the coach are going to do to help achieve the goal. For example, action steps could include behaviors or tasks that the teacher, home visitor, or family childcare provider are going to do, such as putting aside time to learn about a topic. It could be planning lessons, or activities, or the home visit. It could be something like setting up a video camera before an activity starts, or reviewing a video, or a resource. And then, the resources are going to be supports that are needed to help the coachee complete the goal. And resources can be diverse and include any materials or equipment, or it could even be personnel that are needed to complete the action steps. Some resources that might be included would be sources of information that are needed to help the coachee learn about or do a practice or strategy. It could be -- include objects or people that are needed to do an action step. It could be assigning a team member to read a book to a group of children while you have the coachee try out a new strategy with a smaller group.

An action step could be a coaching strategy that the coach might implement with the coachee during a focused observation. It could be anything that helps the coachee achieve their goal, and then it's going to include a time frame, and that should always be included because it helps with accountability and planning. I think of that like a calendar. It just keeps -- helps to keep the coachee and the coach on track, so typically, an action plan will be written in this order, too. You'd first want to select the goal and then decide how you're going to know when that's been achieved. So then, the achievement statement will be written next, any resources or supports that are needed to reach that goal. And then, you'd select the time frame that feels achievable for each step that will be completed. And so, over the next few slides, we're going to talk about a few action plans, and there are sample action plans in the resource list. So, feel free to download those. Those will be the formats that we're talking about.

All right. So, here is Action Plan Format A. And as we mentioned before, the format of an action plan can vary, but what's going to remain the same are the components of the action plan. So, this format is one that we see used commonly. And you can see here that it has a goal, and that's the practice that the coachee is going to work on. There's a goal achievement statement. There are action steps. There's spaces for the resources or supports. And the time line for which the steps are going to be completed. This action plan even has spots at the bottom for you to mark when you review the action plan with the coachee.

You can even check if the -- You can mark on the action plan if the goal has been completed or if progress has been made or if the goal needs to be revised. As I mentioned before, action plans are working documents, so we also call them living documents because they might need to be revised. It might be that a goal was written, but we realized that maybe it was too broad, or not specific enough. So, you can always revise to meet the individual needs of your coachee. Here's another format. And you'll see that it still has the same components. We've got the goal, the achievement statement, action steps, and we have resources.

And this format allows the coach and the coachee to really plan out the action steps in-depth. So each step has a step progress checklist, which is nice for larger goals that might take several cycles to complete. So that might be -- this might be a format that you would select for a coachee that has a really large goal. And then we have Format C, which is like a concept map or a web. And you'll see that the practice is in the center, so -- a nd then they have the goal here. And so here -- Let me just explain practice and the goal. So, the practice is the teaching, home-visiting practice, family childcare practice that you're going to be working on. And those practices are usually on the needs assessment. The goal is how -- what it's going to look like when the coachee performs that action.

So, that's the difference here. Sometimes you'll see them combined because they're generally the same. But here we have it starting with the practice, and then the goal -- what that's going to look like when that practice is implemented. And then, we have the achievement statement, the action steps, the resources and then the time line. And so, what's really great about the different formats is that you can appeal to the different types of learners that you coach. You could even provide your coachee with a choice of action plan format. So, you could ask them which they prefer to use, or you could even create your own, so you don't have to use these samples that we give you. You could create your own, but when you create your own, you want to make sure that if you're coaching using the PBC model, that you would still adhere to these components, that they would still be included.

And if you are a member of the MyPeers Practice-Based Coaching community, our members like to share resources, ask questions, and we actually have some action plan templates that have been shared by members. And you can find those in the MyPeers community by clicking on -- on the left-hand side of the screen, you can go to the Files tab, and then once in the Files tab, you'll click -- click "Materials Shared By Members." You'll go to "Forms and Templates," and then you can click on sample action plans. And so, if you have an action plan format that's different than the ones that we've shared today, we'd love to see what you have, and we encourage you to log on and share them in the PBC community. We'd love to see what everyone has created. And if you're not a member of MyPeers, you can -- today would be a good day to join.

So, we're really excited to share this resource with you because I think this will be a really great tool to help coachees and coaches with action planning, so this is the action plan quality checklist, and it's a tool from the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations that you can use to rate the quality of your action plan. You can log onto the website, challengingbehavior.org. That's where you find this document, or it's also -- We have it in the resource list for you here today. Excuse me. You'll see that each component of the PBC action plan is represented in this checklist, and this tool could be used side by side with the coachee while you're writing an action plan, or it could also be used for someone who coaches coaches or supervises coaches, and it can be used to identify areas of action planning that a coach might need more support with, so to use this tool, it's really simple. You'll just read each indicator, and you'll mark either yes or no as you are looking at the action plan that you've created, and if you mark no for any of the indicators, it might indicate that you want to review the action plan component and see if it might need to be revised.

So, we're going to be referring to this resource for the remainder of our time together today. And I'm going to go through the components of this resource. Written goals should be specific. The action or behavior that the coachee will do. So, that's how we'll know if it's specific. Observable and measurable. So, we want goals to be observable and measurable so that the coach can observe the coachee doing a specific action or the practice. And the coach can either count, time or measure what's happening during the observation. And we want goals to be achievable. So, that's within a defined time frame.

Typical time frames for working on accomplishing goals in coaching are usually two to four weeks. If your goal does not have a specific action that the coachee will do, or if the action can't be counted or measured, the goal should be revised, or you want to make sure that you have information that's specific in the goal achievement statement, so it's kind of a either-or. If your goal doesn't meet this criteria, then consider revising or making sure that it's included in the achievement statement. Let's see here. So, for example, if the coach and the coachee write the following goal: When problems arise during center time, the coachee will help children identify the problem by asking, "What's the problem," and waiting for children to respond.

So, in this example, it tells us exactly what the coachee plans to do, when he or she plans to do it, and the coach could easily count the amount of times the coachee says, "What's the problem?" And this goal could be achieved in two to three weeks. Clearly-stated goals help the coach and the coachee know the specific actions or behaviors to focus on when -- and when the coachee is working on them. So, it really will help the coach know what to look for during the observation. So, a common pitfall that we see on action plans is using vague terminology. So, we really want to be careful of using those kinds of words. So, words that could have a varie in meaning or could mean something different for each person are really hard to measure. So when this happens, make sure that the coach and the coachee add an exemplar or a statement explaining what was meant by the vague words. So, for example, if the goal is, "I will connect with parents on a personal level at each home visit," the word connect means lots of different things for other people. It's pretty vague. It could mean a variety of things.

So, you might consider saying something like, "I will connect with parents on a personal level by smiling at the parents when I say, "Hello," and using the first five minutes of the home visit in informal conversation." The second example is really specific, and we can know exactly what to look for during the observation. It can also be counted or measured, and when we write a goal or an achievement statement, we want it to pass what we call the stranger test. And that's -- So, if anyone were to pick up the action plan, they'd be able to understand what they're looking for during the observation. Goal achievement statements let the coach and the coachee know when a goal has been accomplished, and this is important because it can cause strain in a reflection meeting between the coach and the coachee if, say, the coachee feels like the goal has been accomplished, but the coach doesn't, so that can be a reason why it's important to know when a goal has been achieved.

These statements are written much like the goals because they should be specific, observable and measurable and achievable. Achievement statements often include information about the coachee, like the number of times they're planning on performing the action or the behavior, the accuracy or quality in which the action is going to be performed or the duration, or for how long they plan to perform the action. The achievement statement is always going to be dependent on what the coachee is doing rather than what the children and parents are doing.

So, if the goal achievement statement says something like, "I will know I have achieved my goal when all children are engaged during whole group time." The focus of that goal or achievement statement is on what the children are doing and not what the coachee is doing. Also, the word engaged is kind of vague, and it could mean many different things and what, between what I think engagement or what someone else might think, so we want to make sure we define what that means. So, although we know that the purpose of coaching and selecting these goals lead to positive child outcomes, we want to measure the actions that the coachee is performing because we're coaching the coachee on their implementation of the goals in their setting. We don't really have any control over how children or parents are going to respond, so we want to focus our observation and our achievement statement on what the coachee is doing to elicit those outcomes or behaviors from children or parents. So, coachee behavior and implementation, fidelity of the goal, are going to lead to those positive child outcomes that we're looking for.

And I know this might be new to some people because I think, in general, when we write action plans, our first thought is on what we want the outcome to be, what we want the children or the families to be doing. Ao this can be a challenge, but when you focus it on what the coachee is doing, it makes it really clear when you're observing that -- that behavior or action. But now, we want to give you a chance to rewrite this achievement statement. So, how would you rewrite this achievement statement on the screen to make it focused on the coachee? So, the -- the statement is, "I will know I have achieved my goal when all the children are engaged during whole-group time." Use the Q&A widget, and let us know what -- how we could focus this on the coachee. Let's see. Have some responses coming in. Let's see here. While I'm waiting for some responses here, I'll review some of the chat. Jillian R says, "I write goals with my coachee, but get them to decide what goal they want to work on.

I try to give them some areas to choose from." And that's a great -- That's what we would want you to do. We don't select goals for coachees. It's a process that's shared between the coach and the coachee, so great. Oh, I have some responses coming in. Let's see. I see some that are still child-focused. Okay, here's one. "My goal will be met when I conduct a whole-group time in which children are engaged." So, that's getting closer because it's about the coachee conducting a whole group. But we still don't know what the means, what conducting looks like. Let's see. Okay, here's one. "I'll know when I achieve my goal when I include every child in eliciting a response during circle time in random order." Okay, so that would be something that would be focused on coachee implementation.

Joyce: Sarah, there's another -- And Sarah, I was just going to say there was one from Catherine, too, that was focused on the coachee. She was just saying, "I will know I've achieved my goal when I invite children to group time as opposed to require them to participate and offer interesting alternative activities." So, that's another one that's focused on the coach's actions.

Sarah: Nice. Let's see. There's so many responses. Thank you for participating. Let's see here. I still see quite a bit of responses based on children's performance as opposed to coachee, so think about it how the coachee is going to elicit a response. Okay, "So, I know I will have achieved my goal when I can engage the children in more in-depth conversation in group time by asking open-ended questions." Let's see. I know --

Joyce: Here's another one.

Sarah: This is -- Okay. Oh, this one is great. "I know I will have reached my goal when I have asked at least five open-ended questions at circle time." That's great because that's focused on coachee. Joyce, which one did you notice?

Joyce: It was just another one I pulled up that was kind of focused on the coachee's actions. "I will know I have achieved the goal when I have engaged each child by calling them -- by calling on them during whole group." So -- And that was about the coachee's actions.

Sarah: Okay.

Joyce: That was a thinker.

Sarah: Yeah, and this is hard for some of us to think about because I think often, we -- It is focused. We -- I think the way that we normally think about it is what the children are doing, but it's really about what the coachee is doing to elicit what it is we want the child to do. This is great. "I will know I've achieved my goal when I asked how-and-why questions of the children to understand their thought processes behind their initial responses. This is great. You guys have got some great ideas. "I know -- I know I have achieved my goal when I elaborate children's responses during group time." Ooh. "When I have provided the children something to hold or manipulate relating to the large group activity," so that's the coachee providing something or giving something to the children. Let's see. "I know I have achieved my goal when I ask the children to talk to their elbow partner instead of telling me when I ask questions," so that's going to be -- I'm thinking that's asking a partner, or the teacher is going to elicit the child to ask a partner the question.

Joyce: Hey, Sarah, here's another one I have. It says, "I know I have achieved my goal when I use two open-ended questions during whole group."

Sarah: That's great. Perfect. I see another one. "I will know I have achieved my goal when I provide at least two modalities for students to use in order to participate during songs in group time, and then we could even incorporate like an exemplar to describe what those modalities might be, just so it passes the stranger test." And I'm going to take a couple more responses, and then we'll move on. Here. "I know I've achieved my goal when I've given -- when I've read a book and used at least four props to tell the story."

So, that's totally focused on coachee implementation. You guys have really got the hang of this. "I will know I have achieved my goal when I've provided three to five child-led activities during whole group," and I'm going to take one more. Let's see here. This is a good one. "I know I have achieved my goal when I stop and listen rather than talk all of the time during whole group." All right. So, it takes a little time to think about, like, what that would be, but these are -- to change that up between child-focused and coachee-focused, but that is a great way to do it, so great responses. All right. So, we're going to talk about to action steps, resources and timeline now. Action steps are the steps that the coach or the coachee will do to help the coachee reach his or her goals. So, as we mentioned earlier, when writing goals, you typically want to start with the goal and then write the achievement statement because the achievement statement is really going to guide what the steps you need to put in place to reach the goal.

There -- there's no set amount of steps that an action plan should have, however an action plan with no steps might be too simple, or an action plan with many steps could -- might indicate that it's complex and might need to be broken into smaller, two smaller goals or multiple goals. So, two or more is a good amount to help break down a larger goal into some bite-sized achievable steps. Although the support that you provide and use, the use of coaching strategies, is going to vary from coachee to coachee, but it's important that the coach is included as a resource. This can help the coachee reach their goals and help them build the collaborative partnership, so I would encourage including coach support in the action steps, and it could even be that the coach is going to observe or practice. It could be that a coach is going to use a coaching strategy during the observation.

So, it could be as simple as that. It's important to list out the resources that are needed for each action step, and the resources don't necessarily have to be elaborate resources. It could include supplies that you might need to create a visual or something like that, or it could be a website that you might need -- ask the coachee to refer to get more information. Each step don't -- each step doesn't have to have dates by them, but it would be important to plan ahead for the next two steps just so that you have timelines in place, and it could be that one step is dependent on another step, so that the step prior needs to happen before the one below it can occur. So, you just want to make sure that you have the timeline set so that everyone is aware of what's happening next, and they're not set in stone. You can modify timelines. Just as we said in the beginning, action plans are living documents, and you can adjust as you need because we know life happens, and things happen, so you have to be flexible. But setting dates really can help the coach and the coachee stay on track and hold each other accountable. All right. So, I'm going to turn it back over to Joyce, and she's going to give you some time to actually put this in motion and practice using the tool.

Joyce: Yeah, so we reviewed the components of an action plan and how to use the action plan quality checklist. We want to give you a chance to use a checklist to write the action plans in the following slides, and so we're going to use the -- It's going to be, like, a poll feature that's going to come up, and we're going to give you a chance to answer some questions.

So, we're going to look at some action plans, and we're going to break down the action plans down by the component, like the goal, the goal achievement statement, the steps and resources and timeline have make it easier to rate. So, we're going to look at specific pieces of each of these action plans that you're going to see, and we're really excited. We're going to try out this kind of poll feature, so we kind of thank you for your patience and your willingness to kind of play along with us, as well.

So, here we see, this is Tiffany, so this is Tiffany's action plan. She's an infant teacher, and the teaching practice that she is working on is using the children's names in a positive context, so the goal that Tiffany and her coach wrote is, "When I am on the floor with children, I will use each child's name at least once." That's her goal and her goal achievement statement, so use your action plan quality checklist to rate only the goal component, and so there are four questions that are a part of the checklist. One is, does the goal include one or more specific action plans? I'm sorry, one or more specific actions the coachee will do? So, that's a yes or no question. Can the actions be counted or measured? You know, yes or no. If you said no for either of these questions, this goal may a little -- may need to be revised. Are there times of day or activities received or transitions included to make it clear when the coachee should be implementing this specific practice? Is the goal achievablein the next two to three coaching cycles?

And so, now that you've kind of looked at Tiffany's goals -- now that you've kind of looked at Tiffany's goal, then we're going to kind of put the poll question up here for you, and so the question is, is this an effective goal? Remember, is it specific? Is it observable? Is it measurable? Is it achievable? And so, there you see your kind of options to answer, and it's either no, it's not specific. No, because I don't know when the coachee will implement the practice, or, yes, because I know what this coachee will do, when she will implement and how often. So, we're going to have -- looking, we're going to give you a chance to respond, and we see some of the responses kind of coming through. We encourage you to try out. Again, you can try it out by just, like, clicking on your screen, clicking your response, so we see things are coming in. We see the majority of you say yes, that the goal is an effective goal because you feel like it's specific, you know when it's going to happen. A few, you know, feel like it's not -- not specific yet, going through, and then no because I don't know when the coachee will implement the practice, so we've got some kind of different results coming in.

I'll say that the winner is definitely so far, yes because -- I'm sorry. It keeps kind of flipping back up. I think every time someone responds, it kind of flips the poll back up for me, but the majority are kind of saying that yeah because they feel like the goal is specific. And so, we thank you for kind of, again, kind of participating in our poll, and we see some people are also in the group chat that are responding, so thank you for participating however you choose, whether it's via the group chat or whether it's, you know, the -- the poll feature. If you used the poll feature, then we can kind of count you in numbers, so if you want to play along that way, please feel free to just answer the poll right there within -- right there by your PowerPoint. It'll come up, and you can just click on what your answer should be.

Okay. And so, I'm going to move on, and we can see the results there, so here, you're kind of seeing what we saw, and so the majority of you thought that yes, that her goal was specific because you know when the coachee -- what the coachee will do and when she's going to implement and even how often, so that was kind of the -- the resounding voice from you guys, so thank you for that. So, Tiffany's goal is effective, so we were right, so congratulations on that because she says when I am on the floor with children, I will use each child's name at least once, and so there's a specific action that Tiffany identified as far as what -- what -- that she's going to use each child's name at least once. And so, one way to make this even more specific would be to change the word from use to even say, and so that just makes it even more clear for the observer. And then, if I were observing and could count how many times Tiffany says the children's name. And so, if you said no for each of these questions, this goal may need to be revised -- And so, you know, I know that Tiffany's plan to implement this goal when she's sitting on the floor with children because Tiffany is an infant teacher, that when sitting on the floor is enough information. Right? But if Tiffany were a teacher or a caregiver of an older group of children or a home visitor, specifying the activity might be necessary.

So, for example, if she was a pre-K teacher, we may want to say during center time or whole group to help Tiffany plan for implementation. So, again, there's, you know, there's some room there to kind of modify a bit. And so this goal, when we looked at it, is achievable within those two to three cycles because, again, we want to be sure we're focusing on known goals that are achievable within, you know, a very specific kind of timeframe. So, we're going to kind of keep on with our adventure of using the poll feature, and so with this one -- So, this is Jeremiah's action plan. He's a home visitor, so the goal here is that he is -- the goal that he's working on is, I will share specific examples of when the family supports their child's learning during play sessions by responding to their child's communication. So, the goal achievement statement is that I will know that I have achieved this goal when the family is more confident about the support of their child during play and responding to the child's communication attempt.

So, here, use your action plan quality checklist to rate only the goal achievement component, so here we're going to focus in on just that goal achievement statement, and there are two questions related to this on the checklist. The first one is, is it clear how the coachee and the coach will know when the goal is met? And then, is the goal achievement statement dependent on the coachee -- on the coachee's actions rather than the child or parent? So, kind of -- Let's see -- let's see what you think here. So, is it clear to the coach and the coachee when the goal will be achieved? And so, you have the answers here to answer. Your options, so option one is no because we can't measure confidence, and it's based on parent implementation instead of coachee implementation.

The next possible answer is yes, the goal achievement statement is specific, and I know when the coachee has met his goal, and the other option is no because it's not clear and specific how the parent will respond to his child's communication attempt. And so, we're going to invite you to kind of respond there, and we see people are kind of starting to respond. I think we're getting used to the poll feature a little bit. Responses are coming in even faster this time, so thank you for that. Kind of as they're trickling in, I can see that the -- Most of you right now feel that it's not that specific because you can't measure confidence. We have some other responses as well, so we see those kind of coming in. I'm going to give you just a minute, and again, I see some that are responding via the chat, and so thank you for that as well.

We thank you for participating however you feel most comfortable. Again, if you use the poll feature, then we'll be able to kind of count you in the numbers and capture it that way.

So, all right. So, let's look at this, at the goal achievement statement and kind of see. So, here we see our kind of final results once we wrapped up the poll for now, and so we see that most of you thought that, you know, it wasn't -- That no because, you know, you can't measure confidence, and it's based on the parent implementation instead of the coachee implementation, and I see even in the group chat, some of that is coming up, that, you know, we can't measure confidence, and so I see some of that's kind of pulling up there. And then I want to dig into this just a little bit more, and so when we think about Jeremiah's goal achievement statement, you know, the goal achievement statement needs to be revised. There needs to be some tweaks there. The goal achievement statement is, you know, I know that I have achieved this goal when the family is more confident about their support for their child during play and responding to child's communication attempts, so if we kind of look at this goal, we can see that it's not real clear when the goal will be achieved. How are we going to know when the family is more confident? You know, what kind of support will they be giving their child during play, and then how are they responding to child's communication attempts?

So, all these questions kind of make that goal achievement statement unclear, so not only is the goal achievement statement not specific, observable or measurable, it's also dependent on parent implementation of what the parent or the family is doing. And so, remember that the coach is coaching the coachee, so in this instance, it's Jeremiah, the home visitor, and not the child or the family. I know we kind of practiced that with that goal that Sarah went through a few slides back, and so remember, we're really focusing on kind of the actions of the coachee, and so here, it would be the home visitor.

And so, that goal achievement statement isn't dependent on the child or family, so to make this goal achievement statement more specific or measurable, we can revise it to say, "I will know I have achieved this goal when I have pointed out variably at least one instance when the parents are doing something to support." Like, for example, you know, asking open-ended questions, providing enough information for their child's learning during play -- during a play session, so you can see that I've revised this statement to be focused on the home visitor's implementation of the practices, and also added some exemplars to explain the words that are vague. Again, when we're thinking about, you know, goals and these goal achievement statements, they're very specific statements that are -- You know, they're specific. They're achievable. They're measurable.

They're observable, so we have that one, and now we're going to look at another one, another example. I -- I -- And here's that revised statement. Sorry, I missed that animation there. So, we're going to look at another example, and I'm really liking this poll feature, so let's try this out again. And so, here, this is Camilla, and she's a family childcare provider. She's working providing transition mornings and individualizing them for one child that needs more support, so she's kind of providing those transition cues and individualizing this for one child's needs. using your action plan quality checklist, rate the action steps.

So, here, we're going to focus in on the action steps for Camilla's action plan, and use that checklist, the quality checklist, to kind of take a look at the action steps, the resources and the timelines there. the things to look at within the checklist are, you know, are there two or more action steps to break down how the goal will be achieved? You know, is there at least one action step that includes what support the coach will provide, if they were modeling side by side, support, videotaping, et cetera, and then when thinking about resources, are there materials or resources listed for all the action steps? You know, is there a timeline for the next action step to happen so in a list? Let's see what you think about this one, and we're going to bring up our poll, and so in our poll, and we're going to say does this action plan have the action steps, the resources needed and the timelines to achieve the goal? And again, there, you have two options to answer, either no because the resources are not supports to teach the coachee something about transitions, or yes, the action plan has steps, resources and timelines to reach the goal.

So, we're going to give you -- I'm going to give you a few seconds there for your poll to answer, and we see people kind of starting to trickle in and answer the question or kind of provide what their answer is, and this time, I'm not going to say kind of the results as they come in. We're just going to be surprised all together. I'm going to give you just -- just a few more seconds to kind of answer, and thank you, guys, for kind of participating both ways, via the group chat or the -- our poll feature. I will say, with the polling feature as well, it is, like, a pop-up window, so if you have a pop-up blocker on your computer, you just need to disable that or, you know, kind of allow the pop-ups from the ON24 Platform if that's an issue.

Now, our results are coming in, and we're having more and more people respond, so thank you. And I think -- I think our -- our group likes this, so we have to look into and see about incorporating some of these polls into more upcoming webinars, like these multiple-choice things. Okay. So, I am going to give us just maybe about 5 more seconds to answer the poll, and then we're going to see our results together, and here, kind of the resounding answer was yes. This action plan has steps, resources, and kind of a timeline, so it has those pieces there. So, again, thank you for kind of playing along with us, and so when we kind of look -- when we kind of look at Camilla's action plan, it includes steps and resources and timelines to achieve her goal, so thinking about the action plan steps, you know -- you know, Camilla and her coach, you know, that while they didn't plan an action plan step that includes coach support, although this could help coach's reach their goals or strengths, the collaborative partnership between the coach and the coachee, you don't need to kind of revise the goal for this. Maybe consider adding in coach support for the next action plan if needed. When thinking about the resources in Camilla's action plan steps, materials or resources listed for all action plan steps, and so you'll notice that the resources that were included in Camilla's action plan were not websites or handouts.

It's just -- it's good to remember that resources don't always have to be things or information that you're giving the coachee, that they can simply be things the coachee needs to create something or plan to reach their goals. Now in thinking about the timeline, there are timelines for all the action plan steps. It's okay to revise the timelines if a coachee needs more time to complete the steps, and it's okay to revise the document, and that's the great thing about action plans is that they are, like, really working live documents that can be modified as you go to really meet the specific needs of your coachee.

And then here we have just a couple of minutes here, and so we just want to hear from you. You can use your Q&A widget or the group chat. I'll say with the group chat because it goes down to the most recent entry, so that may be a little harder to track, so you're welcome to use the Q&A widget. You know, how could you use this tool? How could this tool be useful for you, the checklist that we were just using? So, we'd love to hear from you. Is this something you think would be useful? How could you use it? Are you still trying it out today?

And while those things are kind of populating in, Tanya says that she loves this tool. Thank you, Tanya, and then Julia is saying in the group chat that it really kind of specifies specific action plan steps. Stephanie S. says it's a really -- it's a great tool to kind of stay organized. Diane B. says that they actually use action plan A, that -- They were mentioned earlier, and they really find that action plan to be useful, and then I'm going back into Q&A for just a minute. Here, Sonia says that the tools could really help her provide support that is specific, so that -- that's great for that. Thank you for that feedback. Ah.

Sarah: Emily says that she supports coaches, and that she's going to use this tool to help look at their action plans to see where they might need some support.

Joyce: Oh, that's great. Thank you. And then Wendy says she really likes the specific examples and the resources, the way that we did that, so thank you. Thank you for all of your feedback because this really helps us because our goal is to support you and what you do, and we were hoping this resource would be helpful in that way. And then Heather says that she thinks she's going to use it in writing her goals, so that if she's writing -- she's kind of writing those goals in collaboration with her coachee that she's checking the goals as they kind of go on together. So, that's good, especially this kind of -- You know, any time along the way, but I would definitely say, like, starting out that this could be kind of a great tool, and even, like, a confidence booster, right, as far as in your practice as a coach as well.

Sarah: Aw. I see here, "I really like this information. I will definitely tweak the way I write action plans, quite an eye-opener. I will be a better coach." That's great.

Joyce: Aw.

Sarah: We're so glad you like it.

Joyce: Yeah. Well, I think that that --Because we are at 4:00, and we definitely want to be respectful of your time, and I think that's a great comment to leave it on, Sarah, so thank you for finding that for us. What we do ask you is to please -- Thank you. Thank you for joining us today, that we really know that, you know, action plans really kind of direct that coaching that happens, and it really helps to support coaches and coachees in achieving their goal, so we just want to use the last two minutes of the webinar to kind of address any last-minute questions. Then also, please, we ask you to complete the evaluation just using the link here, and you're going to see it come up in the chat box as well.

Thank you, Erica, for putting that up there for us, and so we ask that you please complete the evaluation because, again, we really do use this information to help guide our future webinars. Remember that the evaluation will be closed in three days, and certificates won't be available after those three days, so right now, once you complete the evaluation, you can download your certificate of completion for participation today.

Thank you for joining us today. A reminder, we'll see you again here on May the 22 at 3 p.m. Eastern, and we look forward to seeing you on MyPeers, and please feel free to e-mail us and even reach out to us in the MyPeers community. Sarah and I are kind of in and out of there quite a bit, and we look forward to hearing from you with any additional questions, and we'll see you on MyPeers.