Instructional Coaching

Job description and scope of work, aligned to the CAMP Teacher Coaching Framework.
Caseload: 4–6 Math and ELA teachers, weighted to grades 7 and 8 Serves on the Instructional Leadership Team; PLCs for assigned content

Reporting to On’Draya Morris, the Instructional Coach makes the Teacher Coaching Framework real week by week for four to six Math and ELA teachers, weighted toward grades 7 and 8. The central work of the role is intellectual prep: no lesson is taught in a coached classroom until the standard has been unpacked, the exemplar written, the productive struggle named, and the likely student errors anticipated with a teacher move planned for each.

Everything else follows from that. Alongside it, the coach runs the weekly cycle — observing each teacher 15 to 20 minutes weekly and scripting what students say, write, and do; holding a 15-minute feedback conversation in the same week that names one management step and one rigor step rather than the biggest problem in the room; rehearsing the move before the teacher tries it live;

and following up within seven days to look for it in student work. The coach protects prep time on the calendar, sits in it with teachers rather than assigning it, leads lesson internalization in PLCs, plans SMART scaffolds with removal dates that hold grade-level work within reach, brings real student papers and iReady data from baseline, mid-year, and end of year to every conversation, models and co-teaches according to the teacher’s stage of practice through gradual release of responsibility, keeps high-dosage tutoring tied to classroom priority standards across the 24-week plan, uses a shared set of look-fors as the common language of observation, and reports trends rather than anecdotes to the Instructional Leadership Team as grows, glows, and actions.

The role requires a bachelor’s degree, valid certification, at least three years of successful middle-grades Math or ELA teaching with evidence of student growth, working knowledge of Alabama grade-level standards, demonstrated skill in intellectual prep — unpacking a standard and writing an exemplar before teaching it — and the ability to hold a high bar and a warm relationship at the same time;

coaching or department-lead experience and familiarity with scaffolding design are preferred. Success is reviewed at mid-year and end of year against teacher progress on their named action steps, measurable iReady and classroom gains from baseline, faithful weekly delivery of the cycle for every teacher on the caseload, and one final question — are more students reaching grade-level standards than before.

• Weekly alignment meeting. A standing 30-minute meeting with On’Draya Morris covering caseload status, each teacher’s current action step, and any barrier that needs a leadership decision. Agenda and notes submitted the same day.
• Observation and Feedback Records. One completed record per teacher per week, naming the look-fors observed, the evidence collected, the action step assigned, and the follow-up date.
• Coaching cycle log. A running record of observation, feedback, practice, and follow-up dates for every teacher on the caseload, showing the cycle was actually delivered.
• Intellectual prep packet, per unit, per teacher. The standard unpacked into its parts, the exemplar written by hand, the productive struggle named and located in the lesson, anticipated student errors with the teacher move for each, and the exit ticket aligned to the exemplar — completed before the unit begins.
• Annotated lessons. Lessons marked as they will actually be taught: key questions, timing, and instructional moves noted, not just read.
• Weekly prep block, co-facilitated. A protected block per teacher or content team where prep is done together, with the exemplar produced in the room before anyone leaves.
• Scaffold plans with removal dates. For each priority standard, the scaffolds in use, who receives them, and the date each comes out.
• PLC student work analysis. A reteach decision from each PLC or data meeting, grounded in student papers compared to the exemplar.
• Benchmark data summaries. Baseline, mid-year, and end-of-year iReady and…