Choose one teaching move
Which lesson will you bring to your next conversation with your coach? You may have left staff learning with a useful intention, then opened your planner and wondered what you’ll actually do differently. Choose one upcoming lesson and one teaching move that you can prepare together.
Published on 15 September 2026, AERO’s professional learning cycles guide supports implementation teams developing a chosen evidence-based practice within a broader school plan. Its staff-learning modules and modelling and coaching checklists can be tailored to the team’s focus.
There’s a timely NSW connection: the standard NSW public-school calendar lists Monday 12 October 2026 as a school development day and Tuesday 13 October as the Term 4 student start in both divisions. Some border schools follow different dates, so local arrangements still apply.
Illustrative planning record: Bring an existing primary writing lesson about choosing verbs that convey intended movement. Pupils already know the mini-whiteboard response routine, and the teacher has completed relevant staff learning.
Prepare the lesson together
Place the teaching move at a precise moment: after the teacher demonstrates how to revise a sentence and before pupils begin their independent revision.
Try this prompt: “The dog went across the yard. Replace went with a verb that suggests slow movement.” Pupils write one verb on their mini-whiteboards and reveal their answers through the familiar routine. Select a few responses to discuss. Ambled and crept could both work, but they create different pictures. The useful conversation is about meaning, not finding one compulsory answer.
Ask your coach to model the prompt and response routine, then rehearse it together. A suitably prepared practice expert can help the teacher work the move into an upcoming lesson and plan what to do next if the responses show confusion. AERO’s practice guide describes support focused on a manageable practice element and notes that modelling may involve live teaching, video or rehearsal.
Now plan a likely snag. If several pupils write raced, return to the intended slow movement. Contrast the meanings of raced and crept, invite pupils to picture each action, then guide another attempt before independent revision begins. Adjust the wording, examples and level of support for the class in front of you.
Agree what to notice
Give the observer three clear fields:
- The prompt actually used
- How pupil responses were gathered
- The explanation, guidance or next task that followed
Leave those fields blank during planning and record the details in the lesson. That keeps attention on what happened rather than what everyone hoped would happen.
AERO’s scaffold-practice and monitor-progress checklist helps teams choose an observation focus after relevant staff learning. It isn’t intended for performance management or for ticking off every technique in every lesson.
Here, the check connects directly to the writing objective: choosing a verb that conveys the intended movement. Notice how responses are gathered and what the teacher does next, without treating one answer as proof of mastery.
Put the follow-up in the diary
Agree on the follow-up before the lesson. For this example: Thursday 15 October 2026, 3:20–3:40 pm, in the planning room. The teacher and suitably prepared coach have school-supported time for a focused, non-evaluative conversation. That twenty-minute appointment is a practical example, not a required coaching duration.
Use the observation notes to discuss the planned move and choose one specific refinement. The prompt might need sharpening, the response routine might need adjusting or the next explanation might need a clearer contrast. Leave that decision open until teacher and coach can examine what occurred.
The AERO checklist also supports naming the lessons in which a refinement will be practised and deciding when progress will be reviewed. Choose a subsequent writing lesson and arrange another supported opportunity. One lesson is a useful next step, not a completed implementation process or proof of improved learning.
Bring the lesson plan, choose the moment together and put the next conversation in the diary.