A Model of Joint Action for Literacy Coaching: The Intersection of Consonance and Dissonance With Responsive and Directive Approaches

This 7-month multiple case study investigated the nature of mediation through literacy coaching, a reflective framework, and video of classroom instruction and its impact on the development of four secondary-level teachers of English language learners. The participants and researcher/coach participated in a cycle of collaborative planning, enacting and videotaping lessons, and video reflection. Individual coaching sessions with video utilized a seven-step reflective framework. Data included coaching transcripts, classroom field notes, video, and interviews. Findings showed that the teachers and researcher/coach engaged in seven different joint actions: revoicing, building, reconceptualizing, disagreeing, suggesting, asking dissonant questions, and asking questions to develop understanding. Each of these actions was classified on one axis as responsive or directive and on another axis as consonant or dissonant. The intersection of the axes created quadrants representing categories of joint action that were present during coaching sessions and classroom visits: responsive/consonant, responsive/dissonant, directive/dissonant, and directive/consonant. Joint actions led to changes in teachers’ thinking and practices, indicating that a theoretical model accounting for responsiveness, directiveness, consonance, and dissonance may be useful to analyze coaching interactions. Coaches and teachers could use the model to analyze their interactions and support their own development.