Educational reforms and the need for improved student achievement has led many school districts across the United States hire instructional coaches (Kurz et al., 2017). Much of the focus for instructional coaching in P-12 public schools has focused on standardized tested subject areas such as math and literacy, rarely including the arts. This paper follows the year-long work of former instructional coach for fine arts and then graduate student’s study of implementation historically responsive literacy (Muhammad, 2023) in a fourth and fifth grade band classroom during the 2024-2025 academic year.Identity, skills, intellect, criticality, and joy are the five pursuits that make up Gholdy Muhammad’s (2023) historically responsive literacy framework. Each pursuit focuses on a different facet of a student’s experience and how teachers may engage more deeply in their educational experiences. Identity seeks to help students make sense of who they are and to learn about [their] diverse cultural lives and identities of others. Skills are what students will do or are expected to achieve based on learning standards. Intellect is knowledge that is put into action - knowledge that is applied in the world” (p. 83) or how students can contextualize the world. Criticality allows students to extend their learning beyond the school, to make the world a better place. Muhammad states that “criticality asks students to evaluate and dismantle oppressive systems” (p. 75). And lastly, joy, or the “practice of loving self and humanity” (p. 77).The action research process, according to Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) consists of a spiral of self-reflective cycles: planning a change, acting and observing the process and consequences of the change, reflecting on these processes and consequences, and then re-planning, acting and observing, reflecting and more (Kemmis et al., 2014, p. 18). We sought to embark on the critical portion through a lens that seeks to change both the social and educational process. Weekly virtual meetings, or coaching sessions were held to discuss instructional practices, reflect on the lessons taught, and plan for future teaching. Data sources for this paper include lesson plans, creative writings, and meeting transcripts. This research explores the role the instructional coach played in the implementation of historically responsive literacy which was accomplished through various coaching moves or methods of questioning (Aguilar, 2020, Knight, 2009, Sweeney & Harris, 2016).