Notes
Coaching Session #6 – Reflection on Problem of Practice and Student Progress
Coachee: Allysa Reck
Date/Time: April 13, 2026 4:15 p.m.
Next Coaching Date/Time: April 27, 2026 4:15 p.m.
Overarching goal with students: Student A will engage in one-on-one instruction for phonics and phonemic awareness lessons for blends by March 17, digraphs by April 15, and long vowel sounds by May 15 at 80% academic success measured by PSI and FastBridge assessments.
The student has surpassed the goal of learning digraphs before the end goal date. She passed digraphs for nonsense words at 100% and sentences at 90%. The date of assessment was 3/30/26.
FastBridge and PSI testing are about two weeks away.
Problem of practice goal: I want to supplement the existing curriculum materials for words containing blends, digraphs, long vowel sounds, etc. The words in the curriculum materials are limited and sometimes the words are not ones that we use regularly; this can be confusing to students. Generating additional words will further challenge my students to learn. I will consult lists from other resources such as Words Their Way to generate my lists. I will work on generating these lists before the end of the school year so that I can have them in place for next year.
Coachee reflections: Student A is continuing to make progress and apply the skills that she has learned in our previous phonics intervention groups (digraphs, blends, etc.). I have tried to integrate words that include these previous phonics skills, so she doesn’t “forget” them. I noticed recently that she is getting stuck on some of her blends again, where she will drop the “l” or “t” in the s-blend. I’m going to continue to add to my word list, specifically looking for long vowel silent e words that have blends/digraphs and are familiar to her. Once I’ve compiled a long vowel silent “e” list, I want to start working on word lists for some of the other phonics skills I work with in intervention groups.
Coach reflections: The audio recording demonstrated Allysa’s continued work with student A. Having mastered blends and digraphs, the student is now working on long vowel sounds. The current recording was for i-consonant-silent e words. A. was able to say the words, spine and shine, when segmented for her. She showed that she can work on this task for blends and digraphs at the beginning of words. She was also successful at using chips to work on segmenting the sounds in words on her own. Allysa uses positive reinforcement with the student and tells A., “I saw you thinking.” Throughout the lesson, Allysa helped the student understand the meaning of words when A. asked questions (which is often). She is still very curious and articulate throughout the lesson. At the end of the lesson when she was working on the word ‘ride,’ she made a connection to a song that she knows containing that word. I like that the student can use the words in context often throughout the time that Allysa works with her. Today, A. seemed more distracted than usual, and Allysa said that she has recently been more distracted throughout the day.
Questions to consider:
The Problem of Practice is a lot like setting a SMART goal:
- A focus on the instructional core,
- Our work on the goal is actionable,
- Action toward the goal is directly observable,
- The work is connected to a broader strategy of improvement, and
- The work is high-leverage and may result in important changes to instruction and student learning
Focus questions:
What is the task? The problem of practice is supplementing the current curriculum lists of words used with students for phonological tasks. The lists that come with the curriculum are limited and sometimes contain words that are not often used in everyday language.
In what ways do you see students needing this change in your practice? The teacher’s manual only has 24 words that are used (six words for each). Allysa feels that the students need more variety. Allysa found more word lists using AI. It gave her some challenge words for higher kids including two-syllable words. She feels it is important for those students to begin to see multisyllabic words, and a 3rd grade teacher recommended that she use them to help the students prepare for the 3rd grade expectations. Multisyllabic words are only introduced in the current curriculum.
What will you need to do to accomplish your goal(s)? Allysa will try being more specific with AI to generate additional words that might be available only from resources like Words Their Way and Lindamood Bell. She will be doing this for all the words used throughout the year, not just silent e words. The current curriculum does give non-examples, and she has found some resources for this online (example: fine and fin).
What is the evidence that you can use to demonstrate progress toward goal(s)? The word lists that she has already been able to make based on her online research.
How might this work impact other teachers? How can you share this work? Allysa has not shared with her colleagues but has shared about her work with A. As a result, the grade level is trying to give select students more one-on-one time within their small group instructional time.
How will the work impact your students? What she is doing will help everybody, eventually. It will give Allysa more resources to work with, and helps to refine the curriculum.
What will you be looking for in your student to see that work on the problem of practice is working for your student? Finding words that are familiar to A. Using a variety of words that also contain blends and digraphs. Allysa wants to see application of what she has learned during her reading time applied to her writing.
Working on Next Steps
Work on implementation of your goal for problem of practice by the next coaching session.
Keep working on steps toward goal with your identified students that you want to meet by mid-May. Think about a mini-goal between April 15 and May 15 that you can achieve.
You can create a video if you like, but that is no longer required.