Notes
Coaching Session #3 – Commit to Change
Coachee: Jessica Epperson
Date/Time: October 6, 2026, 1:50 p.m.
Next Coaching Date/Time: October 19, 2026, 2:50 p.m.
Overarching goal: Three 2nd grade students will work on identified retelling skills to improve their comprehension skills, and expressive and receptive language. The PSI within the 95% curriculum and a comprehension scale will be used to track students’ progress toward their goals. The dates for achieving progress toward goal are as follows:
Students will be taught the elements of a successful retelling by October 6, 2026
By October 20, 2026, the students will be able to retell a story by scoring 3 out of 6 on the comprehension scale.
By November 3, 2026, the students will be able to retell a story by scoring 4 out of 6 on the comprehension scale.
By November 17, 2026, the students will be able to retell a story by scoring 5 out of 6 on the comprehension scale.
By December ___, 2026, the students will be able to retell a story by scoring 5 to 6 on the comprehension scale.
Reviewing the Video: The video this week was demonstrating phonics work with students in a small group. It showed Jessica completing sound work for short vowel sound words. Jessica is very good at pronouncing the sounds accurately. When talking about blends, she said, “The letters are right by each other; we hear a little bit of both.” She also uses the words in a sentence to help students have some context for the words they are learning.
Questions to consider: How can you use your clear instruction and modeling with your students who you will be working with for retelling details and main idea in a short story?
Based on our reflections, is there anything we need to change about the overarching goal? No, but we did discuss having clear expectations for what a good retelling consists of including main idea and details. Jessica noted the importance of using clarifying language with the students, thinking aloud for them, modeling what a retelling looks like, including framing questions in the lessons, and providing visual scaffolding.
What is working for your student? They are eager learners and engaged in lessons.
What is challenging for you or for your students? Jessica has discovered that the 2 of the 4 students do not have a clear understanding of “what” and “where” and are confusing the two. She will be including this in her lessons with the students. Vocabulary and background knowledge is challenging for these students. Their background knowledge is at different levels; some lack experiences that contributes to background knowledge. Two of the students are English Learners and this could be contributing to their limited background knowledge. We did clarify that stamina is not an issue for these students.
Have you determined any progress toward goal during the past week? While Jessica noted that it is too early to determine this, she did note that the small group setting has helped the students have more engagement (than whole group setting) and that there is increased willingness to try within the small group.
Are you confident that students will make the improvement we are striving for by mid-December? Yes, we believe the students will make progress. Jessica noted that comprehension can foster a love of reading, and she considers this to be critical.
Do we need to change anything about the goal at this time? No.
Working on Next Steps
Keep working on steps toward goal that you want to meet by mid-October.
Create video for this goal of your teaching and student learning.