Notes
Coaching Session #6 – Reflection and Commitment to Change in Practice
Coachee: Mika Roark
Date/Time: April 15, 2026 12:30 p.m.
Next Coaching Date/Time: April 19, 2026 12:30 p.m.
Overarching goal with students: I will work with five students that are in a fluency support group by providing supplementary passages and texts that match the topic of the curriculum (for example, space or immigration) to assist students’ knowledge of the vocabulary found in assessment passages about the topic. I will track students’ progress by using their December CBM fluency scores as the baseline. My goal is for each student to improve their score 5% by March 13, 10% by April 17, and 15% by May 15.
Problem of practice goal: Mika would like to see if the use of individual fluency component checks with students impacts their fluency score on their spring FastBridge CBM. Rate, accuracy, phrasing, expression, punctuation are the individual fluency components we will be working on. Mika has posters that the students review in each fluency support session, and she has made smaller, individual ones for each student in the group. As students are reading during small group time, she can point to the component that the student needs to focus on giving them immediate feedback “in the moment.” This eliminates distractions for the other students in the group. After the students have finished in the group, Mika will have the students rate themselves on each of the components to get their perspective on how they are performing for fluency skills. Mika will also be noting their progress during group time.
Coachee reflections on student progress toward goal:
Coach reflections on student progress toward goal and coaching session: At this time, Mika is unsure whether the students will meet their improvement goals we have set up for them. She will continue to track them to see if their growth goes up. When she entered them into progress monitoring recently, she changed the rate of growth expected to see if she can push them a little further. The trendline will show up in a more aggressive way than the program automatically sets for the students. We also discussed the students’ assessments last week and that this was a difficult time for most of the students. Because of state testing, Mika did not work on any other assessments and did not introduce new content to her students.
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?
In what ways do you see students needing this change in your practice? Mika is hoping it will make them more aware of where they are in each of the elements of fluency. She feels like she has a lot of robotic readers. Some students can read the words accurately, but they are still reading robotically. To help comprehension, the other components need to be in place. They have trouble with breathing when they are reading. By working on the elements of fluency, she is hoping this will transfer into their independence as fluent readers. She wants to increase their fluency scores but also keep their other scores where they are or also improving.
What will you need to do to accomplish your goal(s)? Progress monitoring, using elements of fluency cards with the students, the self-monitoring checklist or rating scale (Mika will be creating this and implementing next week).
What is the evidence that you can use to demonstrate progress toward goal(s)? Progress monitoring; Mika will learn a lot about how the students feel as readers through the process. Right now, the students don’t have confidence. She feels that self-awareness will play a big role in their progress going forward. Mini-conferences will also play a role in helping the students move forward with their fluency skills.
How might this work impact other teachers? How can you share this work? There are a lot of fluency groups at the school starting about 2nd grade. If she sees that this works and is a solid strategy, she will share with her colleagues.
How will the work impact your students? Increased confidence, fluent readers, preparing them for the next grade level. Mika knows that her students will be required to read more in all content areas going forward in grade levels.
What will you be looking for in your students to see that work on the problem of practice is working for your students? Mini-conferences held with the students will be critical. Mika still has seven students in the group, so that is a lot of students to monitor. Students were given state assessments last week; there wasn’t a lot left to focus on other things. Nothing new was introduced.
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 May 15.
You can create a video if you like, but that is no longer required.