Liyan Yang

by Iva Lee Colgan

Session Time: 05/04/2026 1:00 pm | Phase: Reflect and Recommit | Session Length: 0:30

Goals

By May, 2026, the student will explore and learn about Oral Language, Phonological and Phonemic Awareness, and Phonics (specifically as they relate to instruction and support for English Language Learners), as documented by a professional discussion with her coach about theory and translation into practice.
Stage: Target Goal

Goal Information

Date: March 30, 2026

Attainment Scale:
Starting Point:

This content is new to the student. She does not have access to students, so we are taking a different path to goal achievement.


Midpoint:

discussion of Phonological and Phonemic Awareness


Target Goal:

By May, 2026, the student will explore and learn about Oral Language, Phonological and Phonemic Awareness, and Phonics (specifically as they relate to instruction and support for English Language Learners), as documented by a professional discussion with her coach about theory and translation into practice.


Notes

Coach Log Note 1:

During a personal check-in, Liyan shared that she will graduate in the summer, but still needs to write some papers.  She is still facing a lot of challenges regarding her visa and employment.

She reported that she has completed all the quizzes and Application Tasks for the course.  Even if she does not take Course 1, she wants to “go deeper.”

Some of the things we discussed were:

  • We should teach phonemic awareness and phonics no matter the background or degree of literacy of the student, looking for overlap between languages (less instruction needed), and ascertaining if the student has phonological and phonemic awareness in their home language.
  • Specific Word Recognition Difficulties
  • Learning sounds can contribute to reading comprehension – Liyan
  • Science of Reading can support ELLs.
  • Student reading development covers a wide range of areas.
  • Concrete examples from the lesson plans and videos were helpful!
  • Clarification reminder of the difference between phonological/phonemic awareness (sounds only!) and phonics (mapping the letters on to “spell” the sounds).
  • Aspects of fluency

Liyan shared her hopes to work in education in classroom settings and said that she “really appreciated our work.”

I wished her well in her tenuous circumstances.  <3

 

P.S.  She sent this via email after our final call:

Thank you for the coaching this semester. I truly appreciate your sharing of experiences, questions, and comments on the science of reading.
I hope you will have a restful summer. I am happy to share updates on my feature once there has been further progress.

Thanks, 

LiyanÂ