Rationale
History.
I taught kindergarten at an elementary school in the Omaha-metro area. In my building, there were 273 students. 53.5% of these students received free or reduced lunch. 69.6% of the students were Caucasian, 12.1% of the students were Hispanic, 16.1% of the students were African American, 3.4% of the students were Asian and 2.5% of the students were American Indian. I was the only kindergarten teacher in the building, with 25 students. In my classroom I had three children that were diagnosed with Autism and received special education services. A total of of six students received resource services and seven students received speech services. Four of my students were on behavior plans. I also had three students who received physical and occupational therapy services. Within my building there were a considerable number of military families, around 15%. With such a diverse background of children within the school and within the classroom, I needed to ensure success among all of my students. This data gave a snapshot of challenges or differences that my students may have faced in the classroom. I had to consider all language barriers, ability levels, social skills, and behaviors within my classroom in order to meet them at their level and build their knowledge. Through differentiation, purposeful grouping in guided reading, and culturally responsive teaching practices I met the needs of all students in my classroom, regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or ability level. There were many things to consider when planning lessons for my students.
I taught kindergarten at an elementary school in the Omaha-metro area. In my building, there were 273 students. 53.5% of these students received free or reduced lunch. 69.6% of the students were Caucasian, 12.1% of the students were Hispanic, 16.1% of the students were African American, 3.4% of the students were Asian and 2.5% of the students were American Indian. I was the only kindergarten teacher in the building, with 25 students. In my classroom I had three children that were diagnosed with Autism and received special education services. A total of of six students received resource services and seven students received speech services. Four of my students were on behavior plans. I also had three students who received physical and occupational therapy services. Within my building there were a considerable number of military families, around 15%. With such a diverse background of children within the school and within the classroom, I needed to ensure success among all of my students. This data gave a snapshot of challenges or differences that my students may have faced in the classroom. I had to consider all language barriers, ability levels, social skills, and behaviors within my classroom in order to meet them at their level and build their knowledge. Through differentiation, purposeful grouping in guided reading, and culturally responsive teaching practices I met the needs of all students in my classroom, regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or ability level. There were many things to consider when planning lessons for my students.
Need.
Anecdotal Notes & Observations: Through assessments I gathered a great deal of data about my students. Synthesizing this data, I recognized many of my students struggled in the area of phonological awareness, including letter sounds, rhyming, blending, and segmenting. In the first few weeks of the year, the reading specialist tested all of my students on letters and sounds. She found that 9 of my students were scoring in the beginning range, lacking in letter and/or sound identification, some knowing zero sounds, and others knowing as little as 5 letters. These students began intervention immediately. Recognizing this as a basic and foundational skill for reading I began looking into purposeful activities that I could include in my Daily 5 reading rotations, as well as activities that could be used within the teacher led guided reading rotation. During guided reading rotations, data was tracked using anecdotal notes and data forms that included the amount of letters and letter sounds correctly identified. Themes observed through these notes included a lack of decoding skills. With this data I concluded that students were struggling with the identification of letters and their sounds, and thus were unable to sound out and decode words.
Anecdotal Notes & Observations: Through assessments I gathered a great deal of data about my students. Synthesizing this data, I recognized many of my students struggled in the area of phonological awareness, including letter sounds, rhyming, blending, and segmenting. In the first few weeks of the year, the reading specialist tested all of my students on letters and sounds. She found that 9 of my students were scoring in the beginning range, lacking in letter and/or sound identification, some knowing zero sounds, and others knowing as little as 5 letters. These students began intervention immediately. Recognizing this as a basic and foundational skill for reading I began looking into purposeful activities that I could include in my Daily 5 reading rotations, as well as activities that could be used within the teacher led guided reading rotation. During guided reading rotations, data was tracked using anecdotal notes and data forms that included the amount of letters and letter sounds correctly identified. Themes observed through these notes included a lack of decoding skills. With this data I concluded that students were struggling with the identification of letters and their sounds, and thus were unable to sound out and decode words.
44%of the class performed below the goal in phonological awareness on the Fall MAP test |
MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) Test: The next data point that showed a lack in phonological awareness and phonics was the fall MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) test. The MAP test is an adaptive achievement test, given three times each year, which helps inform the teachers decisions to assess each child’s academic growth. These scores showed that 11 students performed below target in the area of phonological awareness: 20% performed in the low range, and 24% performed in the low-average range. In all, 44% of my class performed below the goal in the area of phonological awareness. 9 of my students performed below the norm grade level score of 141 on the Fall MAP test (across all 4 strands: phonological awareness, writing, comprehension, and vocabulary). The MAP data suggested to me that my students needed more exposure and more practice, providing further rationale for me to adapt my instruction to meet the phonological needs of my students.
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Unit 1 Reading Test & Anecdotal Notes: Students were also assessed using the Unit 1 Reading test. The test included phonological awareness. Of my 25 students, 13 missed 2 or more of the 5 questions that focused specifically on phonological awareness, scoring 60% or lower. These data points were supported by my classroom observations; when working with students in small groups and noting miscues and mistakes, I noted a weakness in phonological awareness. In daily reading rotations I collected observational notes about each student. Daily, I reflected on these notes and used the observations to drive the instruction and focus for the following day’s instruction.
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13students scored 60% or lower in phonological awareness on the Unit 1 Test |
Phonics, phonemic awareness, and phonological awareness are vital in all subject areas, as reading is often times the first step in accessing content. Decoding and reading are skills that will prevail through all areas of my students’ lives, both in and out of the classroom. Students are expected to read with the music teacher, the librarian, the guidance counselor, and all other specialists. In order for my students to succeed completely and thoroughly, they needed practice with word study. |
Importance.
Sound discrimination, rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and more are vital skills that provide a base to improve reading level, comprehension skills, and writing. My students would struggle to move on and improve these skills throughout the year if they did not first master these foundational skills. As seen in the MAP scores, some of my students were performing below the grade level norm in all reading strands. Through the implementation of word study activities, I hoped to not only see increases in their phonological awareness scores and overall MAP reading scores, but in reading achievement in general. Phonics, phonemic awareness, and phonological awareness are vital in all subject areas, as reading is often times the first step in accessing content. Reading is important in math in order to understand and read word problems. It is also a skill that can be applied in science, social studies, and health when students are required to read and write sentences to show their learning. Decoding and reading are skills that will prevail through all areas of my students’ lives, both in and out of the classroom. Students are expected to read with the music teacher, the librarian, the guidance counselor, and all other specialists. In order for my students to succeed completely and thoroughly, they needed practice with word study. Through researching and implementing valid strategies and improving my own confidence in teaching these skills, I hoped to see my students improve in reading achievement; including the Spring MAP test and various reading assessments throughout the year. |
Literature Review
Within guided reading, word study is used to further understanding of phonological awareness (manipulating oral language), phonemic awareness (manipulating individual sounds) and phonics (written language). The purpose of my study was to determine if the use of word study activities in guided reading would increase reading achievement. For the purpose of my literature review and my study, the term “word study” represents any activities that involved phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and/or phonics within guided reading. These activities were solely oral, or a combination of oral and written language.
It was the goal of my study to increase overall reading achievement. In kindergarten, the foundation of all learning begins with reading and the fundamental skills necessary to read. In order to improve reading achievement with my students, I worked on skills such as sound discrimination, rhyming, blending, segmenting, and more. If these skills were not mastered within their first year of school, my students would, potentially, struggle in reading, writing, and beyond.
When implementing any word study activities, it has been shown that one approach is not enough. Teachers need a variety of research-based approaches to teach these skills to students. Teaching only one approach will most likely not address all the needs of the students in any given classroom (Rule, Dockstader & Stewart, 2006). In order to provide the best experience for my students, I have collected and synthesized various articles regarding word study and their related activities in order to expand my knowledge and confidence with these activities.
Click below to learn about the research on valuable strategies for guided reading and word study.
It was the goal of my study to increase overall reading achievement. In kindergarten, the foundation of all learning begins with reading and the fundamental skills necessary to read. In order to improve reading achievement with my students, I worked on skills such as sound discrimination, rhyming, blending, segmenting, and more. If these skills were not mastered within their first year of school, my students would, potentially, struggle in reading, writing, and beyond.
When implementing any word study activities, it has been shown that one approach is not enough. Teachers need a variety of research-based approaches to teach these skills to students. Teaching only one approach will most likely not address all the needs of the students in any given classroom (Rule, Dockstader & Stewart, 2006). In order to provide the best experience for my students, I have collected and synthesized various articles regarding word study and their related activities in order to expand my knowledge and confidence with these activities.
Click below to learn about the research on valuable strategies for guided reading and word study.