Megan Johnson

Inquiry Brief Wondering

Fall 2013

My wondering for my inquiry this semester is: How can I use my phonics instruction to create more successful readers?

Rationale My collaborating teacher and I are sharing a wondering this semester and we are going to work on it together. She was explaining to me that she has noticed that her students will be successful with reading words and short sentences, but when it comes to reading longer passages they struggle. We are using the Isabel Beck program for our phonics instruction, but we are incorporating different strategies to support our wondering. Our goal is to have our students successfully reading longer passages by the end of the year. Since I will also be with my collaborating teacher next semester I am excited to see how well the students do.

Literature Some of the literature I have been reviewing indicates that the earlier you can begin having your students engaged in reading the more successful readers they will be. The article titled Creating Engaged Readers states that according to research, there are three categories that effect students engagement while reading (1) competence and efficacy belief; (2) purpose for reading, including intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and achievement goals; and (3) social purposes for reading (Borgie, 2010). If we want our students to be successful readers, we need to get them excited about reading. This article also discusses how we need to get our students to read for intrinsic pleasure, and to develop this in our students we must expect our students to be successful, we must involve them in collaborative work peers, we must help our students feel

Megan Johnson

Inquiry Brief

Fall 2013

capable in their reading abilities, and we must also allow our students to decide what they read, this helps them feel a sense of ownership. One strategy we can use to engage our kindergartener students is to have them participate in echo reading and readers theater. Not only do these activities engage our students, but they also increase their fluency and their comprehension (Borgie, 2010). In the article titled Concept of Word and Phoneme Awareness in the Beginning Reader, the author discusses the importance of prerequisites to reading, a crucial one being the phoneme segmentation ability (Morris, 1983). The author cites Henderson (1980) saying this the childa ability to identify words in text as individual, nameable objects appears to be a watershed event in learning to read (Morris, pg. 360). In an experiment conducted in 1980 by the author of this article, he administered a concept of word task and two phoneme awareness tasks to 21 Charlottesville, Virginia, first graders in the first month of the school year (Morris, pg. 361). He gave a eight-word word recognition pretest, and six of the eight words appeared in a poem the child read. With the help of picture cues and support from the examiner, the students learned to recite a four line poem. After the child successfully mastered the spoken poem the child was given a printed copy and told that it matched the spoken poem. The examiner modeled reading the poem the first time, making sure to point to each word as it was read. The child was then asked to read the second line of the poem, while the examiner recorded if the student pointed with accuracy. Lastly, the students were asked to identify two target words within the line they just read. The examiner pointed to the words and the responses were recorded. Next the student and examiner choral read the poem together, and after the examiner pointed to words in the poem and the student was asked to read the words. The students were then provided with the six target words individually and asked to read them. This concept of word task provided four

Megan Johnson

Inquiry Brief

Fall 2013

measures of the childs awareness of the spoken word: a) ability to point to words as one reads a memorized text aloud- pointing score. b) ability to identify individual words within a single line. c) ability to identify words within the context of a four-line rhyme. d) ability to identify words following a short, supported reading experience. (Morris, pg. 362). In the article titled Pathways to Literacy: A Study of Invented Spelling and Its Role in Learning to Read written by Gene Ouellette and Monique Senechal, the authors found that kindergarteners that used the invented spelling learned to read more words in a learn-to-read task than the students who did not use invented spelling. They believe that one of the reasons is due to the childs own experimentation with representing the words in print and it occurs naturally it is a developmental progression in which spelling attempts increase in phonological and orthographic accuracy over time (Ouellette & Senechal, pg. 1). In chapter four of Words Their Way written by Donald R. Bear, Shane Templeton, Marcia Invernizzi, and Francine Johnston, the authors focus on word study for learners in the emergent stage. They discuss the different stages the students should go through to become successful readers and strategies to use with them. According to Bears (2011) pretend reading is when a child tells a story spontaneously while turning the pages of a book and looking at the pictures. Memory reading is when they recite the story as best as they remember is while pointing to the words on the pages. Both of these help students acquire directionality, which is reading from left to right on the page. It also helps them with their concept of word (COW) which is the ability to track words in print while reading from memory. Two kinds of reading formats for emergent readers are interactive read-alouds and shared reading. Interactive readalouds promote oral language discussions around vocabulary, ideas, and concepts related to the content and genre of a book (Bear, et al. pg. 100). During shared reading teachers read from a

Megan Johnson

Inquiry Brief

Fall 2013

big book, charts, or on an overhead where students can see the text, and children can read chorally with the rereadings. Both of these reading formats provide opportunities to talk about the different forms and functions of print, and in this case shared reading is very powerful. In chapter eight of the book titled Ive DIBELd, Now What? Written by Susan L. Hall, the author focuses of intervention activities for letter naming fluency (LNF). Hall (2006) discusses the importance of letter naming in relation to learning to read, knowing letter names helps children associate the sound that the letter makes. According to the author, Gail Gillon claims there is a bi-directional relationship associated with letter naming and phoneme awareness, this is when the knowledge of one concept improves the knowledge of another. Hall (2006) claims there are six minimum goals that will predict later reading success: a strong sense of phonemic awareness, fluency in naming uppercase and lowercase letters, knowledge of how a book is read, realization that reading is comprehending (taught through read-alouds), strong oral language skills, and an expansive vocabulary (pg. 173).

Data Collection Methods My collaborating teacher and I are going to be collecting data mostly through anecdotal notes and formative assessments. My collaborating teacher will also be using data from her previous kindergarten classes, tracking their progress in first and even second grade. Together we compared the scores her previous kindergarten class scored at the end of last year for FAIR testing and what they scored at the beginning of first grade for the FAIR test. She had some surprises, for example some of the students who were successfully reading longer passages at the end of kindergarten were unable to read the same passage in first grade. This informs her how well her teaching methods are staying with students in other grades. I have chosen to collect my

Megan Johnson

Inquiry Brief

Fall 2013

data through anecdotal notes because this is an everyday occurrence; I want to see how engaged and successful my students are with reading all the time. Timeline: September 9, 2013- Decided on wondering: How can I use my phonics instruction to create more successful readers? September 25, 2013- Research literature: Making Sense of Phonics, Words Their Way, ERIC, USF Library, Google Scholar October 2, 2013- Implement strategies: choral reading of poems, blending, segmenting, letter names and sounds, sentence building (some of these we have been doing since the beginning of the year, I just didnt realize they pertained to the inquiry) October 8, 2013- Anecdotal notes: All students were excited to be reading the poem that they know so well Hickory-Dickory Dock; segmenting in phonics- all students were attempting to segment the word, although some were not identifying the correct letters and sounds. Students seem more engaged when we are reading poems that they are familiar with. October 9, 2013- Students received their own copy of the poem today and were asked to highlight the letters we have learned and to practice reading it on their own by pointing to the words as they read them. Students were more on topic while doing this, I think they felt like they had more freedom in what they were highlighting and enjoyed pointing to the words. October 15, 2013- Anecdotal notes- In guided reading we made sentenced with our sight word go, the students wrote down their sentence on sentence strips and then I cut it up. The students then had to put the sentence back in order, this is both a writing and reading

Megan Johnson

Inquiry Brief

Fall 2013

skill. This helps them to see that the order our words are in make sense and that our spoken words can be written down and read. The students struggled with it some but were able to do it with scaffolding and a lot of rereading the sentences. October 16, 2013- Anecdotal notes- In my guided reading group with my lowest group of kids we are still focusing on letter names and sounds, today we used letter tubs to identify the different letters: m, p, and a. This activity gives the students something real to hold that starts with that letter, such as mouse for the letter, they seems more focused when they had tangible objects to relate to the letter.. We also read our letter books; this allows them to read a real book that they can read. It will only focus on one letter, for example M and there will be one word that starts with m on every page, they read it several times. I also have them identify the title and cover, they need to have these basic print concepts to be successful readers. These students can barely do these activities with scaffolding, so we will continue to do this until they have mastered all letter names and sounds. October 22, 2013- Today in guided reading I segmented the sounds of a word and asked the students to read the word, I was very precise with the sounds and stated them slowly so the students could hear all the individual sounds in the word. My yellow and red group needed this more than my green group, I had to say the wounds several times for some of my students to blend it. October 23, 2013- In shared reading today I noted that my students seemed much more engaged with the reading when it was a book that they have read many times and were memory reading along with me. This makes them feel like real readers and makes them excited about the book/lesson.

Megan Johnson

Inquiry Brief

Fall 2013

October 29, 2013- I have found that phonics needs to be taught in steps, for example today in guided reading I was trying to get one of my students to read a word, they were repeatedly saying the wrong sound, so I stopped and asked them what the letter was, then asked them the sound after and they got it right. This is also true when reading sentences, a lot of my students will say they cant read the sentence until I break it down and have them read the words one at a time.

Data Analysis When analyzing my data I identified several themes in my anecdotal notes: on topic, focused, excited, scaffolding, precise, book that they have read many times, in steps, break it down, and in order. Now that I have identified my codes, I need to group them into themes. There are several themes I have identified in effective reading instruction, the codes on topic, focused, and excited relate to engagement, so my first theme in effective reading instruction is engagement. My second set of codes are scaffolding, precise, and book that they have read many times and these relate to the theme of explicit instruction, so my second theme for effective reading instruction is explicitness. The third set of codes are in steps, break it down, and in order and they relate to the theme of sequence, so my third theme in effective reading instruction is sequence.

Summary of main findings Overall I have found a lot of data and information about effective reading and phonics instruction. I have identified three themes: engagement, explicitness, and sequence. The theme of engagement helps keep my students focused on the lesson, I need to include elements in my

Megan Johnson

Inquiry Brief

Fall 2013

lesson that will keep the focus of my students while helping them learn the content. The theme of explicitness is extremely important because phonics can be a very hard concept for students to master, therefor I need to ensure that I am as explicit as possible when I am teaching phonics. It helps the students understand exactly what they are expected to do and what they are learning. The third theme of effective reading and phonics instruction is sequence. Phonics is hard to understand because there are so many levels to it, there are letter names, letter sounds, words, sentences, books, etc. Therefor my phonics instruction needs to taught in a sequence as much as possible so my students do not get overwhelmed and shut down.

Implications I have learned so much from the inquiry this semester, I have learned about my inquiry, I have learned how to code and analyze data, and I have learned how important inquiry is in every day teaching. I have learned a lot about effective phonics and reading instruction and how to best teach my students how to read. My collaborating teacher and I will be together next semester as well and will continue to work on this inquiry, I am very excited to see how far the students come at the end of the year.

Megan Johnson

Inquiry Brief References

Fall 2013

Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M. A., Johnston, F. R., & Templeton, S. R. (2011). Words their way. Pearson. Borgia, L. & Owles, C. (n.d.). Creating engaged readers.

Hall, S. L. (2006). Ive dibeld, now what? Sopris West.

Morris, D. (1983). Concept of word and phoneme awareness in the beginning reader. Reasearch in the teaching of English, Vol. 17, No. 4.

Ouellette, G. & Senechal, M. (2008). Pathways to literacy: A study of invented spelling and its role in learning to read. Society for Research in Child Development.