Action Research: Sight Word Recognition Autumn B.

Combs Samford University

Meeting with Cooperating Teacher

During the meeting with my cooperating teacher, I gave him a brief overview of the research that I would be conducting over the course of the semester. We talked about the necessity of a group of children that was not too large but more than one student. He finally gave me student A and student S to work with. I was assigned these two children for my group. Both students are struggling with reading and are quite behind grade level in reading. I asked him if there were any specific areas that he wanted me to work on with the students that would be most beneficial. He mostly left the decision making for the topic up to me saying that these children could use help with any subject that I chose. I had worked on a few occasions with both of the children that were assigned to me before this meeting and knew a few of their weaknesses in reading. I decided to focus on sight word recognition in hopes to increase their automaticity and therefore improve their fluency and comprehension. After I chose this topic, I went back to the teacher to discuss the plan with him. He seemed pleased with the decision for sight word work. He and I agreed that I would pull the students individually during silent reading time on the days that I was there. During this time we would work on sight words and improving recognition. Student A is an African American female student. She is supposed to start special education testing soon. I knew that she needed help with sight word recognition in order to help her with reading. She is behind her peers in reading and far from reaching the reading level standard for second grade at the end of the year. Student S is a Latino male student. He is an ELL student whose English vocabulary is still developing. I knew from previous meetings with him during class that he would need very basic help. I thought that starting with a basic list of sight words would help them achieve a level of automaticity with these words, improve reading abilities, and increase reading confidence.

Research Question After getting permission from my cooperating teacher to work with these students on sight word recognition, I collaborated with my Smaford professor in order to develop a research question to use. I in fact walked away with a question to research after this meeting. The question is as follows: What does research say are the best strategies for increasing sight word recognition?

Baseline Data I chose the My Feelings About Reading interest inventory for my students. This inventory is short and provides pictures as tools to help the students. These two factors were key in my selecting this assessment. I knew that my children would not do well with one of the longer assessments where writing was needed. That type of assessment would only be frustrating and would not provide the information that I needed. I also knew that the pictures would help them understand the assessment better by providing that extra scaffolding. The assessment was administered to each child individually. During the assessment I read the sentence to the child and allowed them to mark the answer that fit how they felt. It is easy to see that both children were trying to please with their answers. They know that they should like reading but it is still difficult for them. Student S had a difficult time with answering some of the questions. He was unsure of what they meant when I would read them to him. At one point I actually resorted to speaking in Spanish in order to convey what the question was asking. Student As interest inventory showed that she likes to read but that it is hard for her. It also shows that she may not have a rich print environment at home. For student S, his interest inventory shows that He reads at home and enjoys reading. The only negative answer on his inventory was that he does not like to read long stories. This data was helpful for me to get a glimpse at their feelings toward reading. The data could have been skewed by three factors. The first factor that could have skewed the information is the fact that I felt as though student A was trying to impress or answer questions how she thought I wanted her to. The second factor that could have skewed data is the fact that student S did not understand the questions that I was asking. The third factor is again with student S. During this inventory I could tell that his level of anxiety was extremely high. He looked nervous to be with me completing this survey. The nerves and anxiety could have played a role in the inventory as well.

I also chose the Dolch Second Grade Sight Word Assessment to give to the children as the initial assessment. This proved to be problematic. Both students had difficulty identifying even five of the words. I knew then that this assessment was too hard for them and switched to the Dolch Primer Sight Word Assessment. I went down this far because of the level of difficulty that they both had with the second grade words and due to the fact that their reading levels were so low. With the Dolch Primer Assessment student S froze up during testing so I decided to stop for the day considering he had already tried the second grade list that day. For the next week I decided to make flash cards with the words written in different colors in order to provide a more relaxed environment for S so that he was not so uncomfortable. The next week, we retested with the Primer Sight Word list using the flashcards. For student A, during the initial assessment of the Primer Sight Words, she was able to correctly identify nineteen of the fifty-two words correctly. This was a total of thirty-seven percent correct. During this same initial assessment of the Primer Sight Words, student S was able to correctly identify thirteen of the fifty-two words correctly. This was a total of twenty-five percent correct. Both students seemed more comfortable and at ease during the testing with the flashcards. I decided to continue to use the cards in order to get better results. Also, I decided to continue with the Primer set of words due to the fact that they knew a number of them but were unable to identify them all. I thought that this assessment and list was about the level of instruction that they needed.

Research Upon completion of the baseline assessments, it was clear that the two students needed help with sight word recognition. After getting approval on this topic from the necessary people, research began concerning the strategies that would benefit the children most. The question guiding research was, What does research say are the best strategies for increasing sight word recognition? Consultation of the textbook, Teaching Children to Read by offered strategies that could be used with children during sight word instruction. One such strategy was ensuring that the student was able to see the word, say the word, spell the word, write the word, and check the word (Reutzel p. 162). This strategy is prevalent throughout the course of the semester. This was the primary method by which the instruction was guided. With this strategy, the student is sure to have many experiences with the word. The strategy also allows different types of learners to benefit from the instruction. Auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners are accommodated with this strategy. The text book also said that explicit teaching and guidance of this subject will lead to students who read and write words accurately and fluently, making comprehension of text possible (Reutzel p. 163). Again, this is the goal of the instruction so explicit teaching was added to the list of things to include during instruction time with the students. Another piece of advice that was offered by the text book was the fact that it is important for there to be a review of the information covered in order to minimize the amount lost (Reutzel p.161). This also played a role in instruction by incorporating a time when the students were able to see information from previous weeks. We reviewed words so that they were losing a smaller amount of information than they would have if we did not review. All three of these points provided by the text helped give direction and strategy ideas to instruction.

Consultation of a case study was also helpful in deciding instructional strategies to use with the students. In a case study comparing flashcard method versus multisensory approach in sight word teaching, Phillips says that SMART boards were helpful in increasing word recognition due to the direct instruction and drill and practice collective with the multisensory approach of visual stimulation, auditory (sounds), and the kinesthetic-tactile movement (Phillips p. 9). Even though a SMART board was not available for instruction of the students in this research, a white board was used instead. With this, came the idea that the words would still be interactive. The students would be able to see the word written correctly, read it, spell it, write it, and finally spell it using the magnetic letters. Making use of the resources that were available led us to use the magnetic white board in hopes of receiving the positive effects that application of the SMART board allowed in the previous study. This study also said that seeing correct spellings improved the participants memory of [the words] (Phillips p. 12). Again, use of the white board allowed insurance of this fact. With the teacher writing the sight word first and the student reading this version along with using it as a guide to do his or her own work, the student was always in contact with the correct spelling. This method was used again, as a tool to help increase the amount of words that the student was able to learn and remember at the end of the semester. Another study that was found concerning sight word recognition and the instruction of words said that Seeing words in the same context during the week allowed African American and Latino students the best opportunity to increase their sight word recognition. (Turner p. 271). This piece of information was especially exciting for this research due to the fact that one of the students is Latino and the other is African American. In order to allow for this technique during instruction, the students leveled readers were used in order to find the sight words that

had just been discussed. This process allowed the students to see the words not only on the flashcards, or the white board, but in their book. This not only allowed them to see the word in the same context more than once, it allowed the students to make a personal connection between the words and their books that they were reading. Finally an article on the Scholastic website was found concerning sight word instruction. It emphasized the idea of teaching sight words through writing (Mgurussa 2012). Writing was used every day during the instruction in order to help the children become acquainted with the words and help them to learn the words. This article also emphasized the fact that manipulatives help with learning sight words (Mugurussa 2012). This technique was also used with the magnetic wooden letters that the children used to spell the words.

References Mugurussa, T. (2012, October 30). Tips for teaching high frequency and sight words . Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2012/10/tips-teaching-highfrequency-and-sight-words Phillips, W. E., & Feng, J. (2012). Methods for Sight Word Recognition in Kindergarten: Traditional Flashcard Method vs. Multisensory Approach. Online Submission

Reutzel, D.R. & Cooter, R.B. (2012). Teaching children to read (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc. Turner, F. (2012). Increasing Word Recognition with Racially Diverse Second-Grade Students Using Fluency-Oriented Reading Approaches. Journal Of Educational Research, 105(4), 264-276.

Timeline

Date

Accomplishment Talked with cooperating teacher and set up a group of students to work with. Designed research question to be used. Gave both students the interest inventory. Tried to give the second grade dolch sight word assessment but decided that it was too difficult for both children. Reassessed students using the primer list and using flashcards instead of the actual document. This was an attempt to cut down on anxiety.

Student Behavior

9-19

N/A

9-26

Both had problems understanding some of the questions that were asked. Student S was very anxious. Both children began to get frustrated with the word list and lose confidence. Student S was anxious. Both students were more comfortable with the assessment. They were still a little frustrated with the assessment but were able to correctly identify more than before.

10-3

10-10

10-24

10-31

11-12

Began reviewing sight words all and am with flashcards. Students were not very Read a book after each engaged. childs session and looked for those words in the book. Talked about the words are Students enjoyed this better and at. This time I brought than the flashcards but they the white board for them to were still not as engaged as I write on. Read books after the had hoped they would be. session and found these two They love finding the words words. in the book. Brought in magnetic letters to Children were more engaged be used with the white board. than before. They loved the Reviewed all, am, at, and ate. manipulatives and the power Introduced be and black. of getting to write on the Looked for the words again in white board. They were also texts that they were reading. excited about their sight word Also, decided that it would be book that they got to take a good idea to use a sight home. word book that I found online

11-13

11-14

11-15

11-21

to help the children when they went home. They could use the book to continue reviewing. We highlighted the words that we had already went over. Reviewed the words that we had looked over until this point. Reevaluated the students using the Primer dolch word list. Introduced but, came, and did. We highlighted them in the book and used the white board to learn them. We also read books in order to find words that we had been reviewing. Unable to meet with students today. Due to the Friday schedule we did not have time. Worked with the words do, eat, and four. Reviewed but, came, and did from the previous week. Highlighted the words in their book and worked with the white board. We also read a book and looked for their words. Reviewed the words briefly that we had talked about so far. Did the final primer assessment with the flash cards in order to gather the final data.

Both students knew more words than they did to begin with! They both had more confidence as well. The students were well behaved today. They were both a little tired. They enjoyed the sight word book but student A forgot hers at home.

N/A

Student A forgot her book once again. Student S has his but I am not sure that he is able to use it at home.

12-5

Both students did well with the testing. Students S was showing old signs of anxiety. Nothing was different so I am not sure what happened. We read a book first then tested him to give him a chance to calm down.

Data

Chart Title
100% 50% 0% Student A Initial Assessment Student S Mid Assessment Final Assessment

This chart shows allows the reader to see both students progress with the words. Student A went from 37% correct at initial assessment to 50% correct at mid assessment and finally 53.8% at final assessment. For student S, he went from 25% correct at initial assessment, 50% correct at mid assessment, and finally, 57.7% correct at final assessment.

Student Progress Monitoring Chart

Reflection The research that was conducted was very beneficial in the process that I went about with instruction. I feel as though the children benefited overall with the methods that were chose. They enjoyed and benefitted from the different types of learning styles that the methods accommodated for. The process could have been smoother. I wish that we had been more explicit with goals. We mentioned goals at the beginning of the semester but I feel that if we would have had more explicit goals then we would have had something pushing us forward and pushing us to perform at higher levels. I also think that I should have sent the sight word book home with the students earlier. I feel as though it was a crucial element to the learning experience and would have been great if I had started using it and letting the children study from it at home from the beginning. It was nice to get to work with these two and see how it feels to be a reflective teacher. I had to pay attention to my students and watch how they were reacting to the material. When they were not engaged or when they were not getting everything out of the lesson we had to make changes. That is what it is all about, noticing your child, his needs, and his struggles and helping him learn despite all of that. I am glad that I had the chance to work with these two students. I feel as though we all benefitted and learned from the experience. This is especially important in making sure that they are both ready for the third grade when it comes time for next year. These sight words and their automaticity are important for fluent readers. I am glad that I was able to make some sort of impact in the lives of these two.