Reflection

Action research has impacted students’ learning by giving the students a chance to learn in non-traditional classroom instruction. The students were able to learn new ways to manipulate and produce letters. The students demonstrated growth in letter knowledge, letter sounds, sight words, and their overall reading achievement. Not only have the students shown growth in academics, they have shown growth in social skills. This was an unexpected side effect of my study, one which proved to be beneficial and impactful with students. One of the students in the study struggled with behaviors and often demonstrated negative talk directed toward both peers and adults. By the end of the study, this student was smiling with peers, wanted to help them when needed, had been caught waving to adults in the building, and had a large decrease in negative talk. The study gave all three students a new sense of confidence in themselves and in their learning.

Action research has impacted my current teaching by encouraging and challenging me to think outside of the box and the curriculum to help reach my students’ unique needs. Without the action research, I may not have found, and utilized this approach to letters, letter sounds, and sight word instruction which was so successful for my kindergarten students. As a teacher, I was taking weekly data and was able to see the effects of the intervention both positive and negative. This showed me how my instruction affected the way that the students were learning. With all of my grade levels, I was encouraged to find ways to use best practice to support them and a reminder to take weekly data to see how the interventions and instruction is working.

Action research has impacted my growth as a professional in many ways. It has pushed me to use best practice instruction with all of my students. It taught me the importance of searching for research from professional, peer reviewed sources. The action research experience has also taught me to be a collaborator with other professionals. Throughout the study I used multiple external and internal stakeholders to look for advice, their professional opinions, and instructional strategies which have proved successful through time. I have learned to analyze data and utilize that data to evaluate my professional practice and make instructional decisions. All of this learning and growth will be utilized as I move through my professional career. The impact of this experience will reach far beyond the students in my action research study.

Through action research on alphabet knowledge and its effect on reading achievement, I learned that students need explicit instruction on individual letters. During that explicit instruction I learned that students, especially students with diagnosed disabilities, need to learn in more than one mode. I learned that students learned best by doing hands on activities to produce letters. I still wonder how well the students will be able to maintain the alphabet knowledge. Especially for students with epilepsy, are there certain ways to help generalize information and increase retention? I continue to wonder how I can best help them continue to use what they learned while minimizing regression.

From the action research, I found that the length of the lessons needed to be refined. I was using 30 minute lessons to teach kindergartners. Throughout the action research, I found our group only needing, or being able to handle, a maximum of 20 minute lessons. The students in kindergarten did not yet have the stamina to withstand a full 30 minute lesson. One way I adapted my instructional practice to this realization was to chunk my instruction. I chunked my instruction by starting with song, producing the letters, explicit sight word instruction, and ended with reading. The second thing which needs refinement for the future is the addition structured and dedicated time for the instruction of sight words. During the study I found that learning sight words alongside of the individual letters helped students to generalize and recognize letters in text. With the addition of sight word instruction, students were able to start reading beginning level texts.

Moving forward, when working with kindergarten students I will implement strategies that require students to be continually using different modes of learning. For example, the students in my capstone enjoyed singing, using body movements, producing letters with blocks, clay, shaving cream, and more. When students were able to produce their letters in non-traditional ways, they had a higher success rate as well as a higher enjoyment rate. In the future, I will continue to research new and fun ways for students to be interactive with what they are learning, not just in reading but in all areas of teaching. When I implemented research based, best practice instruction, my students showed higher rates of academic success. So, for future teaching I will do more research and be sure to implement research based, best practice, instruction in all content and grade levels.