Challenges
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Choosing appropriate assessments and data points
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Determining order to teach letters
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Completing lessons every other day due to A/B schedule
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Finding time to reteach letters that were not retained
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Completing the entire lesson in only 15 minutes
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Students being absent for multiple days leading to missed instruction
Successes
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Improving alphabet knowledge within my students
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Aiding my students in their name writing abilities
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Increasing the chances of students sounding out words in text
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Developing my students' ability to read
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Fostering a growth mindset for students
Impact on Students
While implementing my study I noticed a significant amount of growth in students. Many of my students that were not able to sound out words in text previously began to sound out short consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words. Because of this, I noticed the confidence levels of students when reading increased. This also lead to students seeming more willing to read, or try to read on their own. This study had an impact on student writing as well. During writing time, students were better able to sound out words as well as write down the correct letter-sound relationships. When it came to name writing, I saw students that were previously not able to write their first name be able to write their entire name at the conclusion of my study. This has made everyday classroom life easier because students can now write their own names on assignments when turning them in.
Professional Growth
Not only did this study help my students grow tremendously, but it also helped me grow as a professional. This study helped me become a more reflective educator. Although I was constantly reflecting before, I feel that my reflecting has become more purposeful and detailed. In the past, I would reflect, but it was mostly mentally thinking over how my lessons went and could be improved next time. I now write more of my reflections so I always am able to refer back to them. I also take the time to focus on more than just how the lesson went but also many other aspects of the lesson itself. In the past, I would examine one point of data to help make instructional decisions, however, because of completing this study I now use multiple data points to make instructional decisions. These changes have helped me grow into a more reflective and purposeful educator for my students.
Changes
If I were to conduct this study again there are a few key changes I would make. First, I would try to extend the time of the study to allow time for me to teach one letter per day. I feel if I would be able to teach only one letter a day it would help students retain the letters better. Second, I would group students based on letters in their names rather than by reading level. I had grouped students based on reading levels because of the leveled readers, however, I feel that it would make it easier to pick letters to work on if students were grouped based on students that had similar letters in their names. Another change I would make would be to see each group every day. I think it would help students stay more focused on the letters if they were learning a new letter each day. Next, I would add in more days for review. I feel it would help students retain their letter knowledge most if a review was done at the end of each week. Finally, if I were to conduct this study again I would try to help students learn how to assess their feelings before giving the feelings survey. I feel this would help the feelings survey be more accurate and I would therefore be able to complete a post feelings survey as well to truly understand if the study helped students feel more comfortable with their alphabet knowledge.
Questions
Although I learned a lot about my students, myself, and my students made tremendous growth in their alphabet knowledge skills, there are still three main questions I have. First, would all my students know all of their letters if I had implemented these strategies at the beginning of the year? Unfortunately, this question will never be answered, however, I feel this could be possible. Some of my students did not make large growth but they did make significant growth from where they were before this study. Second, how could I ensure students answered the questions on the feelings survey accurately? Since I feel that many of my students were simply circling faces rather than thinking about how the question truly made them feel would there be a way to make sure all students answer accurately? Lastly, did students' ability to write their name stem from learning the letters and sounds, or simply from extra practice with name writing? Once again this is another question that cannot be answered absolutely. Ultimately, I feel it is most likely a combination of both, however, it would be interesting to test a different group of students separating the variables. For example, one group of students would only work on letters while the other group would only work on writing their name to see which group makes more progress.
Moving Forward
Completing this action research helped me learn valuable lessons that I will implement in my future classrooms. I see myself always being able to use the EAK strategy to help any of my future students learn their letter names, letter sounds, and how to write their names. Even if this was not being completed in a study, in the future I could still use this strategy. The aspects of this strategy such as repetition, applying the skills to real life, short and engaging lessons, and multiple ways to interact with the content can be applied to almost any subject. Even if I would ever move into a higher grade level I would translate these strategies into other areas. For example, I feel this strategy could also be applied to the concept of sight words. I will also apply the concepts that I learned through completing action research in the future. In the future I will be using multiple data points to make professional decisions as well as making sure to continuously reflect on all aspects of lessons. Because of action research I have grown as an educator in ways that will greatly benefit all my future students.
