Supporting Beginning Readers
Improving phonological awareness skills in kindergarten
Rationale
N E E D
Toward the beginning of the school year, I found that students were struggling with understanding phonological awareness skills. When teaching such skills in a whole-group setting, I noticed that I was not able to recognize which students were and were not participating or understanding these concepts due to wearing face coverings. Data from the following assessments also contributed to the need for this study:
Map Data
The outcomes from the lack of teaching these concepts in a small group setting is shown in student language arts scores on the Fall 2020 Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) data. The phonological awareness skills tested in the Fall 2020 MAP test mainly measured letter sound recognition, letter sound and picture matching, beginning sounds, ending sounds, and blending sounds to make small words. The MAP data indicated 5 out of 21 students were close to falling below the threshold when scoring near a 130 on the language arts assessment. If a student were to fall below the threshold, they would qualify for the Nebraska Reading Improvement Act (NRIA), which is additional support services for language arts and reading skills.
At the beginning of the school year, I was able to assess each student in the class on the kindergarten baseline letter identification assessment. This assessment measures student recognition of letter names, both uppercase and lowercase. It is tracked throughout the school year and is measured each quarter, 4 times total, to see progress. Based on the data collected from this assessment, 4 students knew less than 10 out of 26 letter sounds. 2 students knew at least 20 or more of the letter names, and 2 other students knew less than 15 letter names.
Individual language arts assessment
Additionally, an individual language arts assessment was given 2 times during the year before parent-teacher conferences and report cards. This assessment consists of handwriting skills, high frequency word recognition, letter name and letter sound understanding, and phonological awareness skills. Based on the low outcomes of understanding from the phonological awareness section, I knew it would be vital for ALL student's understanding of phonological awareness skills to improve.
KINDERGARTEN
BASELINE ASSESSMENT
Results from these 3 data points showed that a group of 6 students had significantly lower scores on the individual language arts assessment when compared to the rest of the class. These lower scores directly correlate to their lower Fall 2020 MAP scores.
This group of students showed struggles with blending sounds that we have already learned in school, as well as segmenting words to find each individual sound. On the December 2020 Winter MAP test, this same group of students fell below the threshold in the reading section, qualifying for NRIA.
R E S U L T S
Students with the lower scores demonstrated a need for this study. Upon further research, I learned that the strategies I planned to support some of my students can successfully support ALL students.
I M P O R T A N C E
In kindergarten, students need to have a firm understanding of letters and their sounds in order to successfully put sounds together to form and read words. Knowing such phonological awareness skills creates a foundation for the necessary skills a beginning reader should possess.
During small group learning, differentiated instruction that targets student needs and academic goals can successfully occur. Instruction for students has the opportunity to become more meaningful and allow for higher student engagement when working with students in a small group setting. Specifically for kindergarten age students, their attention spans last longer in a small group setting than a large group setting due to minimized distractions and more tailored instruction. Working with students in small groups presents the opportunity to gain more individualized insight about students as individual and group learners.
All students learn in various ways. It is vital as an educator to present multiple options for learning to students in order to discover the best-fit environment they need to learn.
Compared to working with students in a large group setting, students will be able to gain a better, more clear understanding of the necessary phonological awareness skills they need to possess in order to be successful as a beginning reader when learning in a small reading group setting.
To learn more about the importance of small reading groups and the understanding of phonological awareness skills, please view my full Literature Review.