Action Research Project: Early Childhood Language and Literacy

Stacy Pollock

Loras College

Section 1: Research Paper

Parental Involvement in Building Emergent Literacy Skills in Children

Research has indicated that parental involvement at very young ages can help provide a

solid foundation of early literacy skills in children. Parents who take an active role in

communicating and reading to their children can prepare the children for learning to read and write

when they begin school. When parents are not actively involved in communication and reading with

their children, the child’s development can lack the basic skills needed to support the formal

learning they will receive.

Theories and Models

There are many frameworks and models that center on parent and family involvement in

building early literacy skills. In The McNaughton Framework, it is suggested that activities in

which the family engages with the child, and the learning and development that take place as a

result are based on four components of family literacy practices (Rhyner, 2009). One component is

family practices, which is how children are socialized so that they are thinking, acting and

communicating in a culturally acceptable way. Another component is child and family activities

that require certain conventions to be followed, such as signing and mailing cards from the entire

family. A third component is systems for learning and development, such as book sharing and

independent exploration of reading and writing that will build a child’s expertise in literacy

practices. The fourth component is being able to use these literacy practices, activities and systems

of development in various settings, such as daycare, school, church and other community events

(Rhyner, 2009).

In the Family Strengths Model for early literacy development, a family’s unique routines,

strengths and resources are identified, and a plan is made on how to teach literacy within the culture

and context of the child’s life in order to make it more meaningful and applicable to the child

(Carter, Chard & Pool, 2009). By creating opportunities, modeling reading and language,

interacting with their child, and providing recognition, families can create multiple meaningful

opportunities for their child to engage with language and print. These opportunities are built into the

everyday lives of the families. They are not extra work for the family members, but rather are times

when the family can proactively provide literacy support for their children during their normal

everyday activities (Carter, Chard & Pool, 2009).

Discussion of Research

Parental involvement is defined by Enemuo and Obidike (2013) as “the participation and

support of parents at school and in the home, which directly and positively impacts the educational

performance of their children.” Since parents are the first source of influence on a child’s

development, they have a significant effect in building their children’s early literacy skills.

According to Enemuo and Obidike (2013), children actively build their own understandings of

reading, writing, listening and speaking around the activities they engage in daily. They see their

parents reading books, newspapers, magazines, and bills, and have observed them writing letters,

and filling out forms. When children are exposed to language and literacy activities as a part of

their everyday home life, they develop many literacy skills and concepts. They also tend to have

positive attitudes and behaviors toward reading and writing (Carter, Chard & Pool, 2009).

The growth and development of infants and toddlers is best supported through exploration,

discovery, and everyday activities while interacting with the adults around them (Kupcha-Szrom,

2011). The importance of parent-child relationships in nurturing early development means family

literacy is a key factor and it influences a child’s early literacy experiences. Some suggestions for

building early literacy skills include families sharing stories, songs, and books with their children.

Through this process, they not only model how their children develop literacy skills, but also give

their children the message early on that learning to read and write is important (Kupcha-Szrom,

2011). Other suggestions for building literacy skills in children include selecting appropriate texts,

leading children in conversation in connection to the reading, and engaging in finger plays and

rhymes (Sukhram & Hsu, 2012).

During a longitudinal study on home literacy environment and early language development,

it was found that parents who reported frequent home literacy environment behaviors during

infancy reported larger vocabularies for their children as toddlers than parents who reported less

frequent home literacy environment activities (Schmitt, Simpson & Friend, 2011). This study also

indicated that active engagement in communication across a range of contexts appears to be the

strongest predictor of early language. Parent-child conversation is essential for early receptive

language, meaning the ability to listen and understand language. Because of this, parents need to

communicate with their children in a way that they can understand based on their current stage of

development. As a child’s expressive language increases, they begin to take more responsibility as

conversational partners. This highlights the importance of these early conversations in supporting

both receptive and expressive vocabulary growth in the second and third years of life (Schmitt,

Simpson & Friend, 2011).

In contrast, according to research, more than one-third of children in the United States enter

school with significant differences in language, early literacy skills, and the motivation to learn.

This places them at a higher risk for developing long-term reading difficulties. (Carter, Chard &

Pool, 2009). A lack of communication and literacy skills can have negative repercussions that can

extend into adulthood. In order to be successful as adults, children need to be able to communicate

both orally and in writing. Illiteracy can affect every aspect of a person’s life, including

communication with people around them, employment, the ability to follow directions, and even

when raising their own children (Carter, Chard & Pool, 2009).

Many factors can affect the parent’s communication with their children and their ability to

provide stable literacy practices in their home. These factors include low socioeconomic status, the

education level of the parents, the roles of mother and father and how they are implemented within

the home environment, single parent versus two parent homes, and the age of the parents (Enemuo

& Obidike, 2013). It is important to note, however, that any of these factors, or a combination of

them, do not automatically mean that parents will be inactive in their children’s early literacy

development. They are simply explanations, or insights, as to what can cause parents to be unable to

provide a literacy-rich environment for their children.

Implications for Teachers and Caregivers

Although parent involvement is a crucial part of building children’s early literacy skills,

teachers and child care educators also have an important role in formally and explicitly teaching

children the skills they need to be successful readers and writers. Teachers need a strong

educational background on research based practices that are best for teaching young children

literacy skills. They also need to have good communication with parents and to offer the parents

opportunities to actively engage in their children’s education. When needed, teachers need to have

the ability to help families in need of learning how to help their children build their literacy skills.

Conclusion

In conclusion, parental involvement in children’s learning positively affects the child’s

performance at school in both the primary and secondary levels (Clark, 2007). This leads to higher

academic achievement, greater cognitive competence, greater problem solving skills, greater school

enjoyment, better school attendance, and fewer behavioral problems (Clark, 2007). Taking an active

role in children’s communication and reading skills will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

Section 2: Action Research Report

Setting

I worked in Mrs. Hermsen’s kindergarten class at Lincoln Elementary School in Dubuque,

Iowa. She has twenty-two students in her class. The students are from a variety of races,

socioeconomic statuses, and family backgrounds. Over the course of three weeks, I was able to

work with nine students who all have different levels of literacy knowledge and skills. Of those nine

students, I worked with 4 of the students on a regular basis. These students include Barrett, Deaven,

Henry B., and Lexus. I worked with each student for 15 minutes each day in their classroom.

Purpose and Goals

My reason for this action research was to develop a plan for assisting my 4 kindergarten

students to become stronger readers and writers. In my assessment of their ability levels, I found

that they are all doing well with identifying letters and their corresponding sounds, and they are all

fairly strong in their concepts about print, and identifying beginning sounds of words. While I

worked with these students, I used a variety of apps on the iPad to increase their learning of how to

segment the sounds they hear in words and be able to write the letters of the sounds they hear.

Because they were all doing well with listening to beginning sounds, I focused on getting them to

learn how to listen for the middle and ending sounds in one syllable CVC words. This connected

with the Common Core State Standards of phonological awareness. Specifically, I focused most of

my instruction on the standard CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2 which states that students will

demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes), and CCSS.ELA-

Literacy.RF.K.2.d which states that the student will isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel,

and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.1 (This

does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/). It was my hope that with using the iPad

technology, they would be actively engaged in their learning and they would enjoy using these apps

to learn how to write words. My goal was to have the students improve their spelling assessment

scores by at least 3 points each in comparison to their pre-test scores.

Research Question

How will using technology help to strengthen my students’ knowledge in segmenting

sounds in words and allow them to correctly identify and write the letters that correspond with the

sounds they hear in words?

Framework for Using Technology

I used a variety of word building apps on the iPad that gave the students practice in listening

for all of the sounds in words and writing whole words. In addition to the iPad, I used white boards,

journal, and markers/pencils to assist me in giving the students a variety of formats to practice

reading and writing words.

I chose which technology tools to use based on what activity we were doing each day. When

using the iPad, the apps that I chose were used in a way to scaffold the students learning, giving

them a chance to move from structured and supportive learning to independent learning. The apps

they used kept them actively involved and engaged in the activity while reinforcing the skills that I

wanted them to learn. Each of the apps they used were developmentally appropriate for

kindergartners, and they offered some sort of auditory and/or visual support so the students could

see and/or hear what they were doing at all times. In addition, the apps that were used helped me

assess how each student was doing. This assessment information guided my planning of my

instruction to fit the needs of each individual student.

Assessment

I recorded the student’s progress daily through field notes and pictures, along with collecting

word writing samples in the journal. I also recorded video of the student’s work. After 2 weeks of

interventions, I retested them on the spelling list 1 to see if their scores had improved.

Intervention: What the Research Says

Teaching Phonemic Awareness

There has been much research done on how to teach phonemic awareness, and why it is

important to teach it. Phonemic awareness is the process of hearing and understanding the

individual sounds (phonemes) in words. It includes being able to recognize beginning and ending

sounds in words, blending separate sounds to make words, and segmenting the sounds in words.

Phonemic awareness should be taught in classrooms because it is the best single predictor of

successful reading achievement (Cunningham, Cunningham, Hoffman & Yopp, 1998). When

children are successful in gaining phonemic awareness they learn to love reading. Their attitudes

toward reading improve and they find reading enjoyable. In addition, teaching phonemic awareness

helps them understand that print carries a message, and that message is relayed through letters and

sounds. When children become strong readers, they have a better chance at being successful

members of a literate society.

Phonemic awareness can be taught in many ways. Studies show that high levels of student

engagement and interaction with print can improve phonemic awareness abilities (Cunningham,

Cunningham, Hoffman & Yopp, 1998). These interactions with print can start long before a child

starts school. When children are read to at home, play word games, and have early writing

experiences their phonemic awareness abilities begin. At home, and in school, children should be

exposed to a print-rich environment, be exposed to both spoken and written language, given explicit

instruction on the alphabetic principle, and be given opportunities to practice reading and writing

independently in a variety of contexts (Cunningham, Cunningham, Hoffman & Yopp, 1998).

Early literacy instruction, including teaching the skills of phonemic awareness, should be

included in the basic activities of early learning (Roskos, Christie, Richgels, 2003). In school, these

activities include reading aloud, circle time, small group activities, and in conversations with adults

and everyday play. Reading and writing instruction can also be included in storybook readings and

play time (Roskos, Christie, Richgels, 2003).

Although there is no research that indicates that there is an exact sequence of development

in acquiring phonemic awareness, gaining phonemic awareness can happen once the child learns the

letters of the alphabet and the sounds associated with each letter (Roskos, Christie, Richgels, 2003).

The development of reading is a continuum where children first learn to listen to sounds, rhyme,

and manipulate symbols (Ming & Dukes, 2010). This is called phonological awareness. Then they

move onto being able to differentiate individual sounds within words, phonemic awareness and

associate sounds with letters, phonics (Ming & Dukes, 2010). Becoming phonemically aware is a

part of the larger picture of building phonological awareness.

In conclusion, learning to read and write words is a complex skill with many different levels

of understanding that need to be mastered. Teachers have to be able to identify each child’s

individual ability level, and differentiate their instruction to meet the needs of all of their students.

Phonemic awareness and phonological awareness are both enhanced when the child is exposed to

large amounts of print in their everyday contact with the world around them. A child who has

gained phonemic awareness is able to segment the smallest units of sound and blend them together

to create recognizable words (Cunningham, Cunningham, Hoffman & Yopp, 1998).

It is a large task to teach children how to read and write. This is why it is critical to have teachers

who have a good understanding of the research surrounding phonemic awareness and what are the

best practices for teaching it.

Instruction

For the first meeting with each student, I spent the time getting to know them. I had each of

them write their names and a sentence about themselves in the journal. I did this so I could see how

they write words and form letters. In this getting to know you activity, I learned that they all knew

how to write their names, and most of them turned their letters the right direction. They knew that

the letters go in a left to right direction when writing words, and they knew that you start on the left

hand side of the paper and work your way to the right.

Figure 1: Barrett did well with finding the beginning sounds in each of his words, but only used one vowel in his

sentence. He was also able to identify other consonant sounds within his words. He capitalized the first letter in his

name, and did the rest of the letters in lower case, but when he wrote his sentence he used all upper case letters except

one letter. He also used punctuation at the end of the sentence.

Figure 2: Deaven capitalized the first letter in his name, and wrote the rest of the letters in lower case. He did this same

pattern with his sentence. He did not use punctuation, but he did include vowels in his words, and he spelled all the

words correctly except for one word.

Figure 3: Lexus used all capital letters in her name. For her sentence, she capitalized the first letter and used lower case

for the rest of the letters. She is able to identify the beginning sounds of the words, and she can identify other consonant

sounds within the words too. She attempts to use vowels in each word, and she knows how to correctly spell two words.

Figure 4: Henry B. capitalizes the first letter of both his first and last names, and writes lower case letters for the rest of

his name. He knows how to correctly spell a word in the sentence, but he didn’t finish his sentence or use punctuation.

He does use vowels in his words.

In the sessions that followed, for about a week I had them do a variety of assessments. I

tested their letter-sound knowledge to see how many letters and sounds they knew. I had them do

the beginning sound word sort assessment and the rhyme word sort assessment. I did both of those

so I could see what sounds they pay attention to when they think about words. I had them do the

print concepts assessment because I wanted to know what they know about the parts of books. I had

them do the spelling assessment because I wanted to see how they spell simple CVC words and

what parts of the words they pay attention to. Finally I had them do the word reading assessment

because I wanted to know what high frequency words they could read automatically.

Student

Name

Letters Sound Rhyme

Word

Sort

Beginning

Sound

Word

Sort

Print

Concepts

Spelling

List 1

Pretest

Spelling

List 1

Post test

Word

Reading

List 1

Barrett 50/52 43/52 0/5 8/12 8/12 15/20 13/20 6/22

Deaven 50/52 48/52 1/5 12/12 9/12 4/20 20/20 15/22

Lexus 48/52 44/52 1/5 12/12 12/12 9/20 15/20

Henry 50/52 48/52 3/5 11/12 8/12 13/20 16/20 13/22

Figure 5: This chart shows the scores they each earned on their assessments.

Figure 6: Spelling pre-assessments

I made the decision to focus on the skills of segmenting and blending sounds in words

because of these assessment results. All of the students did well with letter-sounds and beginning

sounds, but they all showed signs of needing instruction in finding the middle and ending sounds of

words. The scores in the rhyme word sort, spelling test and reading test were all strong indicators

that segmenting and blending sounds in words would be good skills for them to get explicit

instruction on.

Each day, after doing an assessment, I had the students do a variety of activities that gave

them practice in reading and writing simple CVC words. These activities included using the white

board to practice writing word families, doing a writing activity where they were given a picture

and they had to write the word next to it, and writing sentences in the journal. In addition to all of

these activities, they had time to work on the iPads every day. They used apps such as Magnetic

Letters, Doodle Buddies, Montessori Crosswords, Word Wall, Sound Sorting Beginning Sounds,

ABC Magic, Alpha Writer, Hideout, and Word Bingo. All of these apps were chosen as a way to

give them independent practice at reading and writing words after they were given explicit

instruction with the activities above. I felt that these apps were the best for reinforcing the skills I

wanted to teach them. The apps keep the students actively involved in their learning in a fun way

that is different than the traditional paper and pencil practice writing.

As a cumulative project, for the last three days of working with the students, I had them do a

reading/writing activity where they read a sentence on a sentence strip. The sentence was made up

of simple CVC words that they could read. It read “The cat and the bat had fun in the sun.” I chose

this sentence because it had rhyming words, and every word was either a sight word or a word that

they could easily sound out. I had them read through the sentence several times until they could

read it fluently and comprehend what it was about. The next step was for them to recreate the

sentence using the words that were cut apart. During this step, I said the words in order and they had

to find the words and place them on the table in the order of the sentence. After they got the words

in the order they wanted them in, I had them read through the sentence again, and make any

corrections to the order of the words that needed to be made. I also used this opportunity to ask

them to look at the capital “T” in the word “The” and I had them explain to me why it was a capital

letter and where that word belonged in the sentence. They made the appropriate correction to the

order of the words again, and read through the sentence one more time. After this, I had them

practice writing the words using the iPad apps. This was another way for them to focus on the

sounds in the words as they wrote them. Finally, I had them try writing the whole sentence in the

journal. Most of them were only able to write a few words from the sentence in the journal due to

time constraints.

While they did this activity, I video recorded them working so I could place the videos on

the Seesaw app for their teachers and parents to see. On the last day, each student went into their

Seesaw page, looked at the pictures, watched the videos and captioned their work. I chose to do this

so they could see all of the hard work they did and the progress they made. This gave them the

opportunity to analyze their work and provide an explanation for it. In order to save time, so they

could watch the videos, I had them dictate to me what they wanted for a caption, and I typed it in

for them. I also spent some time during our final week re-assessing them on their spelling test. I did

this to determine if any progress had been made in their ability to identify sounds in words and

correctly write the letters that corresponded with the sounds they heard.

Results

Figure 7: Journal entries after a week of interventions

You tube links for cumulative reading and writing activity videos:

Lexus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzyyhCYGckQ

Henry B. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ-JunTWAzU

Barrett http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp5JkJprWWE

Deaven http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7tWdVhx9wA

Figure 8: Spelling post-assessments taken at the end of the intervention (scores are recorded in the table above)

These post-test spelling assessments show an improvement of 16 points in comparison with the pre-

test score for Deaven. This is because he didn’t even try finding the sounds in three of the words on

the pre-test, which drastically reduced his score at that time. For the post-test, he took his time with

each word, and spelled all of them correctly. Lexus improved her score by 6 points in comparison

with the pre-test. She also took her time and really tried to find each sound in the words. Henry B.

increased his score on the post-test too. He increased by 3 points, which shows that he is getting

better at segmenting sounds in words and identifying the letters that go with the sounds he is

hearing. Barrett reduced his score by 2 points in comparison to the pre-test. The day he took the pre-

test, he was focused and on task. On the day he took the post-test, he was not as focused, and he

wanted to experiment with different letters to see what words he could create, rather than writing

the words he was given. He still did a good job on it, but he needs to work on focusing on the task

while he is working.

Overall, as a result of the interventions, I was able to observe Barrett make progress in his

ability to attempt to include vowels in his words as he writes them. This is evident in the samples

shown above. I saw Deaven make progress in his ability to take time in finding sounds of words as

he reads and writes. His samples shown above show that he is able to identify consonant sounds in

words easily, and he attempts to use vowels in most words. I observed Henry B. go from making

lists of his family member’s names to writing complete sentences with very little help needed. His

sample shows two complete sentences he chose to write in the journal. Although the organization of

his writing is not traditional, he is able to write meaningful complete thoughts that are readable. In

addition, I saw Lexus work very hard on learning to find the middle and ending sounds of words

and match them with the letters that go with the sounds. Her sample shows three words that she was

able to write correctly. She would have written more, but we ran out of time before she had a

chance to.

Next Steps

My suggestions for the next steps for each student include:

Barrett-continue working with him on segmenting sounds and blending the sounds together to make

words. He has the ability to do this but his confidence in his ability is low. The more practice he

gets with building these skills, the more his confidence will improve, and he will become a more

fluent reader. In addition, the more practice he gets, the more his writing will improve, and he will

be able to segment words on his own without assistance. Eventually, when he gains more progress

in segmenting and blending words, he could also benefit from instruction on how to put spaces

between his words as he writes.

Deaven-continue to practice segmenting and blending words as he reads and writes. He also needs

to be reminded that he can use the tools he has all around him to help him when he writes. He takes

a lot of time in sounding out each sound in every word, and many of the words he writes he can find

in the classroom all around him. He could also benefit from explicit instruction in using word

families to improve his reading and writing skills. If he learns how to read the final chunks of

words, he can easily change the first letter(s) and create new words.

Lexus-continue practice with segmenting and blending sounds in words while she is reading and

writing. Her confidence is also low, so the more practice she gets with these skills, the stronger she

will become in her reading and writing skills. She could also benefit from some more practice with

identifying letters and sounds. She still confuses some of the common letters such as ‘b’ and ‘d’ and

she believes that ‘e’ has no sound to it because it is silent in words. Overall, her letter-sound

assessment was good, but having more instruction in these few confusions would help her quickly

identify these letters and their sounds in words.

Henry B.-continue practice in segmenting and blending sounds in words. He is good at trying to do

these skills independently, but he gets easily sidetracked by his surroundings. With more practice,

he will become a strong reader and writer. He also needs explicit instruction in the page

arrangement of words as he writes. He needs to understand that he has to start in the top left hand

corner and work his way across to the right of the page. He doesn’t seem to understand that this is

the direction of a sentence when the sentence is a longer one. He does fine with this when it is a

short sentence, but the longer sentences end up with words out of order, and he tries to just fill the

page wherever there is room.

Classroom Applications

I can use all of the information I have learned in this class when I am a teacher and I have

my own classroom. Understanding how early literacy skills develop, and how parents, teachers and

caregivers can support the development of these skills is very important. Children need to be

surrounded by a literacy-rich environment if we hope to build these skills with a strong education.

Observing how a classroom is set up to enhance student learning is another important piece

of information I gained. In addition to this, seeing how a literacy block of time is structured is also

helpful. Students learn many skills from their classmates, so group tables are beneficial for their

learning. It allows easy access to collaborative work, but still gives them space for individual

learning activities too. Having words posted where they are easily accessible to the students is an

important way to build literacy skills. Giving them various tools and differentiating the way they

learn skills is also good practice. So is working in small groups, large group, and giving one-on-one

instruction when needed.

Another important piece of information that I learned in this class is how to use content,

pedagogy, and technology together to create a well-balanced learning environment for my students.

Knowing how to teach the content that is required, and when to incorporate the many different

forms of technology into the student’s learning is one of the most important parts of teaching. We

have discussed in depth how technology has affordances and constraints in classroom learning.

Being able to choose technology tools that can be used to maximize student learning is critical.

There are many forms of technology that can be successfully implemented into everyday

classroom practices. Computers can be used for teaching students how to conduct research, and

write, edit and publish papers. They can also be useful if the teacher wants to try implementing a

flipped classroom style of teaching and learning to allow more time for working individually or in

small groups with the students. The internet and various websites can be used for practicing reading,

writing, and math skills, and building knowledge in the area of science and social studies.

Classroom blogs can be created to help students, parents, administrators, and other teachers keep up

to date on what learning activities are taking place in the classroom on a daily basis. Students and

teachers can both take part in creating and updating the classroom blog. IPads can also be used in

classrooms for many of these same purposes.

In addition to computers, iPads, and the internet, there are many other forms of technology

that can be used in classrooms. Smart boards are commonly used to increase student participation

and engagement in the content being taught. An Elmo can be used to project student work or other

important documents on the screen for the whole class to see at once. Projectors installed into

classrooms can also serve the purpose of projecting information from computers or other digital

devices.

We also cannot forget the more commonly used tools that are not digital that are also used in

classrooms on a daily basis. This includes white boards for the students to work on, markers, paper

and pencils, and many other supplies that are used to increase student engagement, and provide

opportunities for students to practice and learn new skills.

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