Marikate Sears

1. Action Research Project Overview

1.1 Problem
Kindergarten students, specifically those learning English, in my school are not reaching the
reading goals set forth by my school district due to a lack of phonemic awareness skills. Many
emergent English learners have not yet mastered the mechanics of their home language, while
simultaneously being asked to manipulate English words and sounds. Phonological and phonemic
awareness skills are lacking in both English and home language, usually Spanish. The
underperformance of kindergarten students during reading assessments is an ongoing problem
within the school. Beyond kindergarten, there is a lack of phonemic and phonological awareness
skills among students throughout the school. Improvement in reading skills is a major focus of the
school this year. Most notably, ELL students consistently perform below grade level in reading.
1.2 Action Research Question
Will students’ reading level improve with small group phonemic awareness instruction?
1.3 Context of Project: Setting, Participants, and Researcher
My action research will take place in a kindergarten classroom. This classroom is one of two
kindergarten classes in a small school located within a large public district of Kansas City, Missouri.
I have taught at this school for three years and have taught kindergarten for six years. My
classroom is one of two kindergarten classes in the school. I work closely with my grade level
partner who has five years of experience in the school and teaching kindergarten. I also
collaborate with two Spanish-speaking paraprofessionals and one ELL specialist. The
paraprofessionals and ELL teacher have previous experience with kindergarten students. The
Principal and Instructional Coach will be involved in data conversations and planning. My goal will
be to improve student reading performance through small group intervention.

2. Insights from Other

2.1 Literature Review Works Cited
Atwill, K., Blanchard, J., Christie, J., Gorin, J. S., & Garcia, H. S. (2010). English-language learners:
Implications of limited vocabulary for cross-language transfer of phonemic awareness
with kindergartners. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 9(2), 104–129.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1538192708330431

Bratsch-Hines, M., Vernon-Feagans, L., Pedonti, S., & Varghese, C. (2020). Differential effects of
the targeted reading intervention for students with low phonological awareness and/or
vocabulary. Learning Disability Quarterly, 43(4), 214–226. https://doi-
org.ezproxy.nwmissouri.edu/10.1177/0731948719858683

Double, K. S., McGrane, J. A., Stiff, J. C., & Hopfenbeck, T. N. (2019). The importance of early
phonics improvements for predicting later reading comprehension. British Educational
Research Journal, 45(6), 1220–
1234. https://doi-org.ezproxy.nwmissouri.edu/10.1002/berj.3559

Fälth, L., Gustafson, S., & Svensson, I. (2017). Phonological awareness training with articulation
promotes early reading development. Education, 137(3), 261–276.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314758638_Phonological_awareness_trainin
g_with_articulation_promotes_early_reading_development

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Kelley, M. F., Roe, M., Blanchard, J., & Atwill, K. (2015). The Influence of Spanish vocabulary and
phonemic awareness on beginning English reading development: A three-year (K–2nd)
longitudinal study. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 29(1), 42–59.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282198433_The_Influence_of_Spanish_Voc
abulary_and_Phonemic_Awareness_on_Beginning_English_Reading_Development_A_T
hree-Year_K-2nd_Longitudinal_Study

TEDx. (2021, March 31). Melissa Hostetter: Can we afford to ignore the science of reading?
[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WJcgxyuATU

Thomas, N., Colin, C., & Leybaert, J. (2020). Interactive reading to improve language and
emergent literacy skills of preschool children from low socioeconomic and language-
minority backgrounds. Early Childhood Education Journal, 48(5), 549–560. https://doi-
org.ezproxy.nwmissouri.edu/10.1007/s10643-020-01022-y

Yesil-Dagli, U. (2011). Predicting ELL students’ beginning first grade English oral reading fluency
from initial kindergarten vocabulary, letter naming, and phonological awareness
skills. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 26(1), 15–29. https://doi-
org.ezproxy.nwmissouri.edu/10.1016/j.ecresq.2010.06.001

3. Ethical Considerations and Informed Consent

3.1 Permissions you will pursue for the research
Kansas City Public School District does not have an informed consent policy explicitly outlined.
Necessary permissions depend on the data needing to be collected. Because I will not be using
names or personal, identifiable information about the students I do not need specific permission
from parents. All of the data collected are also requirements for the school and district.
However, I will be informing parents of the action research project during conferences in
October and will provide updates on progress throughout the project. Additionally, I will be
sharing this action research project proposal with Human Resources for review and documented
approval.

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4. Data collection
4.1 Data Collection Plan flowchart

My research question is: I will answer my question with:

Will students’ reading level  Pretest for each phonemic and

improve with small group phonological skill targeted
 RAZ reading levels
phonemic awareness and phonics
 Progress monitors
instruction?  Running records
 Posttest

Quantitative Analysis

I will analyze pretest and posttest

data:

 Percentage achieving
proficiency
 Means of pretests and
posttests

I will analyze RAZ reading levels:

 Compare reading level

from September to April
 Percentage on grade level
for each quarter

Poster (sample):

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5. Dissemination of Action Research

5.1 Digital poster and presentation
My goal is to present the findings from this action research project to my administration. This
would include the principal, instructional coach and leader of the Academic Action Team.
Improving reading is the focus for my school for this academic year. This research and my results
can help the administration guide and improve reading instruction in the future. Kindergarten
teachers and those from other early elementary grade levels could design their instruction to
include phonemic and phonological awareness skills.

6. Timeline of Project
6.1 Project timeline from August 2021 to May 2022
 August
o begin forming action research question
 September
o finalize research question
o begin literature review
o create data collection plan
 October
o pretests for phonological and phonics skills
o initial groupings for small group instruction based on pretests
o Small group instruction: guided reading, phonics, vocabulary, writing, and sight words
o Parent/Teacher conferences to discuss action research project
o RAZ running record 1
o Phonics progress monitor
 November
o Continued small group instruction
o Data cycle 1 pre
 December
o Continued small group instruction
o Progress monitor – new groupings
o iReady
o phonics progress monitor
o Data cycle 1 Post
 January
o Review blending and segmenting syllables during small groups
o Rhyme recognition small group instruction
o RAZ running record 2
o Data cycle 2 pre
 February
o Progress monitor – new groupings
 March
o February 28 – March 11: Isolation of beginning phoneme small group instruction
o March 15: 44-696 Capstone begins

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o March 18: Data cycle 2 post

o March 28: new groupings – smaller lowest group, more time with bubble groups, more
independent work time for high groups
o March 28: Data cycle 3 pre
 April
o April 1: RAZ running record 3
o April 4 – 15: Blending phonemes small group instruction
o April 18 – 29: Segmenting phonemes small group instruction
 May
o May 2 – 13: Review
o May 16: Final RAZ running record
o May 23: present findings to administration