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THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL PHONICS INSTRUCTION ON LETTER SOUND- RELATIONS

IN KINDERGARTEN CLASSROOM

Viterbo University

Marisa Bauer

Research Proposal
The Effects Of Visual Phonics Instruction On Letter-Sound Relations In Kindergarten Classroom

Introduction

As I have found while teaching kindergarten for the past six years, our youngest

elementary students are coming into kindergarten with a wide variety of backgrounds and skills.

Some students may have attended pre-school, others may have not. Some students may have

practiced writing their name prior to school, others may have not. As one can tell, not all

students entering kindergarten have the same academic experiences. Often times, what other

students may find easy, such as learning and remembering letter sounds, can be difficult for

young children, especially for those who are just beginning kindergarten with little or no pre -

school experience. Skibbe, Hindman, Connor, Housey, and Morrison (2013) found that students

who attended prekindergarten before starting kindergarten in the fall had higher early reading

and phonological awareness scores than students who had not attended prekindergarten.

This past school year held true to that, as I had many students who struggled with

identifying letters and producing letter sounds throughout the year. After reviewing numerous

letter sound assessments, I became very anxious and concerned because in order for me to teach

reading and writing, I needed the foundational piece of the alphabetic principle in place well

before the end of kindergarten. I knew I needed to have a plan to help my students become

proficient and with mastery meet the Common Core State Standard to produce the primary sound

for each consonant, including the long and short sounds for the five major vowels.

I have found that many of my students learn and retain much more if they are able to see

it, hear it, and move to it in a multisensory type way. I thought if I am able to provide students

with a visual and kinesthetic hand cue, also known as visual phonics, for learning the alphabet

sounds, this may help students to recall and master letter sounds fluently. I continued to keep
thinking then of the next skill that would build upon this letter sound knowledge, such as

beginning to write strings of letters to form words, and to understand that those words carry

meaning. With the wide variety of student needs, I am always looking for additional teaching

strategies that I could use to help my students learn and master their letter sounds accurately and

fluently.

Problem Statement and Purpose of the Research

I have observed that many of my kindergarten students throughout the school year have

had a difficult time learning and retaining letter identification and letter sounds, which c ould put

them behind in their learning. It is essential for students to be able to accurately identify and

produce letter sounds. Students rely on letter-sound relations to help them read unfamiliar words

in texts and begin the emergent writing process. Capbell, Tortorelli, and Gerde (2013) stated

Each childs writing provides teachers with a window into what that child knows about print

and sound (p. 652). When I think about my struggling learners and the difficulties they

encounter with writing, it truly sheds even more light on the problem. It becomes a rewarding

accomplishment for students when they are able to bridge that gap between knowing letter

sounds in isolation to writing words with accurate sounds. I found that I need to investigate a

better way of teaching students their letter sounds so they are able to be successful in their

learning.

The purpose of this action research study will be to examine the effectiveness of

implementing visual phonics on student knowledge of letter- sound relation for my kindergarten

students. Because I was concerned that my students were not able to fluently produce the

primary sound for each consonant, including the major vowels, I wanted to study the

effectiveness of using visual phonics to support my reading instruction.


Research Questions

Based on the problem that I have identified, I designed an overarching question that will

guide my action research study: What are the effects of visual phonics instruction on the

identification of letter-sound relations for kindergarten students? In addition to the primary

question for the study, I also identified sub-questions that included: (a) how does using visual

phonics instruction transfer to students writing? and (b) what are the parent perspectives of

visual phonics instruction used in the kindergarten classroom?

The independent variable was the implementation of using visual phonics symbols in the

classroom. The dependent variable was the letter-sound fluency of my kindergarten students.

Review of Literature

Introduction

Learning to read is easily developed by many children during their early years. This

complex process occurs when optimal learning conditions are present. These conditions include

strong language skills. However, it can become an overwhelming process for some young

children, especially those who are identified with special needs such as deaf or hard-of-hearing

(DHH) students (Narr & Cawthon, 2011). Students enter school with various levels of pre-

reading skills; therefore, it is often challenging for teachers as they struggle to meet the needs of

their diverse learners (Cihon, Gardner, Morrison, & Paul, 2008). For beginning readers, students

must understand the alphabetic principle in which sounds are represented of letters from the

alphabet and that letters are used to represent these sounds. Letter sound knowledge is the ability

to produce the sound(s) associated with a particular letter. It is the nearest relationship used in

order to decode, or sound out words (Huang, Tortorelli, & Invernizzi, 2014).
Letter-Sound Knowledge

Narr and Cawthon (2011) found through a national survey of 200 teacher participants that

using visual phonics as a reading instructional tool increased phonemic awareness, decoding

skills, vocabulary, and reading comprehension for students with or without special needs.

Visual phonics instruction has been used with a wide variety of diverse students. In

2008, Cihon, Gardner, Morrison, and Paul found that the use of See the Sound/Visual Phonics

(STS/VP) intervention in the general education kindergarten classroom could be successful for

hearing students who are at-risk for reading difficulties and are falling behind. The results from

this study indicate that visual phonics is an appropriate intervention to use with children who are

falling behind with the general education curriculum. At the time of this study it was sugges ted

that STS/VP should be further investigated and that it should not replace existing reading

curriculums.

The research reviewed support the importance of developing strong phonemic awareness

skills at an early age through the use of STS/VP to acquire reading skills. Valbuena (2014)

studied the visual phonics program called Tucker Signing strategies to develop phonemic

awareness skills for twenty-five Spanish speaking first grade students to learn English in Bogota,

Colombia. Tucker Signing strategies is very similar to STS/VP in which students are taught

hand signs for all letter sounds. After viewing the pre-diagnostic and post-diagnostic test results,

the findings indicated that the use of Tucker Signing strategies helped students to develop

phonemic awareness skills through the relationship between letters and sounds.

Writing Development

Just as reading is a huge accomplishment to young learners, writing is a tremendous

accomplishment as well. Writing requires knowledge of the alphabetic principle. Writing and
spelling of words involves students to use this phonological knowledge to match each sound to

its corresponding letter or letters (Ritchey, 2008). Ritchey (2008) examined the development of

beginning writing skills in sixty kindergarten students. The relationship between writing and

reading was also studied. The results from this study found that early reading skills such as

letter-sound knowledge, letter identification, and phonological awareness skills support

beginning writers development.

Methods

Participants

The participants of this study will be kindergarten students from my class for the 2016-

2017 academic school year. Students will be part of a convenience sample, which will include

eighteen students, eight females and ten males between the ages of five and six years old.

Thirty-six parents/guardians will also participate in the study by completing pre- and post -

intervention surveys regarding their perspectives of the use of visual phonics on their childs

letter-sound knowledge.

Procedure

This descriptive mixed-methods action research study will be implemented from

September through December, 2016. Prior to the intervention, I will complete a letter -sound

assessment one-on-one with each student. I will show the student an uppercase letter card and

ask them to identify the letter name. If a student hesitates for three seconds, I will provide the

letter and continue with the next. I will record the data on the data collection sheet as +

answered correctly answered incorrectly. I will then show the student a lowercase letter card

and ask them to identify the letter name. If a student hesitates for three seconds, I will provide

the letter and continue with the next. I will record the data. The final piece of the pre -
assessment is letter sounds. I will show the student a lowercase letter card and ask them to

identify the letter sound. If a student hesitates for three seconds, I will provide the letter sound

and continue with the next. I will record the data. This pre-assessment will provide a baseline

for the implementation of the intervention.

Parent participants will receive a five question, Likert-type, pre-intervention survey

through email and Google Forms. The results from this survey will help me to identify the

parents perspectives of their childs letter-sound knowledge. I will also complete a phonetic

writing assessment oneon-one with each student. Students will listen as I read five consonant-

vowel-consonant (CVC) words individually. After dictating the word, students will write the

word on paper. I will record each letter sound correctly written within each word. This pre -

assessment will provide a baseline of students letter-sound correspondence.

During the study, I will use a portion of the visual phonics program Jolly Phonics.

Students will be introduced to the capital and lowercase letter, sound, and visual hand sign for

each days alphabet letter. During our whole-group reading instruction, I will hold a letter card

with a letter on it and say this is letter name and it makes this sound. I will have students watch

my mouth as I exaggerate the letter sound. Students will repeat the sound with me. For each

letter, there is also a short story and song that goes along with the sound and hand sign. As I

retell the story, I will then teach students the hand sign for the letter while saying the sound.

Students will repeat the hand sign and sound with me. As students are producing the sound and

hand sign, I will be observing for student participation. I will complete a letter-sound assessment

one-on-one with each student bi-weekly.


Research Design

I will design this mixed-methods study to determine the effects of visual phonics

instruction on the identification of letter-sound relations of my kindergarten students. I will be

using multiple research tools to determine the effect of visual phonics on student letter - sound

identification. The quantitative and qualitative tools that will be used to collect data are: (a)

letter- sound assessment (b) phonetic writing assessment (c) parent survey responses (d)

classroom observations, (e) student writing samples and (f) FAST letter sound fluency

assessment. The letter-sound assessment will be given as a pre-assessment and bi-weekly

assessment during the course of this study. Students will be shown a letter card and asked to

correctly identify the name of the letter and the letter sound. Kindergarten students will be

expected to name twenty- one out of twenty- six capital letters, twenty- one out of twenty- six

lowercase letters, and twenty- one out of twenty- six letter sounds by the end of the academic

school year to meet the district expectation of 80%. I will also use the district FAST letter s ound

fluency assessment which will be given at the beginning and middle of the academic school year

during the course of this study. The phonetic writing assessment will be given as a pre -and post-

assessment with 15 points possible. Students will listen as five CVC words are read individually

for students to write. Kindergarten students will be expected to write 12 out of 15 correct letter

sounds in words by the end of the academic school year to meet the district expectation of 80%.

Student writing samples will be collected monthly during the study. As students are learning the

letter sound with hand sign, I will be observing for student participation. I will also observe

students letter-sound correspondence, the sounds represented by letters, during writers

workshop. Some of these observations may come from a video recording using an iPad.
I will administer to parents pre- and post- intervention Likert-type surveys through e-

mail and Google Forms. The results from this survey will help me to identify the parents

perspectives of their childs letter-sound knowledge. These research tools will help me to

determine the effects of visual phonics instruction on students letter-sound relations.

Data Analysis

Instruction and data collection will take place from September through December, 2016.

All quantitative data collected, such as assessments and parent surveys, will be analyzed through

descriptive statistics that will include the mean, the median, and the mode. All qualitative data,

such as observations and writing samples, will be analyzed to determine patterns, trends,

categories, and commonalities. All data results will be presented by graphics or narrative form

to analyze and compare growth from the beginning of the year baseline to midyear post

intervention of students letter sound recognition and writing. By collecting qualitative and

quantitative data I will be able to triangulate data to look for commonalities and themes.
References

Cabell, S. Q., Tortorelli, L. S., & Gerde, H. K. (2013). How do I write...? Scaffolding

preschoolers' early writing skills. Reading Teacher, 66(8), 650-659. doi:10.1002/trtr.1173

Cihon, T. M., Gardner III, R., Morrison, D., & Paul, P. V. (2008). Using visual phonics as a

strategic intervention to increase literacy behaviors for kindergarten participants at-risk

for reading failure. Journal of Early & Intensive Behavior Intervention, 5(3), 138-155.

Huang, F. L., Tortorelli, L. S., & Invernizzi, M. A. (2014). An investigation of factors associated

with letter-sound knowledge at kindergarten entry. Early Childhood Research Quarterly,

29(2), 182-192. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.02.001

Narr, R. F., & Cawthon, S. W. (2011). The wh questions of visual phonics: What, who, where,

when, and why. Journal of Deaf Studies & Deaf Education, 16(1), 66-78.

doi:10.1093/deafed/enq038

Ritchey, K. D. (2008). The building blocks of writing: Learning to write letters and spell words.

Reading & Writing, 21(1), 27-47. doi:10.1007/s11145-007-9063-0

Skibbe, L. E., Hindman, A. H., Connor, C. M., Housey, M., & Morrison, F. J. (2013). Relative

contributions of prekindergarten and kindergarten to children's literacy and mathematics

skills. Early Education & Development, 24(5), 687-703.

doi:10.1080/10409289.2012.712888

Valbuena, A. C. (2014). Tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool to develop phonemic

awareness in children. GIST Education and Learning Research Journal, (8), 66-82.

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