Decoding Strategies
Reflection
What I Learned
One thing that I learned throughout my study is how important it is for students to be active in their learning. I had my students graph their own successes throughout the week, and it was extremely motivating as a teacher. It was impactful to see students succeed through explicit teaching and specific strategies to support the students' learning. I also learned that educators can find and implement specific researched based strategies, and interventions can impact your students greatly if done correctly and consistently. This action research has impacted students' achievement by giving them a chance to learn in non-traditional classroom instruction. The students were able to learn new ways to manipulate and produce letters. The students demonstrated growth in letter knowledge, letter sounds, sight words, and their overall reading achievement. Not only have the students shown growth in academics, they have shown growth in social skills. The study gave my class a new sense of confidence in themselves and in their learning. This has impacted my current teaching by encouraging and challenging me to think outside of the box and the curriculum to help reach my students' unique needs.
Remaining Questions
How can I fill the gap for students who did not demonstrate growth?
Would more practice with Elkonin boxes and letter tiles provide more opportunities for student growth?
What other forms of assessment could be used?
Successes and Challenges
One challenge that I faced throughout my student was my students being absent multiple times. Students were absent because of Covid 19. Because of this, I was able to send homework with students to finish at home. Another challenge that occurred throughout my study was not having enough time to meet with all my students. This occurred towards the end of my study. Due to Covid 19, I had to teach two lessons in one day, therefore, took more of group time.Â
My study had a lot of different successes. The biggest success was my students' progress that they made throughout the eight weeks of my student. There were multiple days where zero decoding errors were made. This resulted in my students gaining confidence each day. My students are now reading more and are excited to pick up books.
Impact on Learning and Increased Engagement
Overall, I've found that word decoding at a young age is essential for many reasons. Decoding is the most critical reading skill, as the ability to read and understand text. One of the best ways teachers can help students master this skill is by practicing and improving this skill over time. The repetition allows for the shift of practice to progress. Elkonin boxes and letter tiles have allowed my students to break down words by their sounds.
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Implementing Elkonin boxes and letter tiles into reading instruction increased student engagement in reading and learning. When decoding words, I found students paid more attention. This led some students to want to continue decoding words and use those strategies in their reading group. Depending on the time, students would often decode words collaboratively, which raised meaningful discussions among the class. Using these strategies, my students became more independent readers.
Professional Growth and Future Instruction
Moving forward, when working with kindergarten students, I will implement strategies that require students to continually use different modes of learning. My study showed me that choosing specific interventions and strategies based on students' needs can greatly impact student growth. Finding research to support my teaching can help guide my decision making. I now feel confident implementing and researching practices to make the best educational decisions for my students. I will continue to use the data from my study to drive my instruction and implement specific strategies that will help my students make progress based off of their needs. The process of this study will help me as I continue to be the leader of making the most beneficial educational decisions for my students.Â
My study demonstrated a commitment to students and their learning, as I used research-based effective strategies in order to best support my students and help them make progress in their reading. I will continue to set goals for students to show their successful growth. By implementing this study, I can use this experience to improve my instruction with students and to help colleagues improve their instruction. I will continue to research new and fun ways that students can be interactive with what they are learning. When I implemented research based, best practice instruction, my students showed higher rates of academic success. I look forward to incorporating more strategies like this into my classroom instruction and shifting practice into process.