Letter Recognition

ABBY CONNER

Introduction

Kindergarten classroom

Working on letter recognition

Three students

All ELL students

2 girls, A & CL; 1 boy, CR

CL

withdrew before the final session

What are the most effective

strategies for teaching letter
recognition?

Initial Meeting

Discussed the children I would be working with

CR would be energetic and very talkative

A would be hesitant and imitate the other students

CL would not compete with CR for talking but would happily talk when
directed

Needed work on letter recognition consistency

Gave me some information about letter recognition that she

received at a professional development meeting

Had me play a letter recognition game with A, CL, and CR

Research

Students learn better when surrounded by their peers (Piasta, 2010)

Students learn best when they have exposure to the letters that is
applicable to them

Finding letters in their environments

e.g. on street signs, on posters in their room, on shop windows (Newman,

1996)

Expose the students to the letters in several different ways instead of

the traditional flash card and alphabet line method (Reutzel, n.d.)

Initial Assessment

Garfield assessment

The students had conflicting answers

Answered really happy for How do you feel about reading in school? and
answered really mad for How do you feel about reading your school
books?

Letter recognition assessment

Recognized most letters

A missed 7 out of 52 upper and lower case letters

CL missed 1 out of 52 upper and lower case letters

CR missed 2 out of 52 upper and lower case letters

Midpoint Assessment

Letter recognition assessment

AL missed 3 out of 52 upper and lower case letters

CL missed 1 out of 52 upper and lower case letters

CR missed 2 out of 52 upper and lower case letters

Final Assessment

A missed 3 out of 52 upper and lower case letter

She confused lowercase b and d

CL withdrew from school

CR missed 1 out of 52 upper and lower case letter

Data Gathered
52

Uppercase and
Lowercase letters

50

48

46

44

42

40
Initial Assessment

Midpoint Assessment
A

Final Assessment
CL

CR

Reflection

I wish that I had deviated more from the packet that my teacher
gave me.

I wish that I had focused more on individual letters than the

alphabet as a whole.

I enjoyed the learning experience and I hope that the students

learned something too.

I wish that I could start over now that I have a grasp of how it action
research is supposed to look.

I feel like it would have been good to pull the students one at a time
for certain areas. I

Works Cited

Newman, R. (1996). Taking time to stand, stare and learn. Childhood Education, 72(3),
167+. Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.samford.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA18226082&
v=2.1&u=naal_sam&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=7e3114ad37ca2e7e2c46866c4424
d32c

Piasta, S. B., & Wagner, R. K. (2010). Developing early literacy skills: a meta-analysis of
alphabet learning and instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 45(1), 8+.
Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.samford.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA216960950
&v=2.1&u=naal_sam&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=c3aae9354cf3bc3beca1519a2a
51bac4

Reutzel, D., & Cooter, R. (n.d.). Early Reading Instruction. In Teaching children to read:
The teacher makes the difference (Seventh ed., pp. 110-114)

Shefelbine, J. (1998, September). Strategic phonics: research-based phonics strategies

bolster your reading program. Instructor [1990], 108(2), 102+. Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.samford.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA21148006&v=2.
1&u=naal_sam&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=3fd26855f8eaa2431a1ce40d51d89056