My first (formal) driving question was: "To what extent will parent involvement in home literacy activities enhanced by school-to-home communication technology affect student achievement in early literacy skills?"
This question grew from my concern every year with the significant group of Kindergarten students who start school drastically behind their peers in early literacy skills. It disturbed me to see so many students already in the achievement gap even before they finished their very first year of school. They would not be ready to learn to read.
When I thought about how hard teachers already work in the classroom to get these students ready to read, I considered an alternative resource: parents. If teachers could equip parents with the skills needed to help their children simply learn their alphabet letters and sounds, it would help so much. In addition, fostering a practice of learning in the home would reap benefits for years to come.
After implementing a cycle of action research (even as short as 4 weeks), I was thrilled to see a positive relationship between time parents spent implementing my interventions and growth in letter sound fluency. However, there were a handful of parents who did not participate much at all. I felt discouraged that some students didn’t grow as much because of this. But another thing happened. When I asked one of the students if she was doing the activities with her parents, she replied that she was doing them with her big sister. This got me thinking about the value of sibling relationships.
In the meantime, my second cycle of research was focused on the after school program at the Boys & Girls Club. The staff is very helpful and interested in providing sound academic reinforcement activities for their students, as well as providing leadership opportunities for some of their older students. I provided their staff with some simple alphabet games, which would be used with their “Kinder Buddies” program. Middle school students would play these games with the Kindergarteners weekly to reinforce alphabet skills. This round of research was much shorter than I would have liked, and resulted in fewer sessions. Since the Kinder Buddies only met once per week, most students only had three sessions. However, the students did show growth in skills--AND the Boys & Girls Club decided to continue the games even after my project ended.
Back to the siblings. My final round of action research has been centered on sibling pairs of Kindergarten students with brothers or sisters in grades 3-5. I have used the same alphabet games and met with sibling pairs weekly to demonstrate the games and emphasis on the Kindergarteners learning their letter sounds. When sibling pairs spend at least 15 minutes together a minimum of three times per week playing the alphabet games or working together on pre-approved alphabet web-based activities, students are rewarded. They are invited to a popcorn movie party with two friends at lunchtime on Friday. So far, students have been highly motivated and are working together well! I am looking forward to running the post test assessments, hoping to see growth.
Working with Lisa Gottfried has been such a blessing. She has helped me to develop and grow my driving question to a broader, more exciting application. My driving question has evolved to: “How Can We Use Partnerships to Improve the Early Literacy Skills of Primary Students?”
This model of utilizing relationships outside the classroom brings the content to students through family, role models, siblings, and peers. Learning the alphabet letter names and sounds means spending time with parents before bed, playing a game with an older buddy at the after school program, or figuring out how to beat the next level online with a big brother or sister. Having fun and spending time with family and others outside the classroom as you learn puts a value to learning that cannot be taught solely by the teacher.
I think this will be appealing to teachers and leaders, although it is a big idea. Working with families and outside agencies takes time and energy. However, there are many federal and state parent involvement codes and regulations that tell us we need to work with families, and even after school programs. You can find out more about this on my resources page where I have linked the Family Engagement Framework from the California Department of Education.
This question grew from my concern every year with the significant group of Kindergarten students who start school drastically behind their peers in early literacy skills. It disturbed me to see so many students already in the achievement gap even before they finished their very first year of school. They would not be ready to learn to read.
When I thought about how hard teachers already work in the classroom to get these students ready to read, I considered an alternative resource: parents. If teachers could equip parents with the skills needed to help their children simply learn their alphabet letters and sounds, it would help so much. In addition, fostering a practice of learning in the home would reap benefits for years to come.
After implementing a cycle of action research (even as short as 4 weeks), I was thrilled to see a positive relationship between time parents spent implementing my interventions and growth in letter sound fluency. However, there were a handful of parents who did not participate much at all. I felt discouraged that some students didn’t grow as much because of this. But another thing happened. When I asked one of the students if she was doing the activities with her parents, she replied that she was doing them with her big sister. This got me thinking about the value of sibling relationships.
In the meantime, my second cycle of research was focused on the after school program at the Boys & Girls Club. The staff is very helpful and interested in providing sound academic reinforcement activities for their students, as well as providing leadership opportunities for some of their older students. I provided their staff with some simple alphabet games, which would be used with their “Kinder Buddies” program. Middle school students would play these games with the Kindergarteners weekly to reinforce alphabet skills. This round of research was much shorter than I would have liked, and resulted in fewer sessions. Since the Kinder Buddies only met once per week, most students only had three sessions. However, the students did show growth in skills--AND the Boys & Girls Club decided to continue the games even after my project ended.
Back to the siblings. My final round of action research has been centered on sibling pairs of Kindergarten students with brothers or sisters in grades 3-5. I have used the same alphabet games and met with sibling pairs weekly to demonstrate the games and emphasis on the Kindergarteners learning their letter sounds. When sibling pairs spend at least 15 minutes together a minimum of three times per week playing the alphabet games or working together on pre-approved alphabet web-based activities, students are rewarded. They are invited to a popcorn movie party with two friends at lunchtime on Friday. So far, students have been highly motivated and are working together well! I am looking forward to running the post test assessments, hoping to see growth.
Working with Lisa Gottfried has been such a blessing. She has helped me to develop and grow my driving question to a broader, more exciting application. My driving question has evolved to: “How Can We Use Partnerships to Improve the Early Literacy Skills of Primary Students?”
This model of utilizing relationships outside the classroom brings the content to students through family, role models, siblings, and peers. Learning the alphabet letter names and sounds means spending time with parents before bed, playing a game with an older buddy at the after school program, or figuring out how to beat the next level online with a big brother or sister. Having fun and spending time with family and others outside the classroom as you learn puts a value to learning that cannot be taught solely by the teacher.
I think this will be appealing to teachers and leaders, although it is a big idea. Working with families and outside agencies takes time and energy. However, there are many federal and state parent involvement codes and regulations that tell us we need to work with families, and even after school programs. You can find out more about this on my resources page where I have linked the Family Engagement Framework from the California Department of Education.