Mandy Stanleys Action Research-Spring 2014

Mandy Jayne
Stanleys
Senior Action
Research

Spring 2014

Initial Meeting
with Mrs.
Polson
Initial Meeting with Teacher
April 3, 2014

When I asked Mrs. Polson to identify a student with a unique need in the areas of either
math or reading, she immediately brought up Student B. This student is a first grader at
Brookwood Forest Elementary School in Mrs. Smiths inclusive classroom. She is the
daughter of a loving mother, a stepmother, and a father. She has a younger sister, Leo, who
she loves dearly. Mrs. Polson explained that Student B also enjoys singing and playing the
guitar and that I should find various ways to incorporate music into my instruction to keep
her engaged.
Mrs. Polson explained that Student B is really talented in the area of math, and even likes
to teach her parents the new skills that she learns each day. She is also good at solving
puzzles, singing, and has great adaptive skills. Although she enjoys math, she struggles
immensely with reading. She has a lazy eye and has had numerous corrective surgeries to
correct it, but it causes it her to struggle with visual tracking, which negatively affects her
reading abilities. Along with struggling with visual tracking, the student has poor language
skills, which adversely affect her ability to orally communicate and follow multi-step
instructions. This student also tends to lack a will to persevere and often gives up easily,
which is a concern of both her mother and her teachers.
Mrs. Polson was really curious to determine if I could figure out how to help this student
improve her reading skills, but I knew that before I could begin to form a plan of
intervention, I had to learn more about her educational and developmental history. After the
meeting, I asked if I could review her IEP. The following information was derived from it:
Assessment Results:
BASC and ABAS: Each of these behavior assessments were given to this
student. They each proved that the student has high adaptive behavior skills.
OWLS-II: This language assessment revealed the students issues with
listening comprehension. Her Listening standard score was an 80, her Oral
Expression score was a 62, and her Language score was a 69. Each of
these scores fall within the Below Average or Low range.
WNV: This visual/spatial reasoning assessment allows test administrators to
determine a students reasoning abilities without the student using words. The
test is a series of pictures that illustrate a task; the students must look at the
April 3, 2014
pictures and determine what should be done. This students standard score
was an 85, which is right on the edge of Average. This score gave the team
the students IQ score.
WIAT-III: This achievement assessment is given to students to assess various
content areas, such as reading, writing, and math. The student scored low in
reading with a standard score of 74 but high in the areas of math and writing.
The discrepancy between this score and the IQ test was enough to allow the
student to qualify for a Specific Learning Disability.
Eligibility Results: The student is already getting services under the Speech
and Language category, but the most recent assessments prove that she could
also fall under the Specific Learning Disability category. They determined
that they will continue to give the student the same services.
I also had the opportunity to observe the student during reading and math class, of which
I was able to notice how badly her visual tracking deficits were adversely affecting her ability to
read, and also attend an IEP re-evaluation meeting for this student. The IEP was reviewed and
revised, but the concerns of the mother were the main focus of the meeting. Her mother admitted
that she blames all of her childs educational and vision problems on the fact that she set her on
the side of the bed and she accidentally fell off when she was eight months old. The child had
bruises on her eyes, mouth, and nose. Hearing this mothers concerns really made this meeting
and my action research become less like a routine and more of a plan of action to improve this
students reading abilities. I concluded that my essential question would be: How can I improve
Student Bs sight word recognition and visual tracking skills in order to improve her reading
skills.

Research
Consultation
Running Head: VISUALIZING RECOGNITION 1

Visualizing Recognition: The Effective Impact of Research-Based Sight-Word Recognition and
Visual Tracking Activities on Struggling Students
Mandy Jayne Stanley
Samford University
Orlean Bullard Beeson School of Education
VISUALIZING RECOGNITION 2
Visualizing Recognition: The Effective Impact of Research-Based Sight-Word Recognition and
Visual Tracking Activities on Struggling Students
There are certain words within the English language that fluent readers should be able to
automatically recognize without having to use various word attack and decoding strategies;
instead, they should activate their linguistic and reading prior knowledge in order to look at these
words and automatically recognize them, which eventually develops into the essential skill of
automaticity. A lack of ability to recognize these high-frequency sight-words leads to a number
of obstacles for young students who are learning how to read, such as hindering their ability to
focus on comprehension. Automaticity is one of the essential qualities, along with expression
and reading at a steady reading rate, of a skillful fluent reader. Along with being able to read a
text with ease, students must learn how to read texts in the proper sequence by utilizing their
visual tracking skills. Students who lack strong automaticity and visual tracking skills will
continue to struggle with reading fluency until necessary research-based interventions are
administered.
The National Reading Panels (2009) Put Reading First document explicitly describes
the five pillars of systematic and explicit reading instruction. The five pillars, which are
phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension, must be fully
developed and strengthened in order to uphold a strong reading ability. Each pillar contains
fundamental skills that must be well developed in order for the others to strengthen over time.
Without the ability to manipulate individual sounds in spoken words, students will not
understand how certain letters make certain sounds. Lacking the ability to use automaticity to
quickly recognize key words within a text with proper expression and at an adequate rate will
hinder students from being able to even begin to understand the words various meanings.
Additionally, if students cannot fluently read a passage and understand the meanings of the
various words within the text, they will never be able to extract the meaning of the information
found within the text as a whole. This conundrum is one that many students and teachers face in
todays classrooms. Teachers must give students ample opportunities to read and reread words
aloud in and out of the context of a story in order to build up their recognition skills. The
National Reading Panel explains the importance of giving students multiple opportunities to
practice sight-word recognition:
Students who read and reread passages orally as they receive guidance and feedback
become better readers. Repeated oral reading substantially improves word recognition,
speed, and accuracy as well as fluency. To a lesser but still considerable extent, repeated
oral reading also improves reading comprehension. (p. 31)
When teachers give their students multiple opportunities to practice various reading skills,
especially automaticity, their abilities to quickly recognize these high-frequency sight-words will
improve. Before ensuring that students are given chances to reread texts in order to practice their
word recognition skills, teachers must ensure that they have given students a strong decoding
foundation.
Sight-word reading instruction is only effective if decoding skills have been successfully
established. P.G. Aaron and associates (1999) reviewed various sources that investigated the
long-fought battle amongst reading specialists to determine if automaticity is best accomplished
through phonological decoding or through various forms of sight-word recognition instruction in
their Decoding and Sight-Word Naming: Are They Independent Components of Word
Recognition Skill? It is explained, In operational terms, sight-word reading is accomplished by
addressing the orthographic representations of words whereas recognition through decoding is
accomplished by assembling the words pronunciation (p. 90). Some believe that students
should use various spelling patterns to quickly recognize words while others believe using sight-
word and decoding strategies is best. This exceedingly informational document drew the
conclusion that sight-word recognition through using orthographic understanding cannot occur
without efficient phonics decoding instruction. Primary educators must ensure that they are
providing students with effective decoding strategies that are rooted in research-based practices
if they want their students to eventually become fluent readers with strong automaticity skills.
Along with needing to give students numerous practice opportunities and sufficient decoding
strategies in order to improve automaticity, teachers must provide students with ways to have
their individual needs met.
Not only does reading instruction need to include systematic and explicit instruction in
each of the five key areas of reading, but also reading instruction must be differentiated. Adria F.
Kleins (2007) informing Providing Differentiated Reading Instruction to Meet the Individual
Needs of Students also agrees with giving students ample opportunities to be exposed to each of
the most frequently read words in the English language. She informs, High-frequency word
instruction involves multiple exposures to these words. Presenting these words in meaningful
context, associating them with other words, and presenting them in a variety of contexts are
effective instructional practices (p. 4). It continues with giving teachers the advice of finding
easily accessible resources to help them differentiate their instruction to meet the individual
needs of their struggling students, such as consulting the Internet for various forms of free
instructional materials that are just a click away to ordering differentiated basal programs created
by Reading A-Z, such as Raz-Kids and Reading Tutors. The Alabama Reading Initiatives (2012)
Beginning Reading Professional Development Module also stresses creating differentiated
instruction in a way that gradually releases responsibility from the teacher to the student, which
can be derived from its Gradual Release of Responsibility Model. The teacher must determine
the most effective way to scaffold reading instruction to meet the unique needs of their students.
These reading programs embrace diverse needs in the classroom and provide teachers with the
materials needed to meet the various needs of their diverse groups of learners by first collecting
assessment data and progressing forward with individualized instruction.
Kim Polson (2014), a special educator at Brookwood Forest Elementary School also
agrees that differentiation and repeated exposure to words will help students improve their sight-
word recognition skills. As a special educator of fifteen years, she has been exposed to many
kinds of students with various needs. When asked about the best form of sight-word recognition
instruction in a personal interview she explained, The best way to help students improve their
sight-word skills is by choosing a small number of words and giving them ample opportunities to
work with those few words. One great way to do this is by having the students read the word,
write the word, and then make the word using various hands-on materials, such as letter beads or
letter magnets. She went on to explain that there are numerous books with sight word activities
that should be consulted.
One book that was advised was The Best Sight Word Book Ever! Grades K-3: Learn 170
High-Frequency Words and Increase Fluency and Comprehension Skills by Flora Sherrill
(2007). This text with ready to use worksheets explains that teachers should begin by pre-
assessing students to determine which words they are struggling to recognize. By doing so,
educators can carefully choose words to introduce to students by acknowledging a proper scope
and sequence. They are then to move on to picking a word, reading it aloud to the student, asking
the students to repeat it in a variety of funny voices, making a large copy of the word to add to a
word wall, then having the student practice spelling the word in various colors and completing
other various activities using the word. By following this procedure, which is built into the
books worksheets, teachers will give the students multiple opportunities to be exposed to the
word in isolation and amongst other words. After completing each of these activities, the teacher
should review the word with the student to ensure that retention has occurred (Sherrill, 2007, p.
5). Along with finding effective ways to improve sight-word recognition skills through research-
based activities, finding effective forms of visual tracking intervention is a significant. In
addition to suggesting a text to consult to help students improve their sight-word automaticity,
Kim Polson also provided reflective guidance on how to provide effective intervention to
students with visual tracking difficulties.
Kim Polson (2014) advised, I have determined that providing students with tracking
tools, such as a piece of card stock to cover up other words or a plastic pointer, have been the
most effective. These simple and cost effective tools are easily accessible to teachers and have
been proven to help students with visual tracking difficulties focus their visual attention on one
word at a time. Mathematics is not the only subject that requires learning manipulatives for better
understanding; teachers should find various hands-on materials to help differentiate reading
instruction to meet the individual needs of their students.
Research proves the importance of several opportunities of exposure and utilizing
manipulatives and instructional resources to improve sight-word recognition and basic reading
skills. Reading instruction must be research-based, systematic, explicit, and repetitious in order
to produce strong readers who are fluent and capable of comprehension. Along with providing
research-based instruction, teachers must utilize the resources available to them to differentiate
their lessons and activities to meet the needs of their students.
References
Aaron, P. G., Joshi, R. M., Ayotollah, M., Ellsberry, A., Henderson, J., & Lindsey, K. (1999)
Decoding and sight-word naming: Are they independent components of word recognition
skill?. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, (11)89127. Retrieved from
http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ585483
Alabama Reading Initiative. Alabama reading initiative beginning reading professional
development module[PDF document]. Retrieved from Professional Development Module
Online Web site:
http://web.alsde.edu/Home/Sections/SectionDocuments.aspx?SectionID=50
Klein, A.F. (2007) Providing differentiated reading instruction to meet the individual needs of
students. Learning A-Z, 2-14. Retrieved from
http://www.readinga-z.com/updates/reading_az_white_paper.pdf
National Reading Panel. (2000) Put Reading First. Report of the National Reading Panel (NH
Publication No. 00-4769).
Polson, K. (2014, April 5). Personal interview.
Sherrill, B.F. (2007). The best sight word book ever!, grades k-3: Learn 170 high-frequency
words and increase fluency and comprehension skills. Greensboro: Key Education
Publishing.

Baseline Data
Collection &
Analysis
Student B Baseline Data Analysis
April 8, 2014
Pre-Primer Words (40 Words)

Time= 1:52.55 Minutes
Accuracy Score= 29/40 ! 73% Accuracy
a look
and make
away me
big my
blue not
can one
came play
down red
find run
for said
funny see
go the
help three
here to
I two
in up
is we
it where
jump yellow
little you
April 8, 2014
Primer Words (51 Words)
all now
am on
are our
at out
ate please
be pretty
black ran
brown ride
but saw
came she
did so
do soon
eat that
four there
get they
good this
have too
he under
into want
like was
must well
new went
no what
white with
who yes
will
Time= 4:27.18 Minutes
Accuracy Score= 19/51 ! 37% Accuracy
April 8, 2014
Initial Assessment Analyses
Administered: April 8, 2014
Student B is in the first grade at Brookwood Forest Elementary School. She currently
qualified for special education services under the eligibility category of Specific Learning
Disability but previously qualified under Speech and Language Impairment. Student B has a
floating eye and has had numerous surgeries to try to improve is functioning. It has been
observed by her general and special education teachers that she struggles with visual tracking
while reading and also struggles to recognize pre-primer and primer high-frequency sight words.
This students The essential question for this action research is as follows: How can I improve
Student Bs sight word recognition and visual tracking skills in order to improve her reading
skills. In order to assess Student Bs sight word recognition skills, a timed sight word drill was
administered along with a running record assessment, which allowed one to assess her skills
within the context of a story; in order to gather baseline data on the students visual tracking
skills, two visual tracking assessments and one nonsense words assessment were administered.
Student B was given a pre-primer and primer sight word list to read. The pre-primer list
consisted of forty sight words, and the primer list consisted of fifty-one words. It took her one
minute and fifty-two seconds to completely read the pre-primer word list with 73% accuracy; it
took her four minutes and twenty-seven seconds to read the primer word list with 37% accuracy.
The student often substituted unknown words with known words. For example, she substituted
yellow for funny, but for said, and cant for came. Student B also struggled with
reading the words if the assessment administrator did not cover up the surrounding words. This
further solidifies the idea that many of Student Bs reading problems stem from her visual
April 8, 2014
tracking problems. In order to assess her sight word recognition within the context of a story, a
carefully selected Level B Fountas and Pinnell book that consisted of high-frequency sight
words was chosen as the running record passage.
The running record assessment was administered during Student Bs reading resource
intervention session, and the passage was selected based on the students current Fountas and
Pinnell reading level: Level B. Typically developing first graders tend to read books on levels J,
K, L, or M, but Student B, who was retained in kindergarten, continues to struggle with reading
pre-primer and primer high-frequency sight words. The student chose between two texts and
chose My Little Dog, which is a simple, repetitious book with no more than two lines on each
page. This reading passage consisted of fifty-five words, forty-three of which were pre-primer
and primer sight words. The student read the passage with 91% accuracy and read 37.5 words
per minute. The students errors included four structure and four visual miscues. Although this
book was filled with repetition, she frequently substituted words for with and me, both of
which are sight words that she should already be able to recognize with swift automaticity. After
reading the passage, the student was asked various comprehension questions and was scored
using a rubric with a possible total of seven points available. Student B earned four of the
possible seven points, which totals at fifty-seven percent accuracy. It can be concluded that this
student still needs to improve her sight word recognition skills. Although she scored above 90%
in the aspect of word-reading accuracy, this passage is a Level B book, which is eight to ten
levels below the average level of a typically developing first grade student. Along with assessing
her sight word recognition within a story, Student Bs visual tracking skills were assessed, as
well.
April 8, 2014
Student B struggles immensely with visually tracking words as she reads. Her teachers
highly encourage her to track words with her finger as she reads, but she often forgets to. Her
struggles with visual tracking, which could stem from her floating eye, adversely affect her
reading abilities but do not affect her math skills. When given two simple visual tracking
assessments, Student B scored relatively well. One the first assessment, which assessed her
figure ground perception, she was asked to circle all five of the chickens, which were mixed
among other various animals. She completed this task in fourteen seconds with 100% accuracy.
Although she was fully capable of located pictures, she struggled with locating six bs in a
gridded array of other various letters. This assessment assessed her figure ground perception,
visual discrimination, and form constancy skills. It took her approximately eighteen seconds to
locate the letters, but she failed to locate one of them. The student was observed scanning the
page multiple times before circling any of the bs, and she also often skipped over one of them
before noticing it. She completed this task with 83% accuracy. This assessment, along with a
timed nonsense word assessment, proves that she tends to struggle more with reading letters and
words than with numbers and objects.
In order to assess Student Bs visual tracking skills, and also her decoding skills, in
another way, a timed nonsense word assessment was administered. This assessment included a
list of fifty nonsense words with one hundred fifty individual sounds. Student B was assessed on
being able to accurately pronounce each of the sounds in the words; she accurately read of the
thirty-eight of the seventy-eight sounds she was able to read within the one-minute time frame.
The most essential data that was pulled from this assessment was the visual tracking aspect of the
assessment. The student often skipped words and even skipped two whole lines of words while
April 8, 2014
reading. It can be concluded that this student will need intensive visual tracking intervention in
order to improve her visual tracking skills for reading multi-lined passages.
After reflecting upon the data from these four assessments, it can be concluded that
Student B should receive research-based intervention in the areas of visual tracking and sight
word recognition. These intervention sessions should be data driven and research-based in order
to ensure that she receive the best intervention possible.

Action Research
Implementation
Timeline
Action Research Timeline-Spring 2014

Pre-Intervention/Baseline Data Collection: April 8, 2014 (30 mins.)
Assessment 1: Pre-Primer Sight Word List Assessment
Assessment 2: Primer Sight Word List Assessment
Assessment 3: Figure Ground Perception Visual Tracking Assessment
Assessment 4: Letter Tracking Visual Tracking Assessment (Assesses figure ground
perception, visual discrimination, and form constancy)
Assessment 5: Fluency Running Record Assessment
Assessment 6: Nonsense Word/Visual Tracking Assessment

Day 1: Monday, April 14, 2014! Sight Words (30 mins.)
Introduce sight word intervention
o Based on The Best Sight Word Book Ever! Grades K-3 by Sherrill B. Flora
Complete and and came activities
o From The Best Sight Word Book Ever! Grades K-3 by Sherrill B. Flora
Oral formative assessment! The student must accurately identify and read and and
came on at least 4 out of 5 tries.
o Student and teacher will record data

Day 2: Tuesday, April 15, 2014! Sight Words (30 mins.)
Review previous sight words (and/ came)
o Repetitious instruction is based on the information derived from the interview
with Kim Polson, the National Reading Panels Put Reading First, and A.F.
Kleins Reading A-Z Providing differentiated reading instruction to meet the
individual needs of students.
Complete eat and all activities
Oral formative assessment! The student must accurately identify and read eat, all,
and, and came on at least 4 out of 5 tries.

Day 3: Wednesday, April 16, 2014! Sight Words (30 mins.)
Review previous sight words (and/ came/ eat/ all)
o Repetitious instruction is based on the information derived from my interview
Complete where, three, and two activities
and, came , where, three, and two on at least 4 out of 5 tries.


Day 4: Thursday, April 17, 2014! Visual Tracking/Review
(30 mins.)
Review previous sight words (and/ came/ eat/ all/ where/ three/ two)
Introduce visual tracking instrument! cardstock tracker
o This visual tracking tool was created from information derived from the interview
with Kim Polson.
o Practice with a visual tracking paper assessment
Collect visual tracking formative assessment data from the Visual Tracking iPad
application

Day 5: Friday, April 18, 2014! Sight Words/Reading
Fluency/Visual Tracking (30 mins.)
Review previous sight words (and/ came/ eat/ all/ where/three/two)
Review proper visual tracking tool usage! cardstock tracker
Reading A-Z High-Frequency Word Books: Three Baby Birds (Level C) running record
assessment! This assessment will determine the students current automaticity of the
following sight words: two and three. It will also assess the students visual tracking
skills as she uses the cardstock tracker.
o This text is levelized a Reading A-Z High-Frequency Word Book
" High-frequency sight words focused on in book: two & three
Student and teacher will record data
o A new form of data collection was created. From now on,
the teacher will use a checklist to collect the students daily
data instead of simply checking off the sight word index
cards. This form of record keeping is more reliable and
concrete.

Day 6: Monday, April 21, 2014! Visual Tracking/Sight Words
(30 mins.)
Review previous sight words (and/ came/ eat/ all/ where/three/two)
Complete down, funny, and find activities

Visual tracking practice! Visual Tracking iPad application
o The teacher will collect data
and, came, where, three, two, down, funny, and find on at least 4 out of
5 tries.

Day 7: Tuesday, April 22, 2014! Sight Words Review (30 mins.)
Review previous sight words (and/ came/ eat/ all/
where/three/two/down/find)
Do String-A-Word activity with sight words
o This activity was derived from the interview with Kim Polson.
Oral Midpoint Assessment! The student must accurately identify and read eat, all,
and, came, where, three, two, down, funny, and find on at least 4 out of
5 tries.

Day 8: Wednesday, April 23, 2014! Sight Words (30 mins.)
Review previous sight words (and/ came/ eat/ all/
where/three/two/down/find)
Complete are, ate, and did activities
and, came, where, three, two, down, find, funny, are, ate, and did
on at least 4 out of 5 tries.

Day 9: Thursday, April 24, 2014! Sight Word Review (30 mins.)
Review previous sight words (and/ came/ eat/ all/ down/ find/ funny/ are/
ate/ did)
and, came, where, three, two, down, find, funny, are, ate, and did


Day 10: Friday, April 25, 2014! Reading/Visual Tracking Day
(30 mins.)
Review previous sight words (and/ came/ eat/ all/ down/ find/ funny/ are/
ate/ did/ said/ one/ here)
Sight Word Sentences assessment! The student will read seven sentences with each of
the thirteen focus sight words embedded within them.
o The teacher decided to use this as an assessment rather than the Reading A-Z
high-frequency word books because she felt as they were not truly displaying the
students improvement. She also felt as though they did not include enough of the
sight words that the student needed to be assessed on.
Student and teacher will record data
and, came, where, three, two, down, find, funny, are, and ate on at
least 4 out of 5 tries.

Post-Intervention/Final Assessment! Monday, April 28, 2014
(30 mins.)
Sight Word Recognition List Assessment
o The teacher will only assess the student on the 13 she covered in order to truly
determine if her intervention strategies were effective.
Visual Tracking Assessment

Daily Data
Documentation
& Daily
Reflections
Daily Data Collection and Anecdotal Notes
Action Research
Standards Connection: ALEX-Reading-Kindergarten: 22. [RF.K.3] Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding
words. (c. Read common high-frequency words by sight.)
Date/Lesson
Objective
Assessment
Results
Anecdotal Notes/Daily Reflection
April 14, 2014
Lesson: 1
[30 minutes]

The student must accurately
identify and read and and came

Strategies Used: and and
came worksheets from The Best
Sight Word Book Ever! Grades K-3
by Sherrill B. Flora and oral
formative assessment

100%
Student B is very excited about using the worksheets from The
Best Sight Word Book Ever!. She really seems to retain the
automaticity skills that she acquires and has a positive attitude
towards this process. She also really enjoys charting her
progress.
April 15, 2014
Lesson: 2
[30 minutes]
identify and read eat, all,
and, and came on at least 4 out
of 5 tries.

Strategies Used: eat and all
worksheets from The Best Sight
Word Book Ever! Grades K-3 by
Sherrill B. Flora and oral formative
assessment and oral formative
assessment

100%

Student B was eager to continue with the process when she
returned, today. She remembered each of the words and
actually wanted to do more! Saying the word multiple times in
different funny voices, and even singing them at times, is
positively affecting her retention. I cannot wait to see how
much she will progress throughout this process.
April 16, 2014
Lesson: 3
[30 minutes]
and, came, where, three,
and two on at least 4 out of 5
tries.

Strategies Used: where, three,
and two worksheets from The

100%

Student B is still continuing to maintain her perfect scores on
the daily assessments. She is still eager to come each day and
still enjoys charting her progress on her chart. She originally
struggled with decoding where, but she caught on after we
repeatedly read it in the various funny voices. I am slowly
releasing my responsibilities, as the Alabama National Reading
Initiative advised, now that she understands the procedure. She
is able to activate her prior knowledge of some of the previous
Action Research
Best Sight Word Book Ever!
Grades K-3 by Sherrill B. Flora
and oral formative assessment and
oral formative assessment

words and apply them to decoding the other words. I am
curious to see how well she will do on the visual tracking
assessment tomorrow.
April 17, 2014
Lesson: 4
[30 minutes]
Collect visual tracking formative
assessment data from the Visual
Tracking iPad application and
paper-based assessment.

Strategies Used: Review sight
words, introduce visual tracking
instrument "cardstock tracker), and
oral formative assessment

Practice
assessment
(paper-
based): 80%
accuracy
Visual
Tracking
Rate: 93s
Student B completed the paper-based visual tracking
assessment with 80% accuracy and the iPad applications
assessment in 93 seconds. She only missed one of five on the
paper-based visual tracking assessment. It took her a while to
figure out how to properly track while using the cardstock
tracker, but she eventually found it quite helpful. In fact, she
even personalized it by writing her name on it in various colors.

April 18, 2014
Lesson: 5
[30 minutes]
When given Three Baby Birds, a
Reading A-Z high frequency word
passage, the student must read and
visually track the passage with at
least 90% accuracy.

Strategies Used: Review sight
words, practice using visual
tracking instrument "cardstock
tracker), and running record

Implementation Change: A new
form of data collection was
created. From now on, the teacher
will use a checklist to collect the
students daily data instead of
75% reading
accuracy
(Recognized
100% of
focus high-
frequency
words)
Student B was a little hesitant to read the new levelized text
today, which is usual behavior for her. After explaining how
exciting the story would be and how excited I would be if she
read it to me, she quickly got engaged. I had to activate the
students prior knowledge of some of the words we would read
before asking her to read it which really seemed to help ease
her nerves. She only missed 6 of the 42 words, which is why
she read with 75% accuracy. Although her total accuracy was
not high, she did recognize 100% of our focus words, which
were two and three. When we opened the text she was able
to activate her own prior knowledge and yelled, Look! Its our
words! This really showed me that she really does know how
to recognize these words within the context of a story.
Action Research
simply checking off the sight word
index cards. This form of record
keeping is more reliable and
concrete.

April 21, 2014
Lesson: 6
[30 minutes]
two, down, funny, and
find on at least 4 out of 5 tries.

Strategies Used: down, funny,
and find worksheets from The
Best Sight Word Book Ever!
Grades K-3 by Sherrill B. Flora
and oral formative assessment and
visual tracking formative
assessment

88%

Visual
Tracking
Rate: 55
seconds
During the oral formative assessment, Student B struggled with
recognizing and. She could not automatically recognize the
word until after the second try. I believe this is due to the
increase in the number of words that she is learning. She did,
however, recognize every other word with perfect automaticity.
She has really become rather independent as she completes the
worksheets, but I still explicitly introduce each word by
sounding it out with her, reading it aloud in three different
funny voices, spelling it with her, and guiding her as she colors
the word in different colors. She is also improving in the area of
visual tracking. She has almost cut her time in half and is
improving her tracking skills in the classroom while reading her
books.
April 22, 2014
Lesson: 7
[30 minutes]
two, down, funny, and
find on at least 4 out of 5 tries.

Strategies Used: String-A-Word
activity to review words

100%
Student B was determined to read each of the words with
perfect automaticity. She struggled with not having perfect
100s across her chart, so she made sure that she took her time
before reading each word. I will definitely consider trying the
String-A-Word Activity with my other students in the future.
Mrs. Polson advised that I try it, and I am so glad that I did.
April 23, 2014
Lesson: 8
[30 minutes]
two, down, find, funny,

86%

Visual
Student B was highly distracted by two of her peers, which
made it hard for her to focus on todays lesson. She did,
however do relatively well on the assessment. She struggled
immensely with being able to recognize ate and are due to
Action Research
are, and ate on at least 4 out of
5 tries.

Strategies Used: are and ate
worksheets from The Best Sight
Word Book Ever! Grades K-3 by
Sherrill B. Flora and oral formative
assessment and visual tracking

Tracking
Rate: 42
seconds
their similar structures. Not only did she confuse the two
words, but also she continuously confused ate with eat,
which is also understandable due to their similar visual
structures. I am going to review these words with her before
moving on to additional words. I have also decided to not use
the Reading A-Z high-frequency word passage for my tenth
lesson because I do not feel as though it will really show her
progress since they only focus on one or two sight words.
Instead, I have written sentences that I will use to assess her.
April 24, 2014
Lesson: 9
[30 minutes]
two, down, find, funny,
are, ate, and did on at least 4
out of 5 tries.

Strategies Used: flashcard review
and oral formative assessment

100%

Student B really improved her abilities to recognize eat,
ate, and are. We reinforced the words by decoding and
spelling each word individually and placing plastic letters in
putty and having her string the letters on a string. She practiced
saying the words in different voices and aced her assessment.
April 25, 2014
Lesson: 10
[30 minutes]
When given seven high frequency
word sentences, the student must
read and visually track the
sentences with at least 90%
accuracy.

and sight word sentences formative
assessment

Implementation Chage: Sight
Word Sentences assessment! The
Recognized
85% of focus
high-
frequency
words)
Student B failed to recognize are and find within the
context of the sentences during the assessment, but once she
was reminded, she was able to continue. I did notice, however,
that she needs intensive instruction for being able to recognize
more grade level words than the thirteen that we focused on
during this action research process. I will use the same process
with more words.
Action Research

April 25, 2014
Lesson: 10
[30 minutes]
When given seven high frequency
word sentences, the student must
read and visually track the
sentences with at least 90%
accuracy.

and sight word sentences formative
assessment

Implementation Chage: Sight
Word Sentences assessment! The
student will read seven sentences
with each of the thirteen focus
sight words embedded within them.
The teacher decided to use this as
an assessment rather than the
Reading A-Z high-frequency word
books because she felt as they were
not truly displaying the students
improvement. She also felt as
though they did not include enough
of the sight words that the student
needed to be assessed on.

Recognized
85% of focus
high-
frequency
words)
Student B failed to recognize are and find within the
context of the sentences during the assessment, but once she
was reminded, she was able to continue. I did notice, however,
that she needs intensive instruction for being able to recognize
more grade level words than the thirteen that we focused on
during this action research process. I will use the same process
with more words.
Final
Assessment
-Sight Word Recognition List
Assessment
-Visual Tracking Assessment

-100%
-5/5

I am very proud of Student Bs success during this action
research process. She has excelled beyond my expectations,
and her confidence has improved immensely. The repetitious
nature of the process really helped solidify her automaticity
skills, as previous research has proven.
Visual Tracking Data Collection
Action Research

Bella consistently decreased the amount of time it took her to complete the reading visual
tracking task on the Visual Tracking iPad application. She was asked to touch each a within
the reading passage in under a minute. She completed the task in 93 seconds on the first trial, 55
seconds on the second trial, and in 42 seconds on the final trial.
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Visual Tracking
Assessment 1
Visual Tracking
Assessment 2
Visual Tracking
Assessment 3
Visual Tracking App
(measured in seconds)
Visual Tracking App
Action Research
This process was based on the following standards connection: ALEX-Reading-Kindergarten: 22. [RF.K.3] Know and
apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. (c. Read common high-frequency words by sight.)

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Daily Progress Chart
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Student
Samples

Final
Assessment
Data & Analysis
Initial and Final Assessment Data
Action Research

After the 10 intensive research-based intervention sessions, Student B improved her sight word
recognition skills by 45% and her visual tracking skills by 9%. It can be concluded that the best
way to improve Student Bs sight word recognition and visual tracking skills is by repetitious
automaticity instruction and visual tracking strength training through the use of technology and
by utilizing a cardstock tracker while reading.
Initial Assessment
Final Assessment
0
20
40
60
80
100
Sight Word
Recognition Visual Tracking
55
91
100
100
Initial and Final Assessment Data
Initial Assessment
Final Assessment
Final Reflection
After the ten intensive research-based intervention sessions, Student B improved her sight
word recognition skills by 45% and her visual tracking skills by 9%. It can be concluded that the
best way to improve Student Bs sight word recognition and visual tracking skills is by
repetitious automaticity instruction and visual tracking strength training through the use of
technology and by utilizing a cardstock tracker while reading. It can also be concluded that the
intervention strategies that were advised by the research that I consulted were successful and
effective. By continuing to be consistent with the amount of repetition that was used throughout
this process, as advised by Kim Polson and Adria F. Kleins informing Providing Differentiated
Reading Instruction to Meet the Individual Needs of Students, she continued to excel. Although
there were a few days that her accuracy percentage dropped, progress was still visible. I feel as
though this decrease in automaticity accuracy occurred due some distractions that occurred
within the resource room and the increase in the number of words that she was required to
recognize. The National Reading Panels Put Reading First document expressed that teachers
should ensure to give students ample opportunities to be exposed to words in a focused
environment. Reflecting upon this made me slow down the process and focus on some of the
words that she continued to struggle with, such as are and ate. Once this change was made,
her accuracy percentage returned to its high level.
Student B has wonderfully progressed throughout this process in the areas of decoding,
automaticity, visual tracking, and confidence. P.G. Aaron and associates Decoding and Sight-
Word Naming: Are They Independent Components of Word Recognition Skills? advised that
students acquire a strong foundation in decoding and phonics before they attempt to obtain
strong automaticity skills. The first grade classes at Brookwood Forest Elementary School have
been intensively focusing on recognizing various VCV and CVC pattern words and silent e
words within the classroom. Student B was able to transfer her knowledge from what was being
discussed within her general education classroom to recognizing and decoding words such as
ate, are, and came.
Student B also improved immensely in the area of visual tracking. She really improved
her skills by playing the Visual Tracking iPad application and by using her pink cardstock
tracker while reading, which was also advised by Kim Polson. If I could do one thing over, I
would have given her more opportunities to use the cardstock tracker in the classroom. It was
amazing to observe how much better her reading increased when utilizing the cardstock tracker. I
will ensure that I give her classroom teacher her cardstock tracker before I leave this current
student teaching placement.
The area of improvement that was the most meaningful to me was Student Bs increase in
her confidence as she read. Before this process, Student B would groan and state, I cant do this.
Its too hard! when asked to read a single word. She would constantly fidget and get off task
while reading, which would really affect her abilities to excel. Now, she smiles and actually
points out some of the various words that were focused on during this experiment. It has helped
her meet some of her IEP goals, such as being able to read a level B text with at least 90%
accuracy, and it has improved her success within the general education classroom. I will
definitely utilize the various strategies that I used throughout this process in my future
classroom.

Mandy Stanleys Action Research-Spring 2014

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