Letter Recognition

Action Research

Taylor Nix

Samford University

Fall 2014

Initial Teacher Meetings

I met with my teacher on September 30, 2014 to

discuss my action research project. It was on that day
that we decided that I would be working with student
H in the area of letter recognition.

However, after I gave student H four initial

assessments, my teacher suggested on October 17
that I work with student A instead because student
Hs attendance was not consistent. Taking her advice,
I decided to start my research over with student A.

About Student A

Student A is a three year old boy and is a peer in my preschool

classroom. A majority of the students in the preschool program at
Trace Crossings Elementary have developmental delays and require
special attention and unique technology. To be a peer means that
student A has no developmental delays or learning disabilities. He
is in the classroom to model and encourage the other students to
participate, ask questions, and engage in activities.

Student A loves the color blue and talking about any mode of
transportation. He is especially fascinated with cars and boats. His
attention span is to be expected with a 3 year old: very short and
easy to distract.

Initial Assessments

I gave student A four initial assessments:

TROLL

Interest Inventory

Letter Matching Puzzle

Letter Choice (assessment used in beginning, middle, and end)

I gave the assessments on October 17 and October 21, taking up

two days of our time together.

Action Research Question

Student A struggles with recognizing uppercase

letters when he sees them or is asked to identify them.
This made me wonder,
best practices for student A in order for him to
improve upon his letter recognition

In order to effectively help student A, I had to consult

the research to find out what the experts had qualified
as the best practices for teaching letter recognition.

What the Research Says

Letter Recognition, or alphabetics, is one of the five

essential components of reading instruction that aid students
in learning how to read and teachers in reading instruction.

A childs ability to recognize letters and identify their

corresponding sounds can be predictive of their later success
in reading (Reutzel and Cooter, 2015).

Due to the fact that alphabetics plays such a huge role in

reading in later grades, teachers must use best practices in
order to effectively teach their students in the early grades.

Effective Alphabetic Instruction

According to Reutzel and Cooter (2015), the most effective

strategy for alphabetic instruction is giving students random
opportunities to identify the letters of the alphabet.

This not only means to give them random opportunities

throughout the day to identify letters and their sounds, but also to
present the letters to them in random order instead of in
sequence.

Through doing this, teachers are encouraging their students to

recognize the physical characteristics of the letter, rather than its
place in the alphabet to identify it (Reutzel and Cooter, 2015).

Best Practices for Letter

Recognition

There are many different ways that teachers incorporate

letter recognition into their lessons. However, there are
three main practices that have been proven most
effective when it comes to alphabetic instruction:

Matching Games

Searching Games

Writing Letters

Reutzel and Cooter, 2015

Matching Activities

This activity gives letters to students in random order

and encourages them to match the letters based on their
individual characteristics (Huang and Invernizzi, 2012).

Matching games can range from puzzles to computer

games that encourage children to match letters with one
another

Huang and Invernizzi (2012), also point out that this

strategy aids in preventing letter confusion.

Searching Activities

This activity also gives students a chance to identify letters in random order
instead of in sequence.

Playing I-spy with letters is an effective searching game to use. One student will
pick a letter and other students will search for that letter around the room.
Teachers can also give students a piece of paper full of letters, then say the name
of the letter and have students circle as many of those letters as they can see on
one page (Reutzel and Cooter, 2015).

This strategy can be used with both

already mastered their letters. Because it can be used with both levels of
learners, it is a fantastic strategy to use for differentiation.

For example, higher level learners can choose the letter in I-spy and the
lower level learners can search for that letter.

Writing Letters

According to Graham and Harris (2013) and the NELP (2008)

writing ensures that students can identify uppercase and lowercase
letters quickly and accurately.

Students can practice writing their letters in a variety of different

ways, all of which have been found effective.

Read, Build, Write: students will first read the letter (or group of
letters) from a flashcard or sheet of paper, then they will build that
letter with a manipulative (clay, letter magnets, etc). The last step
in this activity is for them to write the letter. This strategy is mainly
used to aid students identification of the letters in their name.

What We Did

With those effective strategies in mind, I planned

four different activities to do with student A during
our four different meetings (excluding our four
meetings for the initial, middle, and last
assessments).

What We Did

October 17: First two assessments (TROLL and Letter Choice)

October 21: Last two assessments (Letter Matching Puzzle and Interest
Inventory)

October 22: Name Game: See it, Build it, Write it Activity

October 23: Rice Writing Activity

October 28: Computer Alphabet Game

November 4: Midpoint Assessment (Letter Choice)

November 18: Letter Search Activity

December 2: Final Assessment (Letter Choice)

What We Did

I began with two interactive writing activities that would encourage student A to write his letters, but also
involved a lot of hands-on activity.

Name Game: See it, Build it, Write it (October 22)

Rice Writing (October 23)

In front of student A I placed two laminated strips of paper with students names on them (one of
which was his). I asked him to identify his name, which he did correctly. I then asked him to use the
magnetic letters in front of him to build his name. With little help, he found the appropriate letters
and built his name. I then asked him to write his name on a sheet of paper I had placed in front of
him. We did this three times.

I pulled out five flashcards that had letters A-E on them. The letters were formed out of sandpaper
like material, so I had student A use his pointer finger to trace the letter several times before he wrote
it. I had a tupperware container full of rice and, after we traced the letter, I asked him to write the
letter in the rice. We went through all five letters, then stopped for the day.

I found that student A responded well to hands-on activities and manipulatives, but I wanted to try a
visual activity to see how he would respond to that.

What We Did

I entered my third activity thinking that student As response would be overwhelmingly positive. My guess could not have
been further from the truth.

Computer Alphabet Game (October 28)

I sat down with student A at the computer to play the alphabet game my teacher had downloaded. The game
allows you to click on every letter of the alphabet, then it gives repeats the sound of the letter several times and is
followed by a game before moving on to the next letter.

Student A was engaged by this activity, until every student in the class came over and wanted to play with us. His attention
was diverted and I was not able to bring him back. It was then that I decided that I would not be doing the computer game
again, and that next time I would go back to a hands-on activity.

This last activity was used the week after the midpoint assessment, where student A did regressed and identified less letters
than he had in the initial assessment. That assessment reaffirmed that I needed to continue to work with manipulatives in
order to effectively instruct student A.

Letter Search Activity (November 18)

I used the same tupperware container of rice and the magnetic letters for this activities. I big five or six letters in
the rice close to the surface, usually with a side or corner sticking out so student A could easily find them.
say to him, Find the letter B and he would search through the rice until he found the letter B. There were many
times where he correctly identified the letter he was searching for.

Progress Monitoring

I also gave student A a

chart for him to record
how he felt that day
and also what he
learned. I provided
him with face and
letter stickers to
choose from.

Assessment Results

Initial Assessments:

TROLL: Student A scored a 56, which is slightly above average for children his age (3 yr).

Letter Choice: Student A was able to identify 15 out of 26 letters correctly when given the
choice between two letters.

Letter Matching Puzzle: Student A was able to match 20 out of 26 letters on the letter puzzle.
He was NOT able to identify all 20 that he matched.

Midpoint Assessment:

Letter Choice: Student A was able to identify 13 out of 26 letters correctly when given the
choice between two letters.

Final Assessment:

Letter Choice: Student A was able to identify 17 out of 26 letters correctly when given the
choice between two letters.

Assessment Results and Data

Initial Assessments:

TROLL: Student A scored a 56, which is slightly above

average for children his age (3 yr).

Letter Choice: Student A was able to identify 15 out of 26

letters correctly when given the choice between two letters.

19.5

Letter Matching Puzzle: Student A was able to match 20 out

of 26 letters on the letter puzzle. He was NOT able to
identify all 20 that he matched.

13

Midpoint Assessment:

26

Letter Choice: Student A was able to identify 13 out of 26

letters correctly when given the choice between two letters.

Final Assessment:

Letter Choice: Student A was able to identify 17 out of 27

letters correctly when given the choice between two letters.

6.5
0

Initial

Midpoint

Final

Reflection

Throughout this process of action research, I was able to personally experience effective and noneffective strategies in the area of letter recognition.

I tailored instruction and activity to fit my students needs and I was able to assess his progression
and regression. I feel that I applied the strategies and activities that research had proven were
effective.

However, there are things I would have done differently had time permitted.

I would have met with student A more in order to provide him with an even greater
opportunity for success. I was not able to meet my goal of increasing student As letter
recognition by 5 letters.

I wish I would have applied effective strategies for increasing engagement. Student A was very
distractible and gave up easily when he was frustrated.

If I were to do this project again with the same student, I would remove him from the room
with all of his peers and take him to a quiet room. I believe this would have made it easier for
him to focus when it came to participating in activities.

References

Graham, S. and Harris, K. (2013). How do you write? Writing for young
children. In D.R. Reutzel (ed.),
education

Huang, F.L. and Invernizzi, M.A. (2012). The association of kindergarten entry age
with early literacy outcomes.

National Early Literacy Panel (NELP). (2008).

of the National Early Literacy Panel
Literacy.

Reutzel, D.R. and Cooter, R.B. (2015).

instruction: Helping every child succeed
Education.

Questions or
Suggestions?