Literacy Intervention Strategies for Increasing Kindergarteners' Letter Sound Fluency and Word Recognition: A Proposed Intervention PDF

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LITERACY INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR KINDERGARTENERS 1 Literacy Intervention Strategies for Increasing Kindergarteners’ Letter Sound Fluency and Word Recognition: A Proposed Intervention A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School Foundation University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requ...

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LITERACY INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR KINDERGARTENERS Literacy Intervention Strategies for Increasing Kindergarteners’ Letter Sound Fluency and Word Recognition: A Proposed Intervention

A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School Foundation University

In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirement for the Degree Master of Arts in Education Major in Administration and Supervision

By

ALFREDO E. SAPEQUEÑA, JR. March 2018

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LITERACY INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR KINDERGARTENERS Abstract This research sought to determine the effectiveness of the following proposed literacy intervention strategies: perfect match, fluency letter wheel, letter flash, familiar word readings, word relay, and fast match in increasing letter sound fluency and word recognition among kinder pupils enrolled in Manggolod Elementary School of Sta. Catalina District III. Forty-two (42) respondents were equally distributed among three groups based on their level of intelligence per academic grades from first to second quarter. The study utilized the standardized Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) as the tool in determining the pre-test and post-test performance of the kinder pupils. The researcher prepared 3 different intervention strategies for letter sound fluency and 3 different intervention strategies for word recognition and administered them to the pupils. To check on the effectiveness of the strategies, a post-test was conducted using EGRA. Results were statistically treated using percentage, weighted mean, t-test for independent data and t-test for dependent data. It was found out that pre-test and post-test performance of the kinder pupils in letter sound fluency and word recognition was generally within satisfactory level. Post-test performance in letter sound fluency and word recognition was also remarkable. There was a significant difference between their pre-test and post-test performance in letter sound fluency word recognition intervention activities. Hence, it is recommended that other schools would use the strategies proposed in this study so to compare the findings of this study.

Keywords: Literacy intervention strategies, Letter sound fluency, Word recognition

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LITERACY INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR KINDERGARTENERS

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Table of Contents Title Page

Page No

Title Page

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i

Abstract

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ii

Table of Contents

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List of Tables

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v

List of Figures

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vi

Acknowledgement

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Introduction

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Theoretical Background of the Study

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Review of Related Literature and

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Related Literature

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Related Studies

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Conceptual Framework of the Study

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The Problem

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Statement of the Problem

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Statement of the Null Hypothesis ………………………………

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Significance of the Study

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Scope and Limitation of the Study

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Scope of the Study

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Limitation of the Study

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Chapter I: The Problem and Its Scope

Studies

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Research Methodology

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Research Design

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Research Environment

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Research Respondents

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Research Instrument

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Research Procedure

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Statistical Treatment of Data

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Operational Definition of Terms

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Chapter II: Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data Chapter III: Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations Restatement of the Problem

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Restatement of the Null Hypotheses

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Summary of Findings

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Conclusions

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Recommendations

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References

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Appendices

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Appendix A: Questionnaire

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Appendix B: Request Letter

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Appendix C: Response Letter

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Curriculum Vitae

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List of Tables Table No. 1

Title Pre-test Performance of the Kinder Pupils in Letter Sound Fluency

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Post-test Performance of the Kinder Pupils in Word Recognition

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Post-test Performance of the Kinder Pupils in Letter Sound Fluency

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Pre-test Performance of the Kinder Pupils in Word Recognition

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Page No.

Difference between the Pre-Test and Post-Test Performance of the Kinder Pupils in Letter Sound Fluency

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Difference between the Pre-Test and Post-Test Performance of the Kinder Pupils in Word Recognition

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Difference among the Post-Test Performance of the Kinder Pupils in Letter Sound Fluency

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Difference among the Post-Test Performance of the Kinder Pupils in Word Recognition

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Post Hoc Analysis of the Difference among the Post-Test Performance in Word Recognition

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List of Figures Figure No.

Title

Page No.

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Theoretical Framework of the Study

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Conceptual Framework of the Study

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LITERACY INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR KINDERGARTENERS Acknowledgments With grateful heart, the researcher is indebted to pay tribute the following people who have inspired and motivated him finished this endeavour. Faisal M. Alih, University Co-Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Foundation University, for giving his valuable comments, guidance and encouragement that made this research possible. Jasper Eric C. Catan, Dean of the College of Education, Foundation University, his adviser, for the continuous support of his research, for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. His guidance helped him in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. Dr. Maria Chona Z. Futalan, Graduate School Professor, Foundation University, his statistician, whose statistical expertise was invaluable during the analysis and interpretation of the data gathered. Her willingness to extend her time just to accommodate the researcher’s queries is very much appreciated and worthy of emulation.

Dr. Cristina P. Calisang, thesis panelist, for her detailed and constructive comments and suggestion for the enrichment of the study. Dr. Craig Refugio, thesis panelist, for giving his ideas for the improvement of the study. Antonia Gueyndoline B. Despojo, thesis panelist, for her constructive ideas and comment for the improvement of the study. Annabelle Corazon N. Meniano, his principal, Manggolod Elementary School, for her moral support and guidance to make this study possible.

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LITERACY INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR KINDERGARTENERS Kindergarten learners of Manggolod Elementary School, his respondents, for their cooperation and perseverance in answering the items of the questionnaires that made this thesis a success. Papa Fred, Mama Marile, Uri Guiller, and Sacred Lei, his family, for their unconditional love, immense understanding, valuable prayers and financial support, and inspiration to complete this research work. Nacel Joyce, Rosemarie, and Mary Claire, his friends and co-researchers, for the stimulating discussions, for the sleepless nights working together before deadlines, and for all the encouragement through the years of study. Above all, to God Almighty, our Lord and Saviour, for the wisdom, strength and knowledge, for the guidance in helping surpass all the trials that the researchers encountered and for giving determination to pursue her studies and to make this study possible All Glory be to Him, the Most Gracious!

ALFREDO E. SAPEQUEÑA, JR., LPT Researcher

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LITERACY INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR KINDERGARTENERS Chapter 1 The Problem and Its Scope Introduction The Department of Education (DepEd) believes that Kindergarten is the transition period from informal to formal literacy, considering that age five (5) is within the critical years in which positive experiences must be nurtured to ascertain school readiness (K to 12 Kindergarten Curriculum Guide, 2016). It is a known fact that pupils enter kindergarten with differing abilities. While other pupils coming in to kindergarten are not well-versed with alphabet knowledge, other kinder pupils can already read and write recognizable words. Letter sound and letter naming are no longer the things a kindergarten should learn in this stage; they also have to meet the standards set forth and have to master letters and letters sound by the end of the school year (Schultz, 2015). A preschooler, who is already well-versed with letter naming and sounding, will have no difficulty in acquiring the basics of reading and spelling. However, when pupils, especially kindergarten, fall short from the standards set by the curricula that they must be properly acquainted with letter sounds and names, they will likely find it hard to catch up with others and will have difficulty in learning to read (cited in Schultz, 2015). Research has indicated that a large percentage of primary-grade students who struggle in reading have not achieved full competency in the foundational reading competencies (word recognition and fluency in letter naming and sounding). More on intensive instruction of the foundational competencies should

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LITERACY INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR KINDERGARTENERS be done and a simple lesson approach should be prepared to help improve the reading outcomes of students who struggle (Rasinski, 2017). However, it is evident that year after year, as per researcher observation, the level of proficiency in terms of reading is declining, and the number of non-readers by the end of grade 3 is growing in an alarming rate. It is quite a dilemma since most of the teachers fail to take into account that letter sound fluency and word recognition of kinder pupils are early determiners of their future literacy skills. Several studies have already been conducted as to the perceived importance and effect if fluency (both in letter sound and word recognition) have been developed in an early age, and lots of literacy practices are now made readily available for the consumption of teachers to better enhance letter sound fluency and word recognition. Unfortunately, in the light of all these practices, the mastery level of kinder pupils in terms of letter sounds and word could not meet the benchmarks. It was on this premise that the researcher decided to tackle this issue, considering that the researcher is also a school reading coordinator. The researcher believed that letter sound fluency and word recognition should be given great emphasis in kinder pupils because this will help them attain early literacy at an early age. The researcher proposed an innovated intervention on how to effectively teach letter sound fluency and word recognition. The relationship between a pupil’s letter sound and word recognition

knowledge, especially at the beginning of kindergarten, plays a significant role in that pupil’s future success in reading and writing. The researcher also hoped to

provide information for teachers regarding literacy strategies to implement with

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LITERACY INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR KINDERGARTENERS pupils who are struggling with learning letter sounds and word recognition to increase pupils’ alphabet knowledge skills. The researcher also sought to spread awareness to teachers who are not aware of the significance of the correlation between a pupil’s letter acquisition skills and their future literacy success.

Furthermore, the insight gained from the study would inform the thinking of

present and future educators regarding the best practices and approaches to use to aid in early childhood students’ acquisition of early literacy skills. Theoretical Background of the Study

This study is rooted upon one of the major theories of literacy development namely Emergent Literacy Theory by Caitrin Blake (2017), originally developed by Marie Clay, and is coined to the Bottom-Up model of reading briefly discussed below. What is emergent literacy? Emergent literacy is defined as the developmental steps a young child takes prior to actually reading a text, including interacting with a book, responding to texts, and pretending at reading or writing before actually being able to do so. A student who has achieved emergent literacy has oral language skills, phonological awareness, print awareness and letter awareness (Blake, 2017). Emergent literacy refers to the view that literacy learning begins at birth and is encouraged through participation with adults in meaningful activities; these literacy behaviors change and eventually become conventional over time (Neuman et.al., 2000).

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LITERACY INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR KINDERGARTENERS The early skills of Emergent Literacy include the knowledge and abilities related to the alphabet, phonological awareness, symbolic representation, and communication. However, existing models of emergent literacy focus on discrete skills and miss the perspective of the surrounding environment. Early literacy skills, including their relationship to one another, and the substantial impact of the setting and context, are critical in ensuring that children gain all of the preliminary skills and awareness they will need to become successful readers and writers (Rohde, 2015). The Bottom-Up model of reading which is also utilized as basis for this study is discussed below. The reading model is also sub-divided into print awareness, teaching letter and phonics, decoding word recognition, automaticity, and reading fluency to briefly and accurately explain how a child learns to read. This model of reading strongly correlated to the Emergent Literacy Theory and, hence, used by the researcher. Bottom-up reading model hypothesized that learning to read progresses from children learning the parts of language (letters) to understanding whole text (meaning). Much like solving a jigsaw puzzle, bottom-up models of the reading process say that the reading puzzle is solved by beginning with an examination of each piece of the puzzle and then putting pieces together to make a picture (Reutzel and Cooter, 2013). Teachers who believe that the bottom-up model of reading fully explain how children become readers often teach sub-skills first: they begin instruction by introducing letter names and letter sounds, progress to pronouncing whole words,

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LITERACY INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR KINDERGARTENERS then show students ways of connecting word meanings to comprehend texts. Although bottom-up theories of the reading process explain the decoding part of the reading process rather well, there is certainly more to reading than decoding. To become readers, students must compare their knowledge and background experiences to the text in order to understand the author’s message. Truly, the whole purpose of reading is comprehension.

In terms of reading, according to Paran (1996), bottom-up model assumes that the reader recognizes every letter, organizes the perceived letter into words, and finally classifies the words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. Meaning at any level is accessed only once, and processing at previous levels is always completed. Sequential process of bottom-up reading model Print awareness. Before students can learn to read, bottom-up theorists believe they must develop print awareness. Pre-readers must understand that the shapes and lines on a page represent letters and when put together, represent different words. Bottom-up teaching strategies first help pre-readers recognize that printed words provide information (The Indianapolis Public Library, 2017). Teaching letter and phonics. Readers, according to Gough, begin by translating the parts of written language (letters) into speech sounds, then piece the sounds together to form individual words, then piece the words together to arrive at an understanding of the author’s written message (Gough, 1972).

Decoding word recognition. As students learn to recognize phonemes, they

will learn to recognize words. Vocabulary is taught in the context of the phonemes being learned. As students develop their language skills, they will learn to recognize

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LITERACY INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR KINDERGARTENERS various words. In contrast to whole-language instruction, which emphasizes teaching reading by having students memorize certain words called 'sight words', phonics emphasizes teaching students the phonemes they need to decode unknown words as they encounter them in the text (Tustin, 2017). Automaticity. In their reading model, LaBerge and Samuels (1974) describe a concept called automatic information processing or automaticity. This popular model of the reading process hypothesizes that the human mind functions much like a computer and that visual input (letters and words) is sequentially entered into the mind of the reader. Reading fluency. This is the final step of the bottom-up reading model. Beginning readers might not understand much of what they are reading as they concentrate on decoding and pronouncing each word. Once they are able to recognize words quickly, they begin to not only read text but improve comprehension (Pearson, 2017). In this reading theory process, children learn to read by acquiring emergent literacy skills, which is closely similar to the Bottom-Up model of reading where in children first master the letters of the alphabet. Then they learn phonics, decoding skills, vocabulary, grammar, and eventually reading comprehension skills. Based on the above premise, the researcher would like to find out empirical data about the theory and whether or not the Emergent Literacy theory of Caitrin Blake, originally developed by Marie Clay, fits this study. And also, the researcher would find out if the Bottom-Up model of reading provided the most relevant basis in conducting this study.

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