Action Research With Double Spaces

Running Head: ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015
Action Research Fall 2015

Kristen B. Fuller
Samford University
ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015
Initial Meeting with Teacher

When meeting with my cooperative teacher, Mrs. Halpert, on September 24th to discuss
the Action Research Project, she selected three students for me to work with throughout the
semester: Michael, Jim, and Dwight (names have been changed). These three students fall in the
middle range of reading ability in her classroom, so they are often overlooked and do not receive
as much attention or extra help as higher level and lower level students do. Mrs. Halpert works
in small groups every day with the lower level students who still struggle with the alphabet, and
the gifted students are accommodated for as well. Mrs. Halpert believes that with a little help,
which they do not normally receive, Michael, Jim, and Dwight will be boosted up to the top tier.
Therefore, they were selected to be the students in my action research group. After selecting the
students, Mrs. Halpert provided me with following information regarding Michael, Jim, and
Dwights letter and sound knowledge:
Michael knows 51/52 letter IDs and 24/26 sounds.
Jim knows all 52/52 letter IDs and 25/26 sounds.
Dwight knows 50/52 letter IDs and 23/26 sounds.
The Question
Michael, Jim, and Dwight are able to recognize all or almost all of the 52 letter IDs and
many of their sounds (phenomes). Therefore, they are ready to move on to the next step:
blending phenomes together to form words. I will work together with Michael, Jim, and Dwight
to improve their ability to blend phenomes together so that they can better decode words and
read independently. The question that I will focus on for this Action Research Project for all
three students is: What are the best steps and strategies for improving phenome blending in
young readers?
4
Timeline
Pre-Session
September 24
Session 1
October 1
Session 2
October 8
Session 3
October 14
Session 4
October 19
Initial meeting with Mrs. Scott to determine which students to work

and what area to focus on by looking at data from previous
assessments
Form the essential question
Initial assessments
1. A phoneme blending skill assessment from OnTrack Reading
Initial assessments
1. Literacy Resources Inc. Blending Compound Words & Syllables
assessment
2. Literacy Resources Inc. Blending Onset and Rime assessment
3. Literacy Resource Inc. Blending Phonemes into Words assessment
Syllable blending activity: Trip to the Zoo game
Session 5
October 23
Session 6
October 29
Session 7
November 5
Session 8
November 19
Initial Assessment: Reading Nonsense Words

Onset-Rime blending activities: Spoon activity and Word Surgery
activity
Phoneme blending activity: picture slides, park the car activity
Phoneme segmenting activity: treasure chest activity
Midpoint Assessments:
2. Literacy Resources Inc. Blending Compound Words & Syllables
assessment
5. Nonsense Word Fluency assessment
Draw-A-Letter nonsense word activity
Draw-A-Letter nonsense word activity
Final Assessments
2. Inventory Literacy Resources Inc. Blending Compound Words &
Syllables assessment
5. Nonsense Word Fluency assessment
Discovering Strategies for Improving Phoneme Blending

Kristen B. Fuller
Samford University
Abstract
Phoneme blending instruction is a method of teaching phonemic awareness, which is a crucial
predecessor of learning to read, comprehend, and spell. When researching effective phoneme
blending strategies, it was discovered that phoneme blending should not be taught until after
syllable blending and onset-rime blending is mastered. Then after phoneme blending is taught
and mastered, instruction should move to phoneme segmentation. Several strategies and activity
examples that improve the blending of syllables, the blending of onsets and rimes, the blending
of phonemes, and the segmenting of phonemes were discovered. Each of these areas of
phonemic awareness are important in the development of young students reading skills.
According to Put Reading First (n.d., p. 1), phonemic awareness is the ability to
notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words. Phonemic awareness
instruction is important because it increases students ability to read words, comprehend what
they read, and spell (Put Reading First). The article explains that there are a variety of
methods that can be used to help young students learn and practice how to recognize phonemes,
or individual sounds. One method is phoneme blending, which involves listening to a series of
phonemes and combining them to create a word (Put Reading First). The article says that the
method of blending can also be used to merge onsets and rimes into syllables and to merge
syllables into words. Phoneme blending is one of the more advanced forms of phonemic
awareness and should not be taught until after the student understands more simple aspects of
phonemic awareness, such as phoneme isolation, phoneme identity, and phoneme categorization
(Put Reading First).
The sequence of phonemic instruction should start with activities that focus on syllable
units, then move up to activities that focus on onset and rime units, then finally move up to
activities that focus on phonemes (Yopp & Yopp, 2000). This is because children appear to be
better able to capture and gain control over larger units of sound before smaller units of sound
(Yopp & Yopp, 2000, p. 132). Yopp and Yopp (2000) explain that the process of syllable
blending is combining two or more syllables together to form a word, such as blending /pup/-/py/
to form the word puppy. They state that onset-rime blending involves combining an onset and
rime to form a syllable, such as blending the onset /pl/ and the rime /ane/ to form the syllable
plane. Finally, they explain that phoneme blending is the process of combining phonemes to
make a word, such as forming the phonemes /p/-/l/-/a/-/n/ to create the word plan. According to
this sequence presented by Yopp and Yopp (2000), if students are struggling with phoneme
blending, it may be necessary to go back and practice syllable blending and onset-rime blending.
Phoneme segmentation, in which a word is broken down into its separate sounds, goes
hand-in-hand with phoneme blending. Instructional Activities (n.d.) explains that segmenting
tasks are usually harder than blending tasks, but both phoneme blending and phoneme
segmenting are important for phonemic awareness. The author of Essential Strategies for
Teaching Phonemic Awareness (n.d., p. 3) says that effective phonemic awareness instruction
explicitly labels sounds and demonstrates the process of blending-segmenting of sounds.
Walpole and McKenna (2008) state that phoneme segmentation and blending instruction will
benefit most kindergarteners to some degree.
A general strategy that is applicable to both blending parts of words and segmenting parts
of words is to make a list of words to segment or blend ahead of time, instead of coming up with
words during the lesson, so that instructional time is not wasted (Walpole & McKenna, 2008).
Walpole and McKenna (2008) also suggest using a recipe box to separate these chosen words by
difficulty. Another general blending and segmenting strategy is to use engaging, concrete
materials, such as picture cards, props, puppets, or a slinky (Walpole & McKenna, 2008). A third
general strategy suggested by Walpole and McKenna (2008) is to model how to blend and
segment words using both continuous sounds, like /m/, and stop sounds, like /d/. These general
strategies help when planning specific activities for syllable blending, onset-rime blending,
phoneme blending, and phoneme segmentation.
Instructional Activities (n.d) explains that when doing syllable awareness activities,
like syllable blending, it is important to clearly articulate syllables and start off with familiar
words, such as names and compound words that are used frequently. An effective activity that
focuses on syllable blending is to go on a pretend trip (Blending and Segmenting, n.d.). The
trip can be around the school, around the zoo, around the grocery store, etc. In this activity, the
teacher will point out the things that they see along the way by saying the syllables in the word
separately, then the students blend the syllables together to form the word (Blending and
Segmenting, n.d.). For instance, when passing by the lunchroom, the teacher would say /lunch/
- /room/, then the students would say /lunchroom/ (Blending and Segmenting, n.d.). A similar
activity for syllable blending is to use a puppet to stretch words out by syllable. The students
must figure out what the puppet is saying by blending the syllables together (Blending and
Segmenting, n.d.).
An effective activity that focuses on onset-rime blending is a task in which the instructor
pretends to be a robot (Savage, Carless, & Stuart, 2003). Since robots speak with choppy voices,
the instructor will say one syllable words in two pieces by splitting the onset from the rime, then
the students must decipher what the robot said by sliding the sounds together to form a word
(Savage, Carless, & Stuart, 2003). For example, the instructor would say /m/ - /at/ and the
students would say /mat/ (Savage, Carless, & Stuart, 2003). Savage, Carless, and Stuart (2003,
p. 16) explain that this activity appears to be an effective way of framing meta-phonological
tasks for poor readers. This activity can also be adapted and used for syllable blending or
phoneme blending instruction.
An activity to improve phoneme blending suggested by Phonological Awareness (2008,
p. 6) is to blend phonemes to make words while sliding pieces together to make pictures. For
example, while blending the four phonemes in the word frog, the student would
simultaneously blend the four picture pieces of the frog (Phonological Awareness, 2008). This
resource provides picture cards for words with two phonemes all the way up to words with five
phonemes. Phonological Awareness (2008) also suggests a good phoneme segmentation
activity, called Treasure Chest Game, in which students take turns drawing picture cards and
segmenting the sounds. If they correctly segment the sounds, they put one penny for each sound
10
into a treasure chest and record the number of phonemes next to its corresponding picture on a
record sheet (Phonological Awareness, 2008).
Phoneme blending is an important aspect of phonemic awareness, which is crucial to
students reading, comprehension, and spelling abilities (Put Reading First). Before phoneme
blending instruction, students should be proficient in syllable blending and onset-rime blending;
then once they master phoneme blending, they can move on to phoneme segmentation (Yopp
&Yopp, 2000). There are many general strategies that can be used for both blending and
segmenting word parts of various sizes, including selecting words beforehand, using engaging
and concrete materials, and modeling with continuous and stop sounds (Walpole & McKenna,
2008). Specific activities for syllable blending, onset-rime blending, phoneme blending, and
phoneme segmentation help students grasp these skills and obtain phonemic awareness.
11
References
Blending and segmenting. Brigham Young University. http://education.byu.edu/seel/
blendingandsegmenting.html
Essential strategies for teaching phonemic awareness. Sage.
https://www.sagepub.com/sites/
default/files/upm-binaries/40626_1.pdf
Instructional activities to develop phonological awareness: Words and syllables. Reading
First in Virginia Professional Development. http://www.readingfirst.virginia.edu/
prof_dev/phonemic_awareness/words_syllables.html
Phonological awareness. (2008). Florida Center for Reading Research. http://www.fcrr.org/
curriculum/pdf/GK-1/PA_Final_Part5.pdf
Put Reading First. The National Institute for Literacy. https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/
pdf/PRFbooklet.pdf
Savage, R., Carless, S., & Stuart, M. (2003). The effects of rime- and phoneme based teaching
delivered by Learning Support Assistants. Journal of Research in Reading, 26(3), 211233. http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.samford.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdf viewer?sid=da
576e5f-112c-4d40-adf6-649800df3bf7%40sessionmgr4002&vid =5&hid=4102
Walpole, S. & McKenna, M. C. (2008). Differentiated reading instruction: Strategies for the
primary grades. New York: The Guilford Press.
Yopp, H. K. & Yopp, R. H. (2000). Supporting phonemic awareness development in the
classroom. The Reading Teacher, 54(2), 130-143). http://literacyhow.com/wp-content/
uploads/2013/08/SupportingPhonemicAwarenessDevelopmentintheClassroom.pdf
12
Descriptions of the Assessments Used

1. OnTrack Reading Phoneme Blending assessment: This assessment tests students on
their ability to blend phonemes together to form a word. For each word, the teacher says
the individual phonemes out loud, and the students blend them together to form the word.
There are 15 words in this assessment, but I only tested the students on the first 5 words
because I felt like the last 10 words were too developmentally challenging for students
just beginning kindergarten. This assessment can be found on this website:
http://www.ontrackreading.com/phonics-program/testing-blending-skill
2. Literacy Resources Inc. Syllable Blending assessment: This assessment tests students
on their ability to blend 2 syllables together to form a word. For each word, the teacher
says the individual syllables out loud, and the students blend them together to form the
word. There are 10 words in this assessment. This assessment can be found on this
website: http://www.literacyresourcesinc.com/assets/1/7/Kindergarten_PA_
Assessments.July_2014.pdf
3. Literacy Resources Inc. Onset and Rime Blending assessment: This assessment tests
students on their ability to blend onsets and rimes together to form a word. For each
word, the teacher says the onset and the rime out loud, and the students blend them
together to form the word. There are 10 words in this assessment. This assessment can be
found on this website: http://www.literacyresourcesinc.com/assets/1/7/Kindergarten_PA_
Assessments.July_2014.pdf
4. Literacy Resources Inc. Phoneme Blending assessment: Like the first assessment, this
assessment tests students on their ability to blend phonemes together to form a word.
For each word, the teacher says the onset and the rime out loud, and the students blend
them together to form the word. There are 10 words in this assessment. This assessment
13
can be found on this website: http://www.literacyresourcesinc.com/assets/1/7/

Kindergarten_PA_Assessments.July_2014.pdf
5. Nonsense Word Fluency assessment: This assessment tests the students on their ability
to decode the phonemes in nonsense CVC words and read them out loud. This
assessment has 45 nonsense words, but I only tested students on 14 words. This
assessment can be found on this website: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/
FreeDownload/Nonsense-Word-Fluency-Freebie-NSF-DIBELS-Practice-Pages
14
Reflection of Initial Assessments

After initially assessing the students, I noticed that Michael and Jim were able to blend
syllables together and onsets and rimes together perfectly. They also both performed well when
blending phonemes together. Since they did so well on these assessments, I decided to change
my plans and add an initial assessment, the Nonsense Word Fluency assessment. This
assessment tested their ability to read and blend the phonemes in nonsense words together. They
performed pretty well on this assessment, but I had to guide them more than I thought I would.
Since they need so much guidance on this, I realize that I could potentially see improvement with
them in this area throughout the semester. Overall, I feel like these two students are near or
around the same level of phoneme blending abilities.
Dwights scores on the initial assessment show that he is not able to blend syllables,
onsets and rimes, and phonemes as well as the other two students are able to. Although he is
further behind, I believe that I will see the most improvement with him this semester. Although
Michael and Jim are able to blend syllables together and onsets and rimes together, research
found that doing syllable blending and onset-rime blending activities will help students blend
phonemes more easily. Therefore, I will start my instruction this semester by briefly doing
syllable blending and onset-rime blending activities with the students before moving on. In
addition, I will schedule in time to work on phoneme segmenting with the students as a challenge
after we work on phoneme blending.
15
Assessment Scores
Michael
Assessment
Initial Scores
Midterm Scores
Final Scores
OnTrack Reading Phoneme

Blending Assessment
Literacy Resources, Inc.
Blending Syllables Assessment
Blending Onset and Rime
Assessment
Blending Phonemes
Assessment
Nonsense Word Fluency
Assessment
3/5
5/5
5/5
10/10
10/10
10/10
10/10
10/10
10/10
7/10
10/10
10/10
8/14
6/14
10/14
Jim
Assessment
Initial Scores
Midterm Scores
Final Scores

Blending Assessment
Blending Onset and Rime
Assessment
Blending Phonemes
Assessment
Assessment
4/5
5/5
5/5
10/10
10/10
10/10
10/10
9/10
10/10
9/10
10/10
9/10
10/14
8/14
12/14
16
Dwight
Assessment
Initial Scores
Midterm Scores
Final Scores

Blending Assessment
Blending Onsets and Rime
Assessment
Blending Phonemes
assessment
Assessment
1/5
4/5
5/5
6/10
9/10
10/10
7/10
8/10
10/10
9/10
8/10
10/10
4/14
11/14
11/14
17
Progress Monitoring Chart

I provided each student with this progress monitoring chart that they filled in after each
session. I filled in the first two columns, and the students were instructed to choose the green
face if they felt happy about their work, the yellow face if they felt okay about it, and the red face
if they felt bad about their work.
Date
Today, we practiced
I think that I did
Completed Progress Monitoring Charts
18
Chart of Michaels Sessions

Session,
Date, and
Length
Description of
Session & Strategies
Used
Data
Student Progress
Anecdotal
Observations &
Reflections
Plan for Next

Session
19
Session 1
October 1
5 minutes
1 initial assessment
was given: OnTrack
Reading Phoneme
Blending
OnTrack: 3/5
--
Session 2
October 8
10 minutes
3 initial assessments
were given:
LRI Syllable
Blending assessment,
LRI Onset and Rime
& LRI Phoneme
Blending assessment
Syllable blending
activity: Trip to the
Zoo game
LRI Syllable: 10/10

LRI Onset-Rime:
10/10
LRI Phoneme: 7/10
--
Michael
successfully
completed the
syllable blending
task.
Michael chose the

green happy face,
and understood how
to blend syllables
together.
1 last initial
assessment was
given: Nonsense
Word Fluency
assessment
Nonsense Word
Fluency: 8/14
Michael chose the

yellow face. He
seemed to enjoy the
activities, but I
think that he felt
confused at first.
Michael continues to
seem more open around
me, but he is still quiet.
He enjoyed the Word
Surgery activity.
Michael was able to

blend the phonemes
in these activities
after examples and
guidance were
provided.
Michael chose the

red face after this
session.
OnTrack: 5/5
LRI Syllable: 10/10
LRI Onset-Rime:
10/10
LRI Phoneme:
10/10
Nonsense Word
Fluency: 6/14
Michael improved
on the OnTrack
Reading Phoneme
Blending
assessment and the
LRI Phoneme
Blending
assessment. He
stayed the same on
the LRI Syllable
Blending and LRI
Onset-Rime
Michael struggled with

this session. Instead of
saying the sounds, he
would say the letters. I
corrected him and gave
him examples, but he
still needed guidance.
Hopefully I can find
activities that he will
enjoy after we complete
the midpoint
assessments.
Michael had already
scored 10s on the
syllable and onset-rime
blending assessments. I
am glad that he
maintained these scores
and that he improved on
the phoneme blending
assessments. I need to
find an activity that
improves Michaels
blending skills of
Session 3
October 14
10 minutes
Session 4
October 19
10 minutes
Session 5
October 23
15 minutes
Onset-rime blending
activities: spoon
activity and Word
Surgery activity
Phoneme blending
activities: Park the
Car activity and
picture slides activity
Phoneme segmenting
activity: Treasure
Chest game
Session 6
October 27
10 minutes
Midpoint
assessments were
given:
OnTrack Reading
Phoneme Blending,
LRI Syllable
LRI Onset and Rime
LRI. Phoneme
& Nonsense Word
Michael
successfully
completed the
onset-rime blending
task.
Michael seems very

shy. He was not
confident in his
answers. I need to
figure out a way to help
Michael build his
confidence.
Once again, Michael
seemed very shy. He
has a very sweet
personality, but I need
to find a way to help
him become more
confident in his
answers.
Michael seemed less
shy and more excited
about what we did
today. He and Jim
worked together during
this session, and they
seemed to enjoy it.
Continue initial
assessments
Give StarFall
Nonsense Words
Assessment &
begin syllable
blending
activities.
Give 1 more
initial assessment
that measures his
skill of blending
written words
together rather
than spoken
words.
Work on onsetrime blending and
phoneme
blending.
Do phoneme
blending and
phoneme
segmenting
activities.
Do midpoint
assessments.
Do an activity
that will allow
Michael to
practice blending
phonemes in
nonsense words.

Fluency assessment
Session 7
November 5
10 minutes
Session 8
November 19
15 minutes
Draw-a-letter
activity: Students
draw 3 letters to
create nonsense CVC
words by blending
the phonemes
together
Draw-a-letter activity
Final assessments
were given:
OnTrack Reading
Phoneme Blending,
LRI Syllable
LRI Onset and Rime
LRI. Phoneme
&Nonsense Word
Fluency assessment
Michael was able to

successfully blend 5
nonsense CVC
words together with
some guidance (zeg,
wum, bow, kip, and
put).
Michael was able to
nonsense CVC
words together with
some guidance (bib,
ded, hec, cix, and
jad).
OnTrack: 5/5
LRI Syllable: 10/10
LRI Onset-Rime:
10/10
LRI Phoneme:
10/10
Nonsense Word
Fluency: 10/14
20
Blending
assessments. His
score on the
Nonsense Word
Fluency assessment
decreased by 2.
Michael chose the
green happy face
after this session.
phonemes that create

nonsense words.
I think that this activity

helped Michaels ability
to blend phonemes in
nonsense words.
Repeat the drawa-letter activity

next session and
do final
assessments.
Michael chose the

green happy face
after completing the
draw-a-letter
activity.
Once again, Michael

performed well on this
activity and seemed to
enjoy it.
--
Michaels scorea
stayed the same on
the OnTrack
Reading Phoneme
Blending, LRI
Syllable Blending,
LRI Onset-Rime
Blending, and LRI
Phoneme Blending
assessments
(highest score
possible). He
improved on the
Nonsense Word
Fluency Assessment
by 4 points.
I am glad to see
improvement on the
Nonsense Word
Fluency assessment.
21
Chart of Jims Sessions
Session,
Date, &
Length
Session 1
October 1
5 minutes
Description of
Session/Strategies
Used
Data
Student Progress
Anecdotal
Observations &
Reflections
Plan for Next

Session
was given: OnTrack
Reading Phoneme
Blending
were given:
LRI Syllable
LRI Onset and Rime
& LRI Phoneme
Blending assessment
OnTrack: 4/5
--
Jim seems very eager

and appears to be a hard
worker.
Continue initial
assessments
LRI Syllable: 10/10

LRI Onset-Rime:
10/10
LRI Phoneme: 9/10
--
Jim is doing really well

on the initial
assessments.
Give StarFall
Nonsense Words
Assessment &
begin syllable
blending
activities.
Session 3
October 14
10 minutes
Syllable blending
Zoo game
Jim successfully
completed the
syllable blending
task.
Jim chose the green

happy face.
Jim performed very

well when working on
syllable blending. He
worked well with
Michael during this
session.
Session 4
October 19
10 minutes
1 last initial
assessment was
given: Nonsense
Word Fluency
assessment
Nonsense Word
Fluency: 10/14
Jim chose the green

happy face.
Jim is a very hard

worker. He seems
confident and excited.
Give 1 more
initial assessment
that measures his
skill of blending
written words
together rather
than spoken
words.
phoneme
blending.
Do phoneme
blending and
phoneme
segmenting
activities.
Jim was able to

successfully blend
words that had up to
4 phonemes.
Jim chose the green

happy face.
Jim loved the Park the

Car activity. He did
well on the picture
slides activity, so I
included picture slides
that had up to 4
phonemes per word.
Do midpoint
assessments.
OnTrack: 5/5
LRI Syllable: 10/10
LRI Onset-Rime:
9/10
LRI Phoneme:
10/10
Nonsense Word
Fluency: 8/14
Jims scores on the

OnTrack Reading
Phoneme Blending
assessment and the
LRI Phoneme
Blending
assessment both
increased by 1
point. His score on
the LRI Syllable
Blending
I am happy that Jims

phoneme blending
skills have improved. I
need to find a way to
help his ability to blend
phonemes from
unfamiliar words
together.
Do an activity
that will allow
Jim to practice
blending
phonemes in
nonsense words.
Session 2
October 8
10 minutes
Session 5
October 23
15 minutes
Session 6
October 27
10 minutes
Onset-rime blending
activities: spoon
activity and Word
Surgery activity
Phoneme blending
Car activity and
Phoneme
segmenting: Treasure
Chest activity
5 Midpoint
assessments:
OnTrack Reading
Phoneme Blending,
Literacy Resources
Inc. (LRI) Syllable
LRI Onset and Rime
LRI. Phoneme
Jim successfully
completed the
onset-rime blending
task.

Nonsense Word
Fluency assessment
Session 7
November 5
10 minutes
Session 8
November 19
15 minutes
Draw-a-letter
activity: Students
draw 3 letters to
create nonsense CVC
words by blending
the phonemes
together.
Final assessments:
OnTrack Reading
Phoneme Blending,
Literacy Resources
Inc. (LRI) Syllable
LRI Onset and Rime
LRI. Phoneme
Nonsense Word
Fluency assessment
Jim was able to

nonsense CVC
words together on
his own (fap, peb,
nok, kap, and gil).
22
assessment stayed
the same (highest
score possible). His
scores on the LRI
Onset-Rime
Blending
assessment and the
Nonsense Word
Fluency
assessments both
decreased.
Jim chose the green
happy face.
Jim was able to

nonsense CVC
words together on
his own (not, pev,
gaj, fac, and jil)
Jim chose the

yellow face after the
draw-a-letter
activity. He
performed well on
it, so I am surprised.
OnTrack: 5/5
LRI Syllable: 10/10
LRI Onset-Rime:
10/10
LRI Phoneme: 9/10
Nonsense Word
Fluency: 12/14
Jims scores on the

OnTrack Reading
Phoneme Blending,
LRI Syllable
Blending, and LRI
Onset-Rime
Blending
assessments stayed
the same (highest
score). His score on
the LRI Phoneme
Blending
assessment
decreased by 1. His
score on the
Nonsense Word
Fluency assessment
increased by 4.
Jim enjoyed this

activity, and I think that
it was very beneficial.
Jim did well on the

draw-a-letter activity
again.
I am glad that Jims
score on the Nonsense
Word Fluency
assessment increased.
He did very well on this
assessment as well as
the others.

next session and
do final
assessments.
--
23
Chart of Dwights Sessions

Session,
Date, and
Length
Session 1
October 1
5 minutes
Description of
Session
was given: OnTrack
Reading assessment
Session 2
October 8
10 minutes
Student was absent.
Session 3
October 14
10 minutes
were given Literacy
Resources Inc. (LRI)
Syllable Blending
assessment, LRI
Onset and Rime
LRI. Phoneme
Data
OnTrack: 1/5
Student Progress
--
Anecdotal
Observations &
Recflections
Dwight has a lot of
energy, and it seems
hard to keep him
focused. Dwights
phoneme blending
skills do not seem
strong. More testing
needs to be done.
--
Session 5
October 23
15 minutes
1 last initial
assessment was
given: Nonsense
Word Fluency
assessment
Onset-rime blending
activities: spoon
activity and Word
Surgery activity
Phoneme blending
Car activity and
--
LRI Syllable: 6/10

LRI Onset-Rime:
7/10
LRI Phoneme: 9/10
Dwight chose the

green happy face
after completing the
syllable blending
activity.
Dwight seems to
struggle more than
Michael and Jim, but I
believe that I will see a
lot of growth in him
over the semester.
Dwight chose the

yellow face on his
attitude checklist.
He might feel like
he is not preforming
as well as he should
be.
Dwight seems to be
able to blend sounds
together when he hears
someone else say them.
He has a difficult time
blending sounds
together that he says.
Do phoneme
blending and
phoneme
segmenting
activities.
Dwight
successfully
completed the
phoneme blending
task.
Dwight did not need

as much guidance as
I was expecting. He
did really well and
chose the green
happy face.
Do midpoint
assessments.
OnTrack: 4/5
LRI Syllable: 9/10
LRI Onset-Rime:
8/10
LRI Phoneme: 8/10
Dwights scores
improved on the
OnTrack Reading
Phoneme Blending,
LRI Syllable
Dwight really enjoyed

these activities,
especially the Park the
Car activity and
Treasure Chest activity.
I am seeing
improvement in
Dwights phonemic
blending ability.
Dwight had drastic
improvements on most
of the assessments. I
am seeing a lot of
growth in Dwight.
Dwight
successfully
completed the
syllable blending
task.
Nonsense Word
Fluency: 4/14
Dwight
successfully
completed the
onset-rime blending
task.
Phoneme
segmenting: Treasure
Chest activity
Session 6
October 27
10 minutes
5 Midpoint
assessments:
OnTrack Reading
Phoneme Blending,
Literacy Resources
Continue initial
assessments
--
Syllable blending
Zoo game.
Session 4
October 19
10 minutes
Plan for Next

Session
Do the initial
assessments that
Dwight missed.
Also begin
syllable blending
activities.
Give 1 more
initial assessment
that measures his
skill of blending
written words
together rather
than spoken
words.
phoneme
blending.
Do an activity
that will allow
Dwight to
practice blending
phonemes in

Inc. (LRI) Syllable
LRI Onset and Rime
LRI. Phoneme
Nonsense Word
Fluency assessment
Nonsense Word
Fluency: 11/14
Session 7
November 5
10 minutes
Session 8
November 19
15 minutes
Dwight was able to

nonsense CVC
words together on
his own (soh, jem,
vat, til, and kop).
Dwight was able to
nonsense CVC
words together on
his own (vub, kop,
fal, mij, and teh).
Final assessments:
OnTrack Reading
Phoneme Blending,
Literacy Resources
Inc. (LRI) Syllable
LRI Onset and Rime
LRI. Phoneme
Nonsense Word
Fluency assessment
OnTrack: 5/5
LRI Syllable: 10/10
LRI Onset-Rime:
10/10
LRI Phoneme:
10/10
Nonsense Word
Fluency: 11/14
24
Blending, LRI
Onset-Rime
Blending, and
Nonsense Word
Fluency
assessments. His
score on the LRI
Phoneme Blending
assessment
decreased by 1
point.
Dwight chose the
green happy face.
Dwight chose the

green happy face
after the draw-aletter activity.
Dwights score
increased on all of
the assessments
besides the
Nonsense Word
Fluency assessment.
His score on the
Nonsense Word
Fluency assessment
stayed the same.
nonsense words.
Dwight did a great job

on this activity.
Dwight did very well

on the final
assessments. Compared
to his initial
assessments, he has
improved drastically.

next session and
do final
assessments.
--
25
Descriptions of the Strategies/Activities Used

1. Trip to the Zoo syllable blending activity: Students blended the syllables in the
words giraffe, lion, gorilla, elephant, flamingo, kangaroo, and alligator.
2. Spoon onset-rime blending activity: I had plastic spoons with onsets written on them
and rimes printed onto a piece of paper. I held the spoons (with onsets) in front of the
rimes on the paper. I had the students say the sound of the onset, say the sound of the
rime, then blend them together to form a word. I did this will several onsets and several
rimes.
3. Word Surgery onset-rime blending activity: I printed off 5 CVC words (wig, hug, bat,
run, and man) onto bones. I cut each word between the onsets and the rimes. I mixed all
10 pieces together, and instructed the students to find the pieces to each word one at a
time. After the students found the pieces, I had them say the onsets sound, say the rimes
sounds, then blend them together.
4. Picture Slides phoneme blending activity: I used picture cards for words with two,
three, and four phonemes. Pictures of words with two phonemes, like bow, were cut
into two pieces. Pictures of words with three phonemes, like pen, were cut into three
pieces. Pictures of words with four phonemes, like clown, were cut into four pieces. I
gave the pieces of the pictures to the students one picture at a time, and had them say the
sound as they touched each of the pieces. While saying the first sound of the word, they
touch the first piece, and as they say the second sound of the word, they touch the second
piece. They do this until they have said all of the sounds in the word and touched all of
the pictures. Then, they will blend the sounds together to form the word.
5. Park the Car phoneme blending activity: For this activity, I created a parking lot with
three parking spaces and used one of Mrs. Halperts cars. As I said the sounds the words
26
with three phonemes, the students parked the car into the parking spaces for each
sound. Then they blended the sounds together to form the word.
6. Treasure Chest phoneme segmenting activity: For this activity, I showed the students
picture of objects, and the students had to figure out what it was and segment the word
into its individual phonemes. After they figured out how many sounds were in the word, I
gave them that number of gold coins. Some examples of the words that the students
segmented in this activity include tree, nose, sock, and toe.
7. Draw-A-Letter nonsense word activity: Students practiced blending nonsense CVC
words by drawing a consonant from a Ziploc bag labeled 1, a vowel from a bag labeled
2, and another consonant from a bag labeled 3. Each student created and blended five
nonsense words.
27
Necessary Instructional Changes

My original plan after the initial meeting with my cooperating teacher was to strictly
work on phoneme blending with the three students. After conducting the research, however, I
realized that I would need to work with them on syllable blending and onset-rime blending
before beginning phoneme blending. I also decided that I would like to work with the students to
segment words into their phonemes. Since phoneme blending and phoneme segmenting are
skills that go hand in hand, and I felt like the students would benefit from doing activities for
both.
Another change that I made was adding in two sessions on blending phonemes into
nonsense CVC words. I noticed that was something that they needed improving on based on
their initial and midpoint assessments. In addition, I felt like blending phonemes into nonsense
CVC words would be helpful to their overall phoneme blending skills because it would give
them practice blending sounds in words that they do not recognize immediately. Therefore, they
will be able to sound out unfamiliar words more easily in the future.
28
Graphs of Michaels Improvement

OnTrack Reading Phoneme Blending Assessment
5
4
3
2
1
0
Initial
Midpoint
Final
Literacy Resources Assessments

10
8
6
4
2
0
Initial
Midpoint
Final
Nonsense Word Fluency Assessment

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Initial
Midpoint
Final
29
30
Graphs of Jims Improvement

5
4
3
2
1
0
Initial
Midpoint
Final

10
8
6
4
2
0
Initial
Midpoint
Final

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Initial
Midpoint
Final
31
32
Graphs of Dwights Improvement

5
4
3
2
1
0
Initial
Midpoint
Final

10
8
6
4
2
0
Initial
Midpoint
Final

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Initial
Midpoint
Final
33
Final Assessment Reflection

Michael, Jim, and Dwight all either improved or stayed the same on all five of the
assessments from the initial assessments to the final assessments. I saw the most improvement in
Dwights scores since Michael and Jim started off with higher scores on the initial assessments. I
did see a lot of improvement in Michael and Jim on the Nonsense Word Fluency assessment
between the midpoint assessments and the final assessments. I think that doing the Draw-ALetter activity helped the most with this because it allowed them to practice blending phonemes
into nonsense words.
Not only did I see improvement in their assessment scores, but I also saw improvement in
their abilities to focus on the activities and in their confidence. As each session went by, the
students were able to complete the activities with more confidence. Overall, I think that all three
students learned and benefited from this action research project. They are now better able to
blend phonemes together, which will improve their overall reading skills. Hopefully they will be
pushed from the middle tier to the top tier in the near future.
34
Reflection of Overall Action Research Project

In conclusion, the process of this action research project was beneficial because it gave
me the opportunity to work with three students over the course of the semester to improve their
ability to blend phonemes. These three students, who started this school year as middle-level
readers, needed help with their ability to blend phonemes together. Phoneme blending is an
important aspect of phonemic awareness and reading in general. I am thankful that I could help
these students improve in this area.
Some things that I learned from this project are how to find good assessments specific to
the skill that I worked with. I found some good resources that I can use again in the future. I
also learned how to find and create activities that students will find enjoyable and that will help
them with a target skill. Doing research on this topic prior to working with the students was
beneficial because it helped me learn about the best strategies and activities to use when working
with students on phoneme blending. It was also helpful to have planned out sessions beforehand
so that I would know exactly what to do with the students each day.
Learning how to collect and analyze data from the assessments was a good learning
experience as well because this is something that I will be doing for the rest of my career.
Overall, I definitely plan to do action research projects in my future classroom. I think that they
are helpful for improving students performance in a specific area that they are struggling with.
I am thankful for the opportunity to do an action research project before graduating because now
I will know how to properly implement action research projects in my future classroom.

Action Research With Double Spaces

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Descrizione originale:

Titolo originale

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Action Research With Double Spaces

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Running Head: ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

Action Research Fall 2015

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

Initial Meeting with Teacher

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

Initial meeting with Mrs. Scott to determine which students to work

Initial Assessment: Reading Nonsense Words

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

Discovering Strategies for Improving Phoneme Blending

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

Descriptions of the Assessments Used

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

can be found on this website: http://www.literacyresourcesinc.com/assets/1/7/

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

Reflection of Initial Assessments

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

OnTrack Reading Phoneme

OnTrack Reading Phoneme

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

OnTrack Reading Phoneme

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

Progress Monitoring Chart

I think that I did

Completed Progress Monitoring Charts

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

Chart of Michaels Sessions

Plan for Next

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

LRI Syllable: 10/10

Michael chose the

Michael chose the

Michael was able to

Michael chose the

Michael struggled with

Michael seems very

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

Michael was able to

phonemes that create

I think that this activity

Repeat the drawa-letter activity

Michael chose the

Once again, Michael

ACTION RESEARCH FALL 2015

Plan for Next

Jim seems very eager

LRI Syllable: 10/10

Jim is doing really well

Jim chose the green

Jim performed very

Jim chose the green

Jim is a very hard

Jim was able to

Jim chose the green

Jim loved the Park the

Jims scores on the