As I am finishing up my data collection and beginning to code the data I am constantly thinking about my research question, themes I am noticing, and how it is all going to connect. My research question is, "How do various methods of sight word instruction, using a balanced literacy approach, affect at-risk students?" From the book, Reading the Past: Historical Antecedents to Contemporary Reading Methods and Materials, Barry (2008) stated, "Beginning readers need explicit instruction and practice that lead to an appreciation that spoken words are made up of smaller units of sound...'sight' recognition of frequent words, and independent reading, including reading aloud; in other words, a balanced approach to reading" (p.46). Reading from this book influenced my research in a big way because this was so much of what I was interested in and wanted to learn more about. There was so much research about sight words, both good things and bad things, and this book had many good insights and connections to the importance of sight word instruction within a balanced literacy approach. It helped me see that I wanted to know how explicit sight word instruction would essentially affect students in other areas of reading (fluency, comprehension, phonics, etc.).
Things I am noticing as I am continuing the coding process include students becoming distracted easily and how this affects their ability to complete activities in our small group and read sight words/books accurately. I am also noticing difficulty with "th" words. 5 out of 6 students read "this" and "that" incorrectly often. During running records all students are beginning to recognize and recall sight words correctly. They are still struggling decoding words they have not had practice reading, however sight word recognition is much higher than at the beginning of this study. Students have improved with answering comprehension questions about a story they have read, but are still having difficulty retelling the story without several prompts.
It looks like you are well on your way to a final product. Yay for you! I am also noticing that distraction is a common theme in many of my observation notes. The data you posted previously shows some gains in sight word recognition, so it doesn't seem that the distractibility is making a huge impact on achievement.
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