An Effective Coexistence: Explicit and Systematic Kindergarten Literacy Instruction and Playfulness

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Ann C. Sharp, PhDLori Brandt, PhD

Utah Valley University

A year long investigation in a kindergarten classroom

Background

Came out of research being done on an early childhood instructional approach called

Systematic Engaging Early Literacy Instruction(SEEL)

(Culatta & Hall, 2006; Culatta, et al. 2007)

Systematic Engaging Early Literacy Instruction (SEEL)

A cooperative effort between Speech Language Pathology and Early Childhood Literacy Departments at

Brigham Young UniversityCreated by Dr. Barbara Culatta

Under development by a team of literacy experts Directed by Dr. Culatta & Dr. Hall-Kenyon.

SEEL Instruction• Multiple and explicit exposures to the targeted literacy skill

(Rayner, et al., 2001)

– Literacy skill is explicitly stated– Modeled – Practiced

• A combination of seeing, hearing, saying, doing, or touching are combined to provide multiple pathways to memory (Adams, 1990; Fisher & Frey, 2008)

• Playful scenarios tap into autobiographical memories and ensure engagement (Tulving, 1993)

• Teachers model instruction playfully often using creative drama-like principles (Deasy, 2002)

• Meaningful connections related to what children already know and think about (Gallego & Hollingsworth, 2000)

• Responsive reciprocal interactions such as turn-taking, attentive listening and waiting for children’s responses (Neuman & Roskos, 1997)

• Phonologically grounded focusing on rhyme and onset and rime, incorporating letter knowledge, through rhyming and alliteration (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998)

playING with Rhyme

Children may pack a black backpack with ack things like a rack and a tack and a snack. The snack might crack and the snack pack might not have a back. They may take their black backpack that they have packed to the shack by the track and enjoy their snack.

Sound Segmenting and Blending• Take words apart and put them

back together again– Talk like a robot– Count words, syllables, sounds– Clap, march, tap out words,

syllables, sounds

• Play ‘push and say’• Make up words from word

parts• b ack• s ack• t ack

Sound to Print

playING with rhyming words

• Children segment and blend rhymed words into their onsets and rimes

• Change the onset to make new words

• Use letters/cards to connect to print by reading p ack, b ack, s ack

Preschool success!In preschool the SEEL curriculum showed tremendous potential as investigations demonstrated preschoolers gaining in their abilities to rhyme and to use letter/sound knowledge

(Culatta, Kovarsky, Theadore, Franklin, & Timler, 2003; Culatta, Hall, Kovarsky, & Theadore, 2007)

Kindergarten

The first year the SEEL curriculum was tested in Kindergarten, children showed gains in rhyming and letter/sound knowledge, but were not statistically showing significant gains in word identification skills.

(unpublished manuscript Culatta, Hall & Bingham…)

Reading Research Suggests

• Explicit systematic phonics/spelling instruction is necessary for successful word identification (Beck & Juel, 1995; Adams, 1990; Stanovich, 1986; NRP, 2000)

• Phonics and spelling are heavily influenced by phonological awareness (Blachman, 1994; Brady & Fowler, 1988; Ehri et al., 2001; Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1994)

• Beginning phonics instruction should be integrated with phonological awareness instruction (Cunningham, 1990; Gillon, 2004; Goswami, 2001)

SEEL the perfect fit!

–Spelling and phonics instruction begin with initial phoneme identification, rhyming, and blending of onsets and rimes

(Gillon, 2004; Goswami & Bryant, 1992; Torgesen et al., 2005)

–What if individual phonemes are then analyzed as regularly consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words?

Research Question

• If SEEL added an explicit spelling/phonics component to their instruction would it strengthen the gains kindergarten children make in learning how to read?

• Can that spelling/phonics instruction be done playfully?

Research Design

• Multiple baseline design across subjects– Baseline performance: spelling data collected and

repeated 4x over a six week period and then graphed– Intervention: Spelling instruction is introduced while

spelling data continues to be collected over 4 month period and then results added to graph

– Experimental control is established through repeated measures of baseline during intervention and replicated over multiple students

• ANCOVA with Pre and Post PALS K show growth

Participants

• 10 kindergarteners ( 7 females & 3 males) in a class of 23 students

• Designated as Tier 2 & 3 – by classroom and district screening assessments– Verified by Pre PALS K

• Western US• Mid-socio-economic school w/31% receiving

free or reduced lunch

Baseline Measures Criteria

• 10 words set in a phrase (e.g., We got a ___.)• 5 cvc, all five vowels used every time• 3 most easily articulated blends (e.g., bl, gl,

cl, etc.)• 3 digraphs (ch, sh, ck)• Minimum of 3 words from rimes already

learned• No ccvcc words• No proper names

Procedures

• Pre PALS K administered individually in November

• 4 baseline measures administered individually Nov.-Dec.

• Spelling instruction intervention occurred January – April

• Measures similar to the baseline were administered individually every other week on Mondays and Wednesdays during center time.

• Post PALS K administered individually in May

Adding Spelling/Phonics Instruction

• Spelling features highlighted came from the Emergent and Alphabetic Letter-Name phases (Bear, et al., 2012)

• Systematic, explicit, multi-sensory instruction (Adams, 1990; Torgesen, 2004; Birsh, 2005)

• Using effective spelling strategies (Sharp, et al. 2008)

– Spelling by analogy (Goswami & Bryant, 1992)

– Fully analyzing words (Gaskins, et al., 1996)

– Attention to orthographic rules (Carreker, 2005)

– Dictation (Carreker, 2005)

• Presented in game/activity formats

Instruction• 15-minute center rotations• Small group instruction

(grouped by classroom teacher according to performance level)

• Twice a week: Tuesdays and Thursdays

• Created & taught by the principle investigator

• SEEL activities were taught BEFORE spelling centers

SEEL Activity First

• Ducks and trucks get stuck in the muck

• The muck gets stuck on the children’s hands.

• “Yuck, stuck, muck is stuck. The duck is stuck. The truck is stuck. Oh yuck!”

• We ran out of luck!• Let’s make our muck into a

duck, buck, truck.

Then Spelling CenterInstructions:• Make –uck words by sucking on

a straw to pull up letter cards• Place letter on the correct blank

space of one of the –uck words. • Write the word on the

whiteboard.• Use the ‘I Can Spell Chart’ to

analyze the word. Dictation: Tiers 2 & 3: The _(duck)_ is _(stuck)_ in the _(muck).

Instruction Included

2. Modeling the target1. Identifying the skill

3. Interacting and responding verbally or nonverbally

4. Explicitly paying attention to the spelling structure through use of playful practice.

Findings

Growth

In 4 of the 5 areas measured by the PALS K significant growth was made

PALS K PRE AND POSTTier II & III students showed significant gains in four skill areas

SKILL TEST ADMIN

MEAN STANDARD DEVIATION

t SCORE SIGNIFICANCE

Word Recognition in Isolation- PrePrimer

Fall 1.20 1.81 t(9) 8.67

p < 0.001Spring 12.90 4.46

Letter-Sound Knowledge

Fall 9.90 5.32 t(9)7.78

p < 0.001Spring 21.90 2.77

Letter-sound spelling knowledge

Fall 5.60 4.62 t(9)6.18

p < 0.001Spring 16.40 5.95

Alphabet knowledge lower case

Fall 16.10 7.02 t(9)4.06

p < 0.003Spring 24.40 2.77

Multiple baseline data corroborated and elaborate the results

Marked improvement for each Tier II/III student on initial consonant, medial vowel, final consonant to near 100% performance at the end of the study as illustrated in the composite data.

Average Trendlines for Each Element Baseline 1 to Final Assessment

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 100%

Initial Consonant

Medial Vowel

Final Consonant

In addition, seven of the students showed a marked improvement in performance in each element at the point of transition from the baseline measures to the operational measures

Samantha – tier 2

Baseline 1 Baseline 2

Operational 1 Operational 2

Samantha

Initial Sound

Medial Vowel

Final Sound

Courtney – tier 3

Initial Consonant

Medial Vowel

Final Consonant

The other three students in the sample also had a definite pattern of improvement, but the immediate improvement at the initiation of the intervention was not as noticeable

Bella – tier 2

Baseline 3

Baseline 4

Operational 1

Operational 2

Operational 3

Operational 4

Operational 5

Operational 6

Initial Consonant

Medial Vowel

Final Consonant

Observable Motivation

• Children were highly motivated as they came to the spelling centers.

• They cheered when it was their turn. • They declared that the spelling center was

their favorite.

Conclusion

Results from this study provide encouraging information about the impact of direct spelling instruction on students who are struggling with reading. Kindergarten children at risk for failure made unusually good progress on all of the study measures.

Substantiate past research

• Significant gains in 4 of the 5 major skill areas on the PALS-K, including word recognition in isolation, a precursor to reading.

• Significant gains made on the spelling element of the PALS-K, which is corroborated by the performance on the baseline measures.

• Near grade-level performance by the end of the school year

Playfulness

• Playful presentation caught positive attention from kindergarteners

• Game formats were observed to hook and engage students in the learning

• Instruction was effective when presented playfully

Kindergarten literacy instruction

Effective when an explicit systematic approach is combined with play

An Effective Coexistence: Explicit and Systematic Kindergarten Literacy Instruction and Playfulness

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