ACTION RESEARCH

Initial Meeting with Teacher

The students that my classroom teacher, Mrs. Deer, chose for me to work with were
students who needed to work on letter recognition. All three students are ELL students who were
in various stages of learning English. Student A was the behind the other two in her English
skills. She was very quiet and when asked to do something, she would wait for the other students
to begin work and then imitate them. Student CR was the most advanced in English in the group.
He was a chatter box. I would often have to remind him to let someone else have a turn to talk.
Student CL was right behind Student CR in her English skills, but she would not compete with
him for a turn to talk. She waited until I asked her a question before answering. When it was her
turn to talk, her eyes lit up and she answered enthusiastically.
While discussing the students, my teacher handed me a packet of letter recognition
strategies that she had received at a professional development meeting. She told me that she was
using those strategies with her students and that I could use them if I wanted to; however, I was
not limited to them.
After I met with my teacher, I had an initial meeting with my group to get to know them.
We played a letter recognition board game. The students love the game and they were sad when
it was over. As we were cleaning up the board game the students told me that they could not wait
to play with me again.

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The Question:
When the kindergarten teacher of Trace Crossings Elementary School knew that they
were going to have Samford students conducting action research in their classrooms, they
gathered together and decided on the biggest need that they had with their kindergarten students.
They decided that the biggest need that they had was letter recognition. The question that I was
attempting to answer is: What are the most effective strategies for teaching letter recognition?
Letter recognition is an important step towards reading. In the case of my students, they were in
a classroom where some students were reading beginner chapter books such as Henry and
Mudge. Although the students understand that different people learn at different speeds, it is to
be frustrating to be behind the other students. The ability to identify letters is the first step
towards the students being able to read and not feeling as though they are behind in school.

Timeline:
Sessions:
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
Session 5
Session 6
Session 7

Plan:

Garfield Assessment
Play letter recognition board game
Initial Letter Recognition Assessment
Play letter recognition board game
Work with letters
Say letter names and sounds
Work with letters
Say letter names and sounds
Midpoint Assessment
Play letter recognition board game
Fill in alphabet with uppercase letters
Find letters in environment
Have the students tell sentences
Have the students circle letters within sentences

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Session 8

3
Final Assessment

Initial Assessment Reflection and Plan of

Action:
My initials assessment included both the Garfield interest inventory and a letter
recognition assessment. The results from the Garfield were conflicting from all three students.
They answered really happy for How do you feel about reading in school? and answered really
mad for How do you feel about reading your school books? There were other instances of
conflicting answers throughout all of the students surveys. This led me to the conclusion that
they either did not understand the questions and just guessed, had heard discouraging talk about
books at home and were pulling off of what they heard at home, or were just copying what their
friends circled.
The letter recognition assessment tested the students knowledge of both uppercase and
lowercase letters. The letters were divided by uppercase and lowercase letters and the alphabet
was scrambled. The students knew most of their letters. Student A missed the most letters. She

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correctly identified 44 out of the 52 letters. Student CR correctly identified 50 out of the 52
letters. Student CL correctly identified 51 out of the 52 letters. These students knew most of their
letters.
With the data I had gathered from the interest survey and the letter recognition
assessment and keeping the packet of strategies that my teacher handed me in mind, I put
together a plan. I liked several of the strategies that my teacher provided me with. I planned on
using those for the first session to see how the students responded to them and see if I needed to
find different ones for my students to learn better.

Log of Sessions:
Date:
10-9-14

What We Did:
Garfield Interest Survey

10-16-14

Letter Recognition Assessment

10-20-14

Matching Uppercase Letters to

the Alphabet Mat, Saying
Letter Names, and Saying
Letter Sounds

10-22-14

Matching Lowercase Letters to

Uppercase Letters, Saying

How the Students Responded:

The students liked the Garfield survey because
they were allowed to use crayons to either circle
the Garfield or to color him in. They did get tired
of the questions about half way through. It is a
long survey for their attention spans, they did not
understand some of the questions, and they were
missing their centers which was more fun than
the survey.
The students responded well to the assessment. I
told them to relax and to tell me the letters that
they knew. If they did not know one, then they
could skip it. They did well on the assessment.
The students responded well. It was interesting
to watch their brains working. Student CR went
very quickly and went in the order of the
alphabet. Student A started off slowly, went in
order, and needed some help with the letters.
Student CL started very quickly and did the
letters on the mat out of order. Each of the
students did well telling me the letter names and
the letter sounds.
This time we used lowercase letters on the
alphabet mat. Students CL and CR started off

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Letter Names, and Saying
Letter Sounds

10-23-14

Midpoint Assessment

10-30-14

Fill in the Alphabet Mat with

Uppercase Letters, Touch the
Letters and Say Names

11-6-14

Look for Letters in Sentences

12-4-14

Final Assessment

5
quickly. Student CR did the letters in order,
while Student CL did the letters out of order.
Student A started off slowly and did the letters in
order. Each student did well telling me the letter
names and sounds.
The students did well on the midpoint
assessment. Student A improved the most from
the initial assessment. She knew five more
letters than she did at the initial assessment.
Students CR and CL showed no improvement
from the initial assessment, but after reviewing
the data I discovered that they both missed
different letters in the midpoint assessment than
they had in their initial assessment.
The students responded well to filling in the mat
with the uppercase letters. This mat was the one
that only provided four letters and the students
must fill in the rest of the alphabet. When the
students had the mat filled in, I had them touch
the letters and say their names. Each student had
at least one letter out of place but they selfcorrected when they actually had to slow down
and look at the letters to say their names.
The students really liked telling me a sentence
about themselves. They also responded well to
finding the letters that I assigned them to find
within the sentences. Student A needed more
time to look for her letters and she needed a few
clues to narrow where she was looking. Student
CL did a good job finding all of her letters.
Student CR had trouble looking for both
uppercase and lowercase letters. All of the
students needed reminding of what their letters
looked like before they started looking.
Student CL withdrew before this assessment.
Student CR improved on this assessment with
one more letter than he knew for the midpoint
assessment. Student A remained the same. In
both students, they missed letters that they knew
on the midpoint and initial assessment.

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Strategies Used:
One of the first strategies that I used was using an alphabet mat and having the students
match plastic letters to the corresponding letter on the mat. They did this with uppercase letters
for a while and then we moved onto lowercase letters. Each time the finished, I had them touch
the letters and sing the alphabet. If they had a letter that was in the wrong spot, they realized it
when we sang the alphabet and self-corrected.
The next strategy that we used was similar to the first. It was an alphabet mat that they
had to fill in themselves. There were only four letter provided (A, M, N, and Z) and the students
were to fill in the remaining alphabet. We only used uppercase letters on this mat.
In addition to the two alphabet mat strategies, we looked for letters that were relevant to
the students. We made connections about how Student CL and Student CR both had names that
started with a C but Student A was the only one in the group whose name started with an A.
I also had the students tell me sentences about what they did during the week, I would write them
on a piece of paper, and they would have to find certain letters.

Assessments Used:
I used several different letter recognition assessments. They were all similar in the fact
that they had the alphabet scrambled in uppercase letters and the alphabet scrambled in
lowercase letters. Some of the assessments would also include parts for letter writing in them. I
omitted those sections because we were working on letter recognition instead of letter writing.
The students could either tell me the letter name or skip the letter if they did not know it. I

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attached one of the assessments to this document. Every other assessment was similar to this one,
but the letters were always in a different order.

Necessary Instruction Changes:

My instructional changes that I did during the project were mainly making what we were
doing different or more challenging. We did the alphabet mat that contained all of the letters on it
with capital letters. Then we moved on to doing the alphabet mat with lowercase letter. After that
we did the alphabet mat that did not have all of the letters on it with the uppercase letters. We
also looked for letters in sentences.
Looking back, there are several instructional changes that I would have made. I would
have done more of the looking for letters in the students environment or sentences. I would have
played more letter recognition games because I saw over the course of my clinicals that the
students learned best when they thought that they were playing a game. I would have also
worked with individual letters of the alphabet as well as working with the alphabet as a whole.

Final Assessment Reflection:

The final assessment showed that the Student A and Student CR improved over the
course of the action research project. Student CL withdrew before the final assessment. The final
assessment showed the progress that the students made but it also showed how far they have to
go. Neither student reached 100% letter recognition. Throughout the various sessions and
assessments I noticed that the students knew all of their letters but when it came to having the

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letters scrambled they did not do very well. They needed more practice with identifying letters
out of order.

Students Progress Monitoring Chart:

Data Gathered
52
50
48
46
44
42
40

Initial Assessment Midpoint Assessment

A

CL

Final Assessment
CR

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Data Analysis and Additional Reflection:

The data shows that the students did improve over the time that I was working with them.
They did not have drastic results and they also did not have 100% letter recognition. I feel like
should have done several things differently. If I could start over right now I would.
One of the items that I would change would be the amount I used the packet of strategies
that my teacher gave me at the initial meeting. I used them because they were good strategies,
the teacher had all of the materials already there and made, and I am of the opinion that if a
teacher hands you a packet of strategies and says I am using these with my students, that you
follow the strategies. My teacher did not limit me to these strategies; I limited myself to them
and it is my biggest regret about this project.
Another item that I would change would be the way that I met with these students. The
research said that students learn best when they were surrounded by their peers (Piasta, 2010). I
kept the students in the small group because I research said that it was best. Looking back, I wish
that I had included one or two one-on-one sessions where I could just focus on one student at a
time. I feel like this would have been beneficial to both the student and myself.
A third item that I would change would be the way that I approached the project. One of
the issues that I noticed my students having was inconsistency with their letter knowledge. Out
of the three assessments I gave them, the only letter that was missed consistently was J and
that was by Student A. (She did get J correct on the final assessment though!) All of the other
letters that they missed varied by the assessment. A better question for my group would have
been: What are the best strategies for teaching letter recognition consistency. Although that

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question would be hard to determine without spending the amount of time with the students that I
did. One way that I could have helped this issue would be to work with individual letters of the
alphabet instead of focusing on the alphabet as a whole.
Overall, I feel like I learned a lot over the course of this project. I wish that I could have a
progress monitoring chart to show my growth like the students. I feel like I am coming away
from this project with more thoughts of what I should have done or what I should have changed
than thoughts of being happy at what I did. I have to remind myself that this was a learning
process and that it is good that I do not think that I was perfect. There is always room to improve
especially when learning or doing something for the first time.

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Student Name: __________________________________________ Date: _________________

Alphabet Knowledge Assessment

Recognizing Letters:
response

response

response

Key
4

correctly
recognized

WR

wrong response

DK

didnt know

NR

no response

4 total # recognized:

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The Most Effective Strategies for Teaching Letter Recognition

Abby Conner
Samford University

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Abstract
The topic of this paper is the most effective strategies for teaching letter recognition to students.
This paper contains the findings of four different scholarly sources to attempt to provide an
answer to the question of the most effective strategies for teaching letter recognition. Some of the
findings include that students learn better when surrounded by their peers. Students also learn
best when they have exposure to the letters that is applicable to them. One way to provide
students exposure to letters is to have them look for certain letters in their neighborhood. Another
effective strategy for teaching letter recognition to students is to expose them to the letters in
several different ways instead of the traditional flash card and alphabet line method.

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The ability to read is something that most people take for granted. The most basic
element of reading is letter recognition. When learning to read, letter recognition is the first piece
of the puzzle that allows children access into the world of print. The importance of letter
recognition has led to many questions about the best practices of teaching letter recognition.
The book Teaching Children to Read: The Teacher Makes the Difference (n.d.) discusses
a variety of ways to teach letter recognition to students. The book mentioned that flash cards and
an alphabet chart above the board are insufficient in teaching students letter recognition. For
students to recognize their letters accurately and quickly, they need a combination of practice
with the flash cards and alphabet chart, identifying letters in texts, and writing the letters. The
combination of all three practices yields the best results for teaching letter recognition.
A fun alternative to the boring flash card and alphabet chart duo is to make a version of
alphabet Go Fish. This allows the students to learn through playing. They are exposed to the
letters of the alphabet in a random order and are constantly being exposed to the letters over and
over again. If twenty-six letters are too many for students to recognize, then the deck of cards
can be cut down to only the letters that the teacher wants the students to work with. An engaging
way to search for letters in text would be to post a small paragraph on chart paper, whiteboard, or
promethean board and have the students play a version of I Spy. Tell a student to find all of the
ms in the paragraph. For the advanced students, set a timer and play the game against the
timer. A quick and easy way to write letters is to give each student a white board and give them
ten seconds to write a letter. For the next letter give them nine seconds, and so on. At the end of
the game have the students hold up their boards and see how they are doing. (Reutzel, n.d.)
In their report Piasta and Wagner (2010) explain that research has shown that students
learn the alphabet better in school rather than at home and in small groups better than individual

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tutoring. I feel as though this is due to the fact that children are social beings and they learn best
from their peers. The report goes on to discuss how a students future spelling abilities are best
predicted by their knowledge of letter names and sounds. The knowledge of letter names and
sounds also goes on to predict a students ability to learn to read. If they have trouble with the
letter names and sounds, then they will have trouble recognizing sight words and decoding
unknown words when they come across them. (Piasta, 2010)
Rita Newman (1996) discusses how having students look for letters and sight words in
their own environments helps the students remember and recognize the letter or the word faster.
If a student were to see an A on their street sign, they would see it every time they passed and
they would have the consistent reinforcement of the letter. Newman (1996) suggests a book
called City Seen from A to Z which walks through a city using the alphabet. This would be a
good book to use to introduce the students to the idea of looking for letters or even sight words
wherever they go. (Newman, 1996)
The article written by John Shefelbine (1998) discusses the importance of not only
teaching the letters, but also the phonics that accompany the letters. The definition provided for
phonics is the relationship between sounds in speech (phonological patterns) and spelling
patterns (orthographic patterns) (Shefelbine, 1998). Phonics is not merely the letter sounds, it is
the relationship between the letters and the text and how they blend together. This can be hard
for ELL students especially to master. They can know the individual letter sounds, but when
some letters are placed next to each other, they can create an entirely different sound than either
of the letters by themselves would make. A students knowledge of phonics is helpful when they
are learning how to spell, even in kindergarten. They will spell through sounding out words and
they need a basic understanding of phonics to help them spell. According to research, the best

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way to teach phonics is through frequent and short teacher led lessons, introducing the alphabet
and consonant blends a little at a time and reviewing them as time goes on, and relate the phonics
that the students are working with to other parts of the curriculum such as spelling, reading, or
vocabulary. (Shefelbine, 1998)

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References

(n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2014, from

http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/media/images/free_resources/teachers_corner/printabl
es/alphaassessment.pdf
Newman, R. (1996). Taking time to stand, stare and learn. Childhood Education, 72(3), 167+.
Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.samford.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA18226082&v=2.1
&u=naal_sam&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=7e3114ad37ca2e7e2c46866c4424d32c
Piasta, S. B., & Wagner, R. K. (2010). Developing early literacy skills: a meta-analysis of
alphabet learning and instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 45(1), 8+. Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.samford.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA216960950&v=2.
1&u=naal_sam&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=c3aae9354cf3bc3beca1519a2a51bac4
Reutzel, D., & Cooter, R. (n.d.). Early Reading Instruction. In Teaching children to read: The
teacher makes the difference (Seventh ed., pp. 110-114)
Shefelbine, J. (1998, September). Strategic phonics: research-based phonics strategies bolster
your reading program. Instructor [1990], 108(2), 102+. Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.samford.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA21148006&v=2.1
&u=naal_sam&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=3fd26855f8eaa2431a1ce40d51d89056