Analysis Action Research #2

1.  The problem that is being addressed in this action research project is the focusing of students learning rhyming words and word families in text. 

2.  The rational of this student explained by her is that knowing rhyming words and word families is an important skill to have to learn and make sense of a language.  She feels that it would be in the students best interest to gain better skills in these areas so that future learning will come easier and that they may become more successful.

3.   A heavy use of games will be used to help the students skills in rhyming and word families.  Strategies I see include 'Thematic Instruction', by the use of the rhyming being the theme, and I also see 'Identifying Similarities and Differences', by grouping rhyming and word families together.

4.  The question is 'Will the rhyming strategies change student attitudes about reading instruction?'

5.  Evidence that she presents included; quoted statistics from researchers such as Wylie and Durrell, who stated that use of rhyming instead of decoding help children learn words more easily.  And another quote also states that use of rhyming and word families enable students to decode new and difficult words in text. (Allen, 1998). 

6.  She plans on gathering data through pre and post test, visually observing student behavior, and through student example work.  She also said that she would keep all of these notes and observations in her teacher journal.