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How can students’ ability to apply mathematical concepts/strategies improve through the use of real world “snapshots” to support a story problem?

Through the project, I am trying to address the problem of students’ ability to correctly apply the right strategy to real world problems. The hope is that the visuals will give them something familiar to relate to, and when combined with the problem itself, they will be able to work through the meaning of the problem, to locate the key words, and from there solve the problem.  They will be working with the interactive white board, as well as in an interactive notebook, to brainstorm and collaborate in order to solve these real life problems.

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Question: Will gradual release activities lead to better fluency of sight words?

My first activity involves using a white board to have students play a game called what's missing. I write the sight word on the board and have students first say the word. I take away one letter first and see if the students can guess the missing letter. Then I take away two letters and see if they know the missing letter. Last I take away the whole word and have the students spell is out. This helps the students to remember the spelling of the word and they repeat the word after each spelling.

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Question: Does playing games in a small group setting improve letter recognition?

Activity: One activity that students will be completing is an alphabet spoons game. The students will pick a spoon, one at a time, from a cup. On each spoon is a letter, written in lowercase on one side and uppercase on the other. If the student can identify the letter they keep the spoon. If they cannot, they place the spoon back in the cup and it's another students turn. The student with the most spoons wins!

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Question: By actively engaging students with a game, will students recognize all sounds in a word?

Activity: students will be participating in several games with hands on manipulative to practice identifying and breaking up the sounds in a word. For one of the games, students will roll a dice and move their game piece to a picture. Students will say that word and practice isolating the sounds. The focus is on the initial sound according to my mentor's SLO. At the end, I will reassess using "DiblesNext."

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Question: I am trying to improve students ability to recognize and apply the correct operation in math story problems with the use of real life visuals.

Strategy: Pulling small groups and analyzing story problems in conjunction with an accompanying real world visuals

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Question: By actively engaging students with a game, do students learn initial sounds?

Activity: Tom the turkey’s pies.
Each child randomly picks a card with a picture on it and figures out what the initial sound is by using our cheerleader moves. The student then puts the picture in the correct pie, so Tom the turkey can eat it.

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Question: Why students are having trouble with identifying words that start with the /D/ sound and /M/ sound?

Activity: The students will be playing a sorting game where they sort pictures that represent words with the /D/ and the /M/ sound into two cans. One can is labeled with the letter  "D" and other can is labeled with letter "M".

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Question: Why are students having difficulty with initial sound recognition in words when reading?

Activity: The strategy I have chosen is to implement is games over the course of this project. There will be three games including Which One Does Not Belong?, All Aboard, and Beginning Sound Picture Dominoes. One game will be played on the chosen day of the week. Each game helps the students recognize the initial sounds and group the same sounds together. Each student will play the games with me in a one-to-one group.

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Question: Why are students unable to use proper sentence structure while writing?

I created a "4 Star Sentence" writing rubric for my selected small group of students my action research is targeting. The students were all given a laminated copy to keep in their school folder. When we write, in ELA and Math, the students take out their rubric and a dry erase marker and double check their writing by filling in each star on the rubric if their sentence meets all the items on the rubric.

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Why are students having difficulty identifying first sounds in a word?

My students will be participating in several games that will allow them to practice identifying the first sound of different words. There are two games that I am focusing on, primarily because of the timeline of this project. For one of the games, they roll a die and find the corresponding picture of the number it lands on. They have to say the name of the picture and tell me the first sound in that word. I am making sure that the students identify in a timely manner and are not confusing words like “flag” by saying /fl/ rather than /f/. I will then reassess the students using the DibelsNext assessment at the end of this project.

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Question: Does playing games in a small group setting improve letter recognition?
Activity: Students will participate in multiple letter recognition games throughout the week. They will complete letter puzzles, matching games, and sorting games. They will also play a bowling game. For this game, students will work together to set up big foam letters. They will take turns rolling a little bowling ball to knock over a letter. Once they knock over a letter, they have to identify what that letter is. The students will take turns bowling. They will play two or three rounds in order to identify different letters each round. All of these activities promote hands on letter recognition to help build students ability to identify more letters.

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Question: If the children practice hands on name activities, will the children recognize and know the letters in their names?

Activity: By using hands on activities where the students have their name and written on paper that has a "pocket" for each letter in their name. They have popsicle sticks where they have to find the letters in their name and place it in the "pocket" in the correct order of their name.

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Question: How can students successfully recognize letter size differentiation?

Activity: My strategy is a laminated paper in which displays basic writing lines. However, I have provided colored lines in order to assist the students with the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters. The students will respond to different prompts in which are motivating for them. The students will answer the following prompt on Monday: What is your favorite sport and why? The students have been given the opportunity to write on regular paper, or white boards, then respond to the prompt on the colored strategy paper that I have created. The students have expressed to me that they love the strategy card that I have created, and I have been already taking pictures to document their progress!

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AR Question: How can I help the students learn the letters in their name?

Activity: Small group and one-on-one teacher time with Name Puzzles.  I will say, for example, "Find the M." They find the letter on the clothes pin and then match it to the letter on thier name card. Then, they go back and touch each letter and say the letter as the spell their name.