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INCREASING PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT WITH TECHNOLOGY

Action Research:

Increasing Parental Involvement with Technology which will Increase Students Reading Levels

Jennifer Alexander

Kennesaw State University

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Table of Contents

Chapters Page Numbers

Chapter 1: Introduction------------------------------------------------------------------- 3-5

Chapter 2: Literature Review-------------------------------------------------------------6-21

Chapter 3: Methodology ------------------------------------------------------------------21-22

Chapter 4: Data Collection----------------------------------------------------------------22-24

Chapter 5: Results---------------------------------------------------------------------------24-31

Chapter 6: Conclusion-----------------------------------------------------------------------31-32

References -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------33-34

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Chapter 1: Introduction

School/Classroom Content

Peachtree Elementary School resides in Norcross, Georgia which is located in Gwinnett

County. Peachtree Elementary is a Title 1 school; this means that it gets financial assistance due

to the high percentage of children who come from low-income families. Financial assistance is

used to make sure all children meet the challenging state academic standards. As of March 5,

2015 the enrollment for Peachtree Elementary was 1,879 students. The makeup of the students

consisted of 898 African-American students, 708 Hispanic students, 205 students were white, 61

of the students were Mixed Race, 53 Asian students, and 3 students were Pacific Islanders and 1

American Indian student. With the population at Peachtree Elementary School being so large the

attendance rate was at 96%. The attendance rate being so high should positively affect students

learning. My inclusion Kindergarten class consists of 16 students that range from 4-6 years of

age. I have 8 boys and 8 girls. Out of my 16 students I have 10 Hispanic students, 4 African-

American students and 2 White students. Out of the 10 Hispanic students one of the families

speaks English. I have one student that is low functioning Autism who is nonverbal. Peachtree

Elementary School has a high Hispanic population of students that mainly speak Spanish in the

home which might negatively affect students learning due to the language barrier.

Statement of the Problem

The purpose of this study is to increase parent communication through technology that

will encourage parent involvement at home that will increase students reading levels. When

students are encouraged at home to read or write with their parents their reading levels will

increase at school. I plan on using a technology program that will help me communicate with the

parents in their native language that will help support them on ways that they can encourage their

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students’ progress at home. Students that are living in a low-income family might not have the

support that most students have from their parents because most low-income parents or

guardians have to work more than one job to help support their families. Having more than one

job is not the only fall back for low-income families, some parents or guardians might not have

the educational background to help their child out with homework. Having the support from

home will help increase students success at school.

Rational for Research

Parental involvement is important to aid in a child’s academic success in school. The

purpose of this action research study is to investigate the correlation between parent involvement

at home, communication and student reading levels. It is my intention to show a high level of

parent involvement at home, leading to an elevation of student reading levels.

Research Questions

For this study I will be collecting data to answer the following questions: Does

communication through technology increase parental interaction with weekly sight words

games? The sub question will focus on will the mastery of sight words increase a student’s

reading levels? I will collect the parent involvement data through a checklist; the checklist will

provide data collected weekly through pictures that are taken at home with parents and students

playing the weekly sight word game. At the beginning of the research the students will be given

a pretest which will be a take home writing project which will help me see how many sight

words the student uses in their writing. Also, at the beginning the students will be assessed on

their reading level which will help me place the students in their reading groups to help practice

and learn sight word games. At the start of each week I will assess the students on their sight

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words to see their growth. Reading data will be taken at the beginning of the 6 weeks as well as

at the end of the six weeks.

Definition of Terms:

Fountas and Pinnell is a comprehensive system for a one-on-one reading assessment that

reliably and systematically matches students' instructional and independent reading abilities.

Sight words are words that students need to know by sight and not by sounding them out. Sight

words are the most common words that will be in a text.

Title 1: Is federal funding that helps schools that are in high poverty areas. The funding provides

the school with materials to help at risk students meet the high State Standards.

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Chapter 2: Literature Review

Overview

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of parental involvement through technology.

More precisely, it investigates whether parental communication through technology improves

parental involvement at home? This study will evaluate if parental involvement at home will

help a student master their sight word which will help increase their reading level. This study

will consist of communication with parents through technology, two at home writing project,

weekly sight word games and weekly sight word assessments, reading levels assessed at the

beginning and the end of the six weeks. The data that will be collected during the six weeks will

be charted and graphed to show improvement with the master of sight words to see if there is

increase in reading levels. My Action research is situated within the literature of parental

involvement and student learning. In this section, I reviewed theory and empirical research on

these topics with a focus on parental involvement, improving parental involvement with

technology, increasing reading success through the mastery of sight words.

Parental Involvement

“Parental involvement is hardly a new practice” (Jeynes, 2011, p. 1). “Understanding that

parental involvement is not a new concept it is important to comprehend if one is to properly

contextualize the parent, school, and community partnership movement that is growing in the

United States” (Jeynes, 2011, p.1). Two major reasons why parental involvement was so

apparent in Puritan homes which included their educational emphasis and their belief that a

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strong bond between the home, the church, and the family was a prerequisite for children’s

academic success (Gangel &Benson, 1983; Hiner, 1988; McClellan & Reese, 1988 , p.2).

“Parental involvement can have tremendous effects on the academic achievement of

students” (Zieger & Tan, 2012, p. 31). Epstein defines parental involvement as the participation

of parents in the education and development of their child. Castro defines parental involvement

in a few different dimensions like the expectations the parents have on the child’s future

education, the control they have over their child doing their homework, and how frequent they

are involved at the school. I agree with Castro when she mentions in her paper that the

expectations that parents put on their child’s future education can help in the way their child will

perform at school. I teach in a low-income area and a few of my students have expressed to me

that I am only there to babysit them and they do not need to learn or follow directions they just

need a free place to stay safe while their parents are at work. The students feel this way do to the

expectations their parents have in stilled in them about their education. “Parental involvement as

the active participation of parents in all aspects of their children’s social, emotional and

academic development” (Castro, et al., 2015, p. 34). Many different factors can play a part in

how parents get involved in their child’s education.

During Callen Rockwell’s study he talked about a study that was conducted by

Drummond and Stipek that parents of a low socioeconomic status feel like they need to provide

the basic needs of living for their families and they don’t have the time to help their children

succeed in their education (Rockwell, 2011). Low-income parents need to be guided and

informed that they can still be involved in their child’s education even without having to come to

school. That’s why meeting the parents in the middle with showing them ways to help them in

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their child’s education they will feel involved. Some ways that parents can be guided by

teachers and school personnel, to help their child outside of school are work with their child in

the afternoons or evenings on their homework and have their child read to them before bed time.

I feel if the parents show interest in their child’s education and learning their child will want to

work hard to show improvement and to make them proud of their success. During the same

study Rockwell talks about how parents of a higher socioeconomic status feel like they need to

be more involved in their child’s education by staying in contact with their child’s teacher on a

regular basis (Rockwell, 2011). Another factor that Rockwell looks at during his study is the

level of education that a majority of the parents have. Rockwell reported that parents that

contain a higher education are more confident with being involved in their child’s education,

such as knowing information about the material that can help with homework, and being able to

sit down and read with their child to help them improve in their reading. Rockwell shares that

parents with a college education encourage their children to attend school and later attend college

to help them better their life so they can get a job to help support daily living. Rockwell also

expresses that parents that dropped out of school or never attended college may not encourage

their child to do their best in school so they can attend college. From my personal experience, my

father does not have a college education but he went to a vocational school to learn what he was

interested in pursuing a career in. Parents do not need to have a college degree to encourage

academic success in school. My father wanted me to do well in school because he wanted me to

get a degree because he regrets not going to college to better his knowledge for a higher career.

During Rockwell’s study he saw that if schools try to improve their parental involvement their

student’s may express more excitement about school. The school I am at tries really hard to

improve parental involvement at the school by holding night time activities. Students are so

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excited to bring their parents up to the school to show them around and about all the different

things they are learning.

Rockwell talks about increasing parental involvement and how it is beneficial to student’s

education when parents and schools increase their communication. During Castro’s study on

Parental Involvement and student achievement the results show that the strongest associations

between parental involvement and academic achievement are found when parents have higher

academic expectations for their child, when they develop and maintain communication with the

students and the teacher about schoolwork, and when they help their child development or

maintain reading habits.

Parental Communication with Technology

Studies show how technology can help improve parenteral communication with teachers

and school personnel. “Technology has given parents and teachers the opportunity to explore

new ways of communicating (Zieger & Tan, 2012, p. 31).” In this day and age nearly all schools

are connected to the internet and most parents have some form of technological communication

that can help increase parent and school communication by fostering a positive relationship

between parents and schools. In the study that Christine Olmstead conducted on Using

Technology to Increase Parent Involvement in schools reveled that both parents and teachers

place a high value on positive and meaningful parent involvement. Olmstead expressed in her

study that when having proactive and positive involvement does not always require physical

involvement at the child’s school, with technology it can help keep parents involved in their

child’s academic lives. During her study on technology to increase parent involvement Olmstead

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found that parents that are involved in their student’s education have higher grades and better test

scores. During the study she found teachers that take action in forming a positive relationship

with parents, are the parents that are most likely to help support their child’s learning at home.

Olmstead shared information in her study from Hagel and Brown during their study in 2005 they

found that many schools give information to parents but the schools do not provide a way for

parents to comment or share any information back to the school. Olmstead stated some

suggestions that she got from Hagel and Brown during their 2005 study, which schools and

teachers need to have a way that allows for parents to gather information when needed and then

be able to communicate with the school or teacher when they see it is needed. The county that I

work in has started using a program called eClass, which is a program online that the teachers

can post assessments or information online for the student and parents to access from home.

“Online grade books have become widely used in many school districts, giving parents and

students 24-hour access to their grades and information about upcoming assignments” (Zieger &

Tan, 2012, p. 31). During Zieger and Tan’s study in 2012 they found that if parents and student

are given access to information through an online gradebook that many of the parents will

communicate to their children about their grades. Olmstead and Zieger and Tan all studied that

if parents are able to pull information when they feel it is needed then it will help increase

communication with their students and hopefully will help increase communication with the

teacher. I am all about posting information on how to help students with homework and ways to

help students succeed, because a lot of the parents in my class do not have a back ground in

education and might not know how to work a problem on the home work. I really like the

program we use because I can post videos on how to do things so the parents can help their

students at home or it can provide extra support for the students that are struggling. The data

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from Olmstead’s study showed that both parents and teachers perceived that technology is the

best way of communication (Olmstead, 2013). After Ozdamli and Yildiz conducted their study

they suggest “If mobile technologies are integrated into the parent-school collaboration work, it

will be possible to benefit from mobile technologies about raising awareness on parents and

consciousness raising of parents in order to increase academic success of the students" (Ozdamli

& Yildiz, 2013, p. 365). Other ways to get parents involved in their child’s education with

technology is to video tape suggestions on how they can help at home as well as lessons so if

parents need information on a topic on homework. In the article Family and community

involvement: The bedrock of reading success used reading backpacks that were filled with books

and they provided a video tape that would show the parents or caregiver how to read with their

child to help with literacy development (Cooter.Jr, et al., 1999). This is a great way to help

parents read with their children, most parents do not read with their children because they do not

know how to do it. If teachers can provide them with a video on the best way to do it then it

might help increase parental involvement. A way to encourage the parents to watch the video

might be the teacher showing the parents how to read with their child in the video so they will

want to watch the video to see their child reading. Every student is going to be at a different level

and using each student in their own video will provide the right skills needed to help each

student succeed. “With the improvement of communication may come more parental

involvement, which in turn paves the way for higher achievement among out students” (Ramirez,

2001, p. 31). “The use of interactive technologies with readily accessible resources can help in

developing parental involvement with school and their children’s learning” (Blau & Hameiri,

2012, p. 703). The authors of the article Teacher-families online interaction have “studies

regarding the offline parental involvement found its impact on child function in educational

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institutions” (Blau & Hameiri, 2012, p. 703). When a teacher can walk over to a computer or to

a phone and message a parent instantly has changed the way students perform in the classroom.

Mastery of Sight Words

The fundamentals of reading and word recognition start in kindergarten. If word

recognition is not developed early on in a child’s education, then the child is most likely going to

have trouble with reading (Sullivan, Knorad, Joseph, & Luu, 2013). The authors of “A

comparison of two sight word reading fluency drill formats” talk about a drill that was given to

third and fourth graders who were struggling in reading. The students were given a list of sight

words that they needed to read in 1 minute. After that 1 minute, the teacher was able to see what

words each student need to practice to help them master their sight words. The authors expressed

that this sight word practice was effective on increasing the number of sight words the students

had mastered (Sullivan, Knorad, Joseph, & Luu, 2013). During all the studies that the authors

talked about, their studies all came to the conclusion that one practice is not all ways the best for

every student. Some of the instructional practices that they think might be best are repeated

practice, direct instruction, error correction, tangible rewards, self-monitoring and graphing

(Sullivan, Knorad, Joseph, & Luu, 2013). Combining all of the instructional practices together

would help all students master sight words at their own speed. I believe all of the instructional

practices that the other studies talked about are the best to see improvement in a student’s

mastery. Students all learn in different ways, one of these ways will impact each student in

different ways that will help them master their sight words at their own pace. As a teacher in a

low income area, it is known that you teach things in many different ways due to all the different

levels and learns you have in a classroom.

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Sight Word Games and Technology

“Interactive games proved effective with children; they learned quickly over a relatively

short time exposure” (Meadan, Stoner, & Parette, 2008, p. 45). During the study that was

conducted by the group from Illinois State University they found that the group of students who

were at risk for academic failure performed at a better rate than the students who were not at risk.

The group that was at risk was given pictures to help the students identify and learn the sight

words (Meadan, Stoner, & Parette, 2008). There are a number of literacy skills that are best to

help develop a reader some of the skills are phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, and

fluency, concepts of print, vocabulary, and comprehension (Meadan, Stoner, & Parette, 2008).

The authors of “Sight Word Recognition Among Young Children At-Risk: Picture-Supported

Vs. Word-Only” talked about other emergent literacy skills that Karchmer, Mallette, and Lue

suggested that exposer to an array of technologies in their daily lives would transform their

nature to literacy. Authors Singer, Samuels, and Spiroff think that there are three ways that

students should learn sight words. The first way should be in isolation, then in a sentence and

lastly with a picture. When they performed their study they found that the students who had

pictures on their cards made more errors. The best instructional way to teach students that are at-

risk sight words is in isolation and then adding on different instructional ways when they have

learned the word. That is where sight word games come in, the games will help them master the

words that they have learn in isolation that will help them later on in their reading.

When I teach the letters and sounds to my students I use hand motions to help my students

remember the letter and sound. I have never thought to use hand motions to help students to learn

and master their sight words. “Finding interesting and motivating techniques that help students

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remember sight words is an ongoing dilemma in classrooms” (Brenna & Miller, 2000, p. 147) .

In the article How many words can your student read, the authors talk about how a teacher can

increase students’ recall and retention of sight words by using a game called Sign-o into their

classrooms every day (Brenna & Miller, 2000). Some major factors that teachers face today are

word recognition, vocabulary knowledge. Both of these factors include sight words and

influencing reading comprehension which is affecting reading levels. The authors indicate an

important step that can be performed by the teacher to help in the reading process which is to pre

teach sight words and vocabulary before reading (Brenna & Miller, 2000). Some evidence

shows that for the primary years children may have delays in word recognition. “ Learning to

recognize sight words related to activities of daily living increase the independence (Browder

&Shear, 1996) and overall personal academic success of students” ( (Brenna & Miller, 2000, p.

147). The authors indicate that “when sign is used along with verbalization, word-object

association and comprehension of new sight words does take place” (Brenna & Miller, 2000, p.

147). Not only does this turn into a game for students to help them master their sight words but

it’s a way to teach them their sight words. When teaching the sight words the teacher needs to

have a sign for the word as well as the word printed so the students can see the sight word in

print. “In using signs, the teacher adds a kinesthetic aspect to the lesson, and putting to use more

of the learning modalities, make language easier to acquire” (Brenna & Miller, 2000, p. 147).

Not only is using sign language a way to help a student recognize a sight word beneficial but it

also makes all students pay attention so they will not miss a sign. Most students attend more by

visual and oral cues rather than just oral cues (Brenna & Miller, 2000). When playing the game

Sign-O it resembles the game Bingo. The teacher makes the sign and then the student has to find

the sight word that goes along with the sign in their board. I really like this approach to learning

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sight words because you have to have a time to give instruction on the words and then give them

a game to help them reinforce the learning of the sight words to help them master their words.

Reading level growth and Sight word mastery

Using technology to help students master their sight words will help students gain

knowledge and fluency when it comes to reading. “Reading proficiency is arguably the most

important academic skill needed for school success” (Lo, Plati, & Musti-Rao, 2015, p. 154). It is

known that students that fall behind on the basic reading skills early on in their schooling will

fall behind as they get into the higher grades if the primary grades to not focus on getting the

basic understanding of reading into the students’ lives early on. It is known that sight words are a

major portion of the text students come across while they are reading (Lo, Plati, & Musti-Rao,

2015). When students master their sight words it can increase a student’s fluency and

comprehension. The authors of “Using an iPad App to Improve Sight Word Reading Fluency for

At-Risk First Graders” made a great point that teachers are not looking at that could help with

reading in all students. They said “instruction in sight words not only can result in a

corresponding increase in reading fluency and comprehension but also can improve students’

confidence levels and reduce their frustration with reading” (Lo, Plati, & Musti-Rao, 2015, p.

154). When students are frustrated with reading, they will not learn and gain the skills they need

to increase reading levels and master their sight word list. The authors in the article talk about a

program called computer-assisted instruction which provides positive reading skills for

struggling readers. “Hilton-Prillhart, Hopkins, Skinner, and McCane-Bowling (2011) used a

compter-based sight word reading intervention with three students in which each sight word was

displayed on a PowerPoint presentation slide on the computer” (Lo, Plati, & Musti-Rao, 2015, p.

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154). Taking the isolated instruction and the PowerPoint instruction is the way I teach my sight

words to my students and then review every morning using the same slides to help my students

master their sight words. The authors that conducted this test on the students found that the

method of the PowerPoint was found successful in the mastery of sight words for the students.

Reading level growth with Parental Involvement

Parents and schools need to work hand in hand with each other to help students succeed.

“According to Henderson and Mapp’s study that was conducted in 2002, evidence shows, when

schools work together with families to support student learning, children tend to succeed”

(Perriel, 2015, p. 75). In Perriel study she refers to Epstein statement that home and school

relationships are an important part of the education of students (Perriel, 2015). Perriel explains

that when teachers provide parents with the grades it shows the students how important it is to

try their best. Having parental involvement helps students to succeed in all areas of education

and it will truly help students increase their reading levels when students are able to read to their

parents. Hawes and Ploured found from their study on parental involvement and its influence on

reading achievement that during the past few years as reading materials have changed reading

scores have increased as well as decreased. When children are transitioning from preschool to

kindergarten families do not understand how much influence they have on their child’s literacy

development. “Research suggest activities taking place in home between children and their

parents, such as joint reading, drawing, and singing, may influence a child’s development in

emergent literacy” (Dove, Neuharth-Pritchett, Wright, & Wallinga, 2015, p. 173). Having

students work with their parents at home on writing as well as reading will help children increase

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sight words because using them in their writing will help them master the word and will read it

during reading time. Some philosophies that parents can use to help in their child’s emergent

literacy development are encouragement, personal beliefs towards literacy, parental language and

literacy skills, and parental self-efficacy (Dove, Neuharth-Pritchett, Wright, & Wallinga, 2015).

Having the teacher email the parents or send home strategies that they can use at home will help

increase encouragement from the parents because they will want their students to do their best

and if they can help that happen their students will feel like they care about how they are doing

in school. Parental involvement does not just need to happen at school it needs to take place in

the home as well. Studies show that reading skills are vital for children’s academic success. “As

children with poor reading skills fall behind their more literate peers, the result is an academic

achievement gap that may continue to widen as children progress through their academic

careers” (Dove, Neuharth-Pritchett, Wright, & Wallinga, 2015, p174). If teachers can start in the

early years to help the students who start to struggle get the help they need at home the

achievement gap could start to decrease. The importance of literacy development skills in the

areas of decoding, language, and the alphabet, will help prevent difficulties in reading (Dove,

Neuharth-Pritchett, Wright, & Wallinga, 2015). Dove’s study focused on the activities that

could help parents become more involved at home with their students.

Parental Involvement with Literacy at Home

Parental involvement can be as simple as sitting down and reading a book or playing a

game with your child. “Children’s literacy experience can be positively affected when parents

are educated in how to help their children (Fiala & Sheridan, 2003, p. 613).” When parents are

given materials and ways to help their student then the parental involvement can start to happen

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at home. If parents can show their children a positive and fun way to experience reading, then

children will want to do more of it at home. Parents who sit down with their child and drill them

on sight words and get mad at them for reading the wrong word will take the fun out of reading

for the child, but if the parents make it fun and exciting with games and positive feedback

children will want to work with their parents at home. It is shown that positive gains in a child’s

reading can take great strides when a parent reads to or with a child. Not only parents reading to

a child but a child reading to a parents and showing them the great skills they have learned will

help the students gain in reading. “Research on parental involvement suggests that enriching

activities, such as singing, drawing, storytelling, rhyming, shared book reading, reciting, and

game playing, have been found to improve children’s language and literacy outcomes in the

areas of print knowledge, interest in reading, oral language, letter-sound knowledge, and word

decoding abilities” (Dove, Neuharth-Pritchett, Wright, & Wallinga, 2015, p 174).

Language development in a child can be fostered when a parent reads to a child. When

parents or caregivers reinforce literacy in the home by encouraging children to take part in some

activities it will help increase language skills and reading achievement (Dove, Neuharth-

Pritchett, Wright, & Wallinga, 2015). Encouragement, interacting with the child during reading

time, reading with a child daily, and a quality experience while reading to a child can build a

positive reading experience for the child and the parent. The results of the study that Dove,

Neuharth-Pritchett, Wright and Wallinga conducted showed that when parents are involved in

their children’s literacy development at home that their children score higher on literacy

assessments at school (Dove, Neuharth-Pritchett, Wright, & Wallinga, 2015).

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The author of the article Parent Involvement in Reading starts her article out with saying

“Parents play a key role in their children’s literacy development and school success” (Brenna &

Miller, 2000, p. 50). With that being said the question that author Laurie Elish-Piper is getting

from parents is “what can I do to help my child with reading at home?” (Brenna & Miller, 2000,

p. 50). In response to the question that parents are asking Laurie has “collected an assortment of

quick, easy-to-implement strategies to share with parents when asked” (Brenna & Miller, 2000,

p. 50). There are six easy to go to strategies that will help parents with literacy help at home. One

of the strategies that Laurie has collected is the 3-2-1 strategy. Laurie suggests this strategy be

used with a Non-fiction story and when the parents and students are reading together they can

then tell 3 interesting facts, 2 things they found interesting, and 1 question they have while they

were reading. Then second strategy is called Read, Cover, and Remember, Retell which means a

student’s reads as much of the text that they can cover with their hand, and then they cover the

text after they read it to help them remember and then they retell what they read to their parents.

The third strategy is word identification games could be the games that teachers have already

taught in class that will help with their sight word identification. She also gives examples of sight

word games and activities as well as family reading time where parents set aside a daily reading

time. “These easy-to-implement strategies and activities can help parents support their children’s

reading development” (Brenna & Miller, 2000, p. 54).

Summary

The information gathered from the studies that were conducted show the

importance that parental involvement has on the education of children. The study that Castro led

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on parental involvement ensued those students’ successes in learning when parents have high

educational expectations for their children. Technology can play a huge part in parental

involvement. Schools need to make it known to parents that parental involvement does not only

mean that parents have to come to school to be involved in their student’s education, but to get

involved at home by reading nightly or helping with homework with get them involved in their

child’s education. Parental involvement at home can help students reinforce the reading skills

that they have learned at school to help them gain a reading level. Teaching student’s sight words

in isolation and then having them review or drill them during a sight word game will help them

master their sight word list. During one of the studies it was found that if students see the sight

words through technology it will help them master their words. Making a PowerPoint that can be

sent to the parents to help them review their student’s words would help them while playing their

games at home that will help them master their list. I am looking forward to implementing the

sight word game Sign-o into my classroom. I have had great success in my classroom with hand

motions that go along with the letters and sounds. I will have students who cannot tell me the

sound or letter but they can show me the motion and then with the repetition of the motion,

sound, and letter name they pick up on the letter and sound it makes. I really see the sign-o game

being helpful in my classroom. I really believe that some of the literacy strategies that the author

in Parent Involvement and reading collected will be great strategies to pass along through

technology to my parents to help with their reading involvement and sight word master with their

children at home. All the literature that I reviewed informed me of information that will help me

with my research that I will be conducting. The research shows that communication with parents

through technology will help increase parental involvement at home by helping then gain

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knowledge on ways they can get involved with their child at home as well as higher expectations

for the students to improve on their reading levels.

Chapter 3. Methodology

Background of Research Project:

From my own personal teaching experience; in the past years looking at the parents who

took interest in their child’s education was the parents that could express their concerns to me

about their child’s learning. I want all my parents to feel welcomed and feel like they can come

to me even when they do not speak English. I want to use technology to communicate with the

parents in their native langue to help them with ways they can work at home with their child

which will impact their child’s reading levels. I believe if parents are well informed on what is

going on in the classroom and what they can do outside of the classroom; they are more likely to

take interest in their child’s learning. Knowing that parental involvement is a vital aspect of

success in children’s education; will work hard at all the aspects of parental involvement from

using technology to help parents improve their student’s sight word mastery at home. I will work

hard to involve parents through using technology to show the parents the different sight word

games the students are learning which will help them get involved with their child’s learning of

their sight words. I will incorporate activities into my classroom that will encourage parents to

participate in both the classroom and with activities they can do at home.

Research Questions that guided the study were as following:

Does communication through technology increase parental interaction with weekly sight

word games?

Will the mastery of sight words increase student’s reading level?

21


Research setting and Participants:

The kindergarten class that is participating in the study is one of twelve kindergarten classes at

Peachtree Elementary School that has 16 students with one teacher and no paraprofessional. The

make-up of the 16 students consists of 8 boys and 8 girls. Out of the 16 students 10 of the

students are Hispanic and only one of the Hispanic students speak English. Three of the students

in the class have an IEP, which is an Individual Education Plan which falls under Special

Education. Having the inclusion class I get help for 45 minutes a day from a Special Education

teacher. While the Special Education teacher is in my classroom we are working on reading

centers which will help the students increase their reading levels.

Interventions:

During the study every week the students will be learning a new sight word game to help them

master their sight word list. During the week the students will be tested on their sight word

mastery. I will work with small groups playing sight word games with them that will focus on

the sight words they did not master for the week. I will communicate with the parents through

technology so it can be expressed in their native language ways that they can help their child at

home to increase their child’s sight word mastery level.

Chapter 4: Data Collection

Qualitative:

My qualitative data was taken through a pre and post writing assignment that was sent home as a

monthly parental involvement activity. For the pretest in February the students will make a heart

of the things they love and then they will write about the things they love. I assessed the number

22


of sight words the students used in their paper. The post test was given in March after six weeks

of sight word games learned at school and then practiced at home. The March parental

involvement activity was a tree they decorated for their family and then write about their family

seeing how many sight words they use in their writing.

Throughout the six weeks I will communicate with the parents through technology by giving

them ideas of games that can be played with their child to help them learn their sight words. To

collect the data on the parental involvement I had the parents take pictures of them playing the

sight word game of the week and send it to me through technology on Fridays. I kept a check list

of the parents that sent me pictures of them playing the games. During morning work time on

Mondays I assessed the students on how many sight words they know and kept a chart to help

me see if they have mastered the sight word.

The codes I used for the Weekly Photo:

Yes parents sent photo= Y

No the parents didn’t send photo= N

At the end of my research, I analyzed my data using a graph showing the growth in the number

of sight words the students master each week to the number of photos the parents sent to see if

there was a growth in the number of sight words a student mastered and the parental

involvement.

Quantitative:

23


I collected my quantitative data through running records which was collected as a pre and

posttest. This data was used to help me see which reading groups I need to place each student in

to help them master their sight words which will increase their reading levels. During the six

weeks the students participated in small group sight word games that were videoed and sent

home through technology so their parents know how to play the sight word game of the week.

During my running records I used the following codes in my notes:

Non-Reader- 0

Level A- 1

Level B- 2

Level C- 3

Level D- 4

Level E - 5

Chapter 5: Results

I used a mixed methods approach for the data collecting throughout the six weeks. The

qualitative data includes a pre and post writing assignment that was sent home as a monthly

parental involvement activity. To show the growth of sight words used in a writing assignment.

Throughout the six weeks I will assess the students weekly on their sight word growth. During

the six weeks I will collect the quantitative data by reading running records. I will take a pre and

post reading level which will help me place the students in their small groups to learn new sight

word games.

24


Qualitative Data:

The pre and post test data shows the number of sight words the students are using in a writing

assessment. I sent the pre and posttest home for them to work with their parents at home. I only

had three students that didn’t complete their pre and posttest. I wanted to see if they would use

more sight words in their writing after a six week period of learning and mastering the sight

words.

Pretest sight word # used

Posttest sight word # used

Student 1 11 15Student 2 5 10Student 3 9 15Student 4 0 0Student 5 11 13Student 6 9 15Student 7 0 0Student 8 9 9Student 9 9 19Student 10 5 10Student 11 0 0Student 12 11 15Student 13 11 16Student 14 11 14Student 15 11 15Student 16 6 9

25


I used the data from the weekly Photos that the parents sent me and the data from the weekly

sight word assessments to see if the communication through technology increased the mastery of

sight word list for each student.

Weekly Parental Photo Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6

Students 1 Y Y Y Y Y YStudents 2 Y Y Y Y N YStudents 3 N Y Y N N YStudents 4 N N N N N NStudents 5 Y Y Y Y Y YStudents 6 Y Y Y Y N YStudents 7 N N N N N NStudents 8 Y Y Y Y Y YStudents 9 Y Y Y Y Y YStudents 10

Y Y Y Y Y Y

Students 11

N N N N N N

Students 12

Y Y Y Y Y Y

Students 13

Y Y Y Y Y Y

Students 14

Y Y Y Y Y Y

Students 15

Y Y Y Y Y Y

26


Students 16

Y Y Y Y Y Y

Weekly SW Assessment:Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6

Student 1 34/40 37/40 40/40 40/40 40/40 40/40Student 2 20/40 23/40 27/40 27/40 29/40 29/40Student 3 24/40 29/40 26/40 30/40 33/40 35/40Student 4 12/40 15/40 18/40 20/40 16/40 20/40Student 5 26/40 32/40 32/40 32/40 34/40 34/40Student 6 24/40 28/40 26/40 29/40 30/40 32/40Student 7 0/40 2/40 2/40 2/40 5/40 3/40Student 8 6/40 8/40 8/40 10/40 13/40 15/40Student 9 27/40 30/40 34/40 36/40 33/40 35/40Student 10 13/40 13/40 15/40 17/40 15/40 12/40Student 11 10/40 16/40 19/40 20/40 20/40 25/40Student 12 18/40 20/40 25/40 32/40 34/40 35/40Student 13 20/40 22/40 29/40 30/40 32/40 35/40Student 14 33/40 39/40 38/40 40/40 40/40 40/40Student 15 38/40 40/40 40/40 40/40 40/40 40/40Student 16 20/40 33/40 33/40 35/40 37/40 39/40

Student 1Student 2Student 3Student 4Student 5Student 6Student 7Student 8Student 9

Student 10Student 11student 12Student 13Student 14student 15Student 16

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Week 1

No parents didn't send photoYes parents sent photo

# of sight words mastered

27



Student 10Student 11Student 12Student 13Student 14Student 15Student 16

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Week 2





0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Week 3

No parents didn't send photYes parents sent photo


28




0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Week 4





0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Week 5



29




0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Week 6



Quantitative Data:

Before the 6 weeks started I assessed the students on their reading levels to help me indicate

which groups the students needed to be placed in during the sight word games. At the end of the

6 weeks I assessed the students reading levels to see if the mastery of sight words increased their

reading levels. In kindergarten at my school we use Founts and Pinnell to assess the students on

reading levels. The students need to be on level D at the end of Kindergarten.

Pre-Reading assessment

Post-Reading assessment

Student 1 3 4Student 2 1 2Student 3 2 2Student 4 1 2Student 5 2 4Student 6 2 4Student 7 0 0Student 8 1 1Student 9 3 3Student 10 2 2Student 11 2 2Student 12 2 4Student 13 4 4

30


Student 14 3 4Student 15 4 5Student 16 1 4

Studen

t 1

Studen

t 2

Studen

t 3

Studen

t 4

Studen

t 5

Studen

t 6

Studen

t 7

Studen

t 8

Studen

t 9

Studen

t 10

Studen

t 11

Studen

t 12

Studen

t 13

Studen

t 14

Studen

t 15

Studen

t 16

00.5

11.5

2

2.53

3.5

44.5

5

Pre and Post Reading Assessment

Pre-reading AssessmentPost-reading Assessment

Read

ing

Leve

ls

Chapter 6: Conclusion

The study showed that parental involvement through technology was effective in student’s

master of sight words which increased their reading levels. In order for parental involvement to

be effective, the parents had to watch the videos that were posted to show them how to play a

sight word game with their student each week. The sight word games motivated the students to

want to learn their sight words so they could win the game each time that was played. The

technology also inspired the students because they wanted to show their parents the video of

them playing the new game. Even though all parents didn’t participate in the communication

through technology a majority of the students mastered their sight words as well as increased

their reading levels. The use of technology could have affected the results of the study because

31


the parents that didn’t participate in the parent communication they didn’t have access to the

internet or the device to communicate with.

With the mastery of sight words it helped students to increase their reading levels. If this

task of learning a sight word game a week started at the beginning of the year and having it

posted on a class site or emailed to the parents to help them implement it at home to help their

child learn the words students could be meeting in reading or even exceeds the reading

expectation. Research would need to be done to see which sight word games are most effective

for students in learning new words. There has been pervious success using games to help

students learn sight words to help them increase their reading levels with special education

students. This study shows that this can be successful in an inclusion/Co-teaching classroom.

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