Phonemic Awareness Instruction in One District's Kindergarten Classrooms: An Analysis of How Closely Classroom Practices Reflect Research-Based Best Practices

摘要

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how closely kindergarten teachers in a high performing school district in North Carolina instruct students towards mastery of phonemic awareness skills. This study explored to what degree teachers are implementing the findings of Shanahan (2005) and Ehri, Nunes, Willows, Schuster, Yaghoub-Zadeh, and Shanahan (2001) regarding best practices in phonemic awareness instruction such as the amount of instructional time devoted to phonemic awareness skill development, whether instruction is facilitated in whole group or small group settings, what skills are addressed and how many are addressed at once. The study took place at three elementary school sites in a suburban school district in the Southeastern United States. Fifteen participants replied to a survey at the start of the study and six of these participants volunteered to be interviewed and observed in their classrooms. I interviewed each participant once and observed each participant three times over the course of twelve weeks during the 2nd and 3rd quarters of the 2017-2018 school year. In addition to surveys, interviews and observations, documents such as report cards, unpacking documents, curriculum guides and calendars, and teacher manuals were collected and analyzed. Data were coded, and the following four major themes surfaced: balance, let the curriculum be your guide, data-driven, and all in a day's work.