1. What is the problem? Students are struggling to with recognizing rhyme and word families in text.
2. What is the rational for the project? This project is designed to help aid students in recognizing rhyme and word families by introducing games that help them with these skills. Some of the games such as “Rhyming Memory”, “Rhyme Ball”, and “Odd Word Out” are all examples of games that will be tested.
3. What strategy will be used to address the problem? Rhyming games will be utilized to help students recognize rhyme and word families in text and expand their phonemic awareness. Students will play the games in small groups and whole group instruction, and at reading centers.
4. What is the question? The driving question is, “How can I use a variety of rhyming games to help her students recognize rhyme and word families in text?” The supporting question is, “Will the rhyming strategies change student’s attitudes about reading instruction?”
5. What evidence is presented that the strategy will work? 30 years ago Wylie and Durrell (1970) reported that their studies of early literacy devilment revealed that children learn words more easily by the use of “rhyming phonograms” as opposed to learning complicated decoding rules that have many exceptions. Also researchers Chard and Dickson underscored the importance of this basic literacy skill and identify the DIBELS assessment, which is used at Simpson and many other schools in West Virginia.
6. How will data be collected? There will be an assessment of decoding strategies administered prior to beginning the project. The same assessment will be administered at the end of the four weeks of project implementation and the pre-and post-test results will be compared to document the overall impact of the project. In addition, a reading attitude survey will be given prior to and after the project to assess the students’ feelings towards reading instruction.
