Author

Fiona McGraw

Term

Spring 2021

Capstone

Capstone Project

Degree Name

MAEd

Facilitator(s)

Julia Reimer

Content Expert

Sarah Davidson

Abstract

McGraw, F. (2021). A Visual Phonics Curriculum Resource for First Grade Teachers of Struggling Readers This project addresses the question of how visual phonics can be integrated into a phonics curriculum to improve reading achievement in first grade students. Visual phonics is an intervention tool that provides a hand sign for every phoneme in the English language. It has the ability to reduce the burden of phonological memory by providing a visual and kinesthetic support through the use of hand cues as a way for students to visualize a sound. The goals of this project are to improve phonemic awareness through hand and mouth movement and to incorporate a multisensory representation of sound. Therefore, within each lesson of this curriculum there are visual instructional strategies geared towards the 26 phonograms in the English alphabet. Each phonogram is taught through the use of various visual tools and the lesson progresses from teacher directed instruction to students led activities. The overall curriculum design links direct and explicit visual phonics instructional strategies to phonological awareness and reading growth among first grade students. The foundational development of this curriculum was based upon previous studies conducted by Dr. Chion and her findings on the effectiveness of visual phonics as an intervention tool. Her research, along with others, led to the conclusion that the implementation of this curriculum has the ability to allow students to make deeper connections that allow for the success of reading fluency and accuracy. The hope is that the use of this visual phonics curriculum, when incorporated into a small group setting, can help support phonological awareness and provide an alternative source of information about the English language. This will also serve as an additional tool and resource for educators looking to expand their differentiation in instructional strategies.

Project Type

Curriculum

Keywords

Curriculum

dc_type

text

dc_publisher

DigitalCommons@Hamline

dc_format

application/pdf

dc_source

School of Education Student Capstone Projects

Included in

Education Commons

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