The Effects of Explicitly Teaching Sight Words on the Reading Levels of Kindergarten Students

Abstract

The purpose of this action research was to determine the impact of explicit and nonexplicit sight word instruction on word acquisition and reading levels of kindergarten students. To compare and highlight the differences in student performance as a result of explicit and nonexplicit teaching, a two-pronged approach was used to complete the study. The first approach used descriptive statistics to assess changes in students’ reading levels according to the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment. The second approach used a t-test analysis to determine if there were significant differences in the number of sight words students acquired when comparing the two groups. The null hypothesis that there would be no significant difference in growth in reading levels of students reading below grade level when comparing students instructed using explicit sight word instruction to those instructed using nonexplicit sight word instruction was tested and rejected. The data showed significant differences between the pretest and posttest results for both instructional groups. The results indicated that students not taught sight words explicitly had a higher average growth score in reading level and sight word identification than the students taught sight words explicitly.