Research Question

As a first grade teacher, phonics instruction is a major component of my literacy block.  Through interactions and seven years of experience, I have noted that some students "get" the phonics concepts I explicitly teach them, yet some of my students have a much harder time with this.  I was on a quest to find answers as to why this may be and it led me to examine my own instructional strategies.  Was I addressing all learning styles and differentiating my instruction to meet the needs of all my students?  If I have students who are struggling to become more fluent readers due to a lack of phonics skills, the answer would be no.  I realized I had a lot to learn about best practices in phonics instruction, so I came up the with this research question:  How do various phonics instructional strategies help my students to become more proficient readers?  This blog will be evidence of my journey in search of the answer to this question.