Using Visual Arts to Teach Beginning Literacy Skills

This study examined the effect of using visual arts to teach rhyming words and word family words. Two interventions were used, both utilizing the use of visual arts to learn both literacy skills. The interventions were then assessed with a pre- and post-test to see the if the interventions were successful. A student attitude survey was also given at the end of the study to see how the students felt about the interventions. A semi-structured interview was done at the end of the interventions as well to collect the thoughts of my co-teacher on the interventions. Lastly, my teacher observations were recorded to look at my thoughts on the study. My findings showed a large increase in scores from between pre-test and post-test, indicating an increase in students’ understanding of rhyming words and word families and the success of the intervention. Additionally, the students attitude survey showed that overall students understood what rhyming words and word families were and that they also enjoyed using the visual arts during the interventions. My coteacher interview revealed that incorporating visual arts encouraged visual learning that was appealing and effective. The interview also revealed that incorporating visual arts enabled learning by doing and that was hands-on and that created independence. Lastly, the co-teacher interview affirmed that incorporating visual arts enabled engaged learning. To conclude, my teacher observations revealed that incorporating visual arts facilitated collaborative learning and implemented engaged learning. The co-teacher interview and my teacher observations revealed the success of using visual arts in teaching rhyming words and word families. Based on the findings, I devised an action plan for my school to follow. The action plan recommended that my school begin the implement of visual-arts based instruction to help with literacy achievement for the upcoming 2022-2023 school year in the Pre-K and TK (transitional kindergarten) classrooms