When I began teaching many years ago, I realized I was feeling unprepared to teach reading. I decided to pursue my master’s degree in reading for this very reason. I had some pretty amazing professors who were ahead of their time. They were already teaching the science of reading, in my opinion. Especially when we were learning how to teach the alphabet. Orton Gillingham’s training was monumental and found that NOW I was truly prepared to teach reading. I now use the method not only when teaching beginners but also when I tutor struggling readers. Here are five things that I find are important when teaching the alphabet.
Should You Teach The Letters In Order?
When I first started teaching, I taught the letters of the alphabet in order. In grad school and Orton Gillingham training, I was taught to teach the letters out of order, introducing common letter sound before others so you can start blending sounds with your students right away! My go to research and book for teaching phonics and reading is, Recipe For Reading Manual. This manual, used in my Orton training, teaches the letters c, o, a,d,g first. After teaching these sounds, you can already teach your students to blend sounds to create words like cod, dog, and dad!
Adopt a systematic and sequential approach to teaching the alphabet. Present letters and their corresponding sounds in a logical order that allows students to build upon their knowledge. For example, start with commonly used consonants before moving on to vowels and more complex letter combinations. This helps students grasp the building blocks of reading.
The Alphabet Song Is Not Enough!
The science of reading emphasizes the importance of explicit phonics instruction, which involves teaching the relationship between letters and sounds directly. Begin by introducing individual letter sounds, and then progress to blending those sounds together to form simple words. Make sure to cover both consonant and vowel sounds.
The letters of the alphabet represent spoken sounds or phonemes. In order to read the written word, a reader needs to be able to blend a string or group of sounds together. For example, to be able to read the word cut, we need to know the sounds /k/, /ʌ/ ,/t/. For this reason, it is important for teachers in early education to intentionally teach the letter sound relationships and not just the names of the letters. Almost every circle time I have observed includes singing the alphabet song. There are 44 phonemes or sounds in the English language and they are represented by 26 letters, they need to be intentionally taught. When I became the director of a daycare/preschool one of the first things I taught the teachers, was the importance of teaching the sounds right away when teaching the alphabet.
Be Creative In Teaching The Alphabet
Engage multiple senses to enhance learning. Incorporate multisensory techniques by including activities that involve seeing, hearing, and manipulating letters. Use tactile materials like sandpaper letters for a hands-on experience, involve auditory exercises for sound recognition, and encourage visual reinforcement through letter charts and illustrations. I am a huge believer in multi sensory learning. My students write letter in sand, make letters with play doh and write on plastic canvases before writing with a pencil.
Blending and Decoding
As I said before, when I teach my preschoolers or kindergartners, I teach them to blend sounds right away. It is important to connect phonics instruction to decoding skills. Teach students how to use their understanding of letter-sound relationships to decode and sound out words. Provide ample opportunities for practice through reading simple, decodable texts that reinforce the phonics rules they are learning. This connection between phonics and decoding is crucial for reading fluency.
Practice, Practice, Practice !
After many years, I stopped using the traditional “Letter of The Week” and as I added a new letter or sound, I would review the sound previously taught and blending the new sound with sounds we already knew. Repetition and varied practice are key components of effective alphabet instruction. Design activities that allow students to practice recognizing and producing letter sounds in different contexts. Use games, songs, and interactive exercises to keep the learning experience enjoyable and engaging, reinforcing the alphabet concepts through repetition.
Oh one last note, A is NOT for apple! This is my pet peeve and I correct my teachers all the time when I hear this. When I show new teachers how to introduce letters and sounds with flashcards, I model for them and say, ” B say /b/ like in the beginning of ball”. This teaches them that the letter stands for a sound and not an object.
I hope these tips are helpful and help you feel more confident in teaching your beginning readers! Comment below if you have questions and search my blog for more helpful tips on teaching early readers.
– Jeanne
