Teaching Letters and Sounds

Recently, a volunteer asked the following questions: Should the children know capital and lower-case letters equally well? Are we better to be writing in lower or upper-case letters when we review words? What is the order that children should learn letters, specifically short and long vowels?

These are great questions, which I will answer from my experience:

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When we write words for children to review, we should be using lower case letters as these are what is in print when children read. As you know most upper- and lower-case letters are similar, with a slight difference between: Mm, Nn, Ee, Ff, Ii, Ll, and Tt.

In my experience I haven’t noticed that children who recognize a lower-case letters have difficulty with any upper case ones. The exception being “I” that can be written differently depending on the book. (I or I with the line at the bottom and top). This can cause children problems when they begin to read.  Usually, I just point out the difference and they carry on.

Many children come to school able to print their name, usually with upper case letters which are easier for children as they consist of mostly straight lines. They begin to learn how to print lower case letters in kindergarten and are encouraged to do so as they progress.  Most of the children that we work with will use a combination of upper and lower case letters when they print and I usually do not correct them.

If you are working on a letter and sound recognition, demonstrating how to print the letter is a great way to help them remember. As I’m sure you have noticed the bs and ds are really problematic both for reading and writing.  One fun way to remember is to draw the b and d and make it into a stick person with the b for the belly and the d for the diaper!

Kids love to use colourful makers on the white board or even markers on paper to practise letters.  I like to break down the steps for the child, i.e. Demonstrate the line, have the child draw the line and then I add the circle and ask the child to do the same (for b, d, p)

Please note that I don’t spend a lot of time doing this, only if I’m showing the letter and sound.

I often help the children write a sentence about something that interests them.  This week a little reader showed me some magic tricks so we had fun writing; “I tot Marjie magic tricks”. She was ready to learn about ck and the two different letters for the j sound. She wasn’t ready to learn “aught”. This is a powerful way to help our readers learn sounds and of course directly helps their reading.

If you look at decodable reader most introduce letters sequentially. You are right that children need to learn the short vowels at the beginning so they can read consonant/vowel /consonant words such as can, pop, set, Dad etc. Long vowels come a bit later and are actually easier as they say their name. At Rawlinson, one of the volunteers bought Fly Guy Phonics and it’s a fun way to teach the short and long vowels. Each book concentrates on a vowel sound; first short a, e, o, and u. then long vowels A, E, I, O and U. These are not for early grade one or our super struggling children but useful for late grade one and grade two.

The following is a sequence for learning sounds that many decodable words follow:

s, a, t, I, p, m, c, k, e, h, r, m, d, g,o, f, b, ai, j, ao, ie, ee, or, z, w, ng, v, oo, y, x, ch, sh, th, qu, ou, oi, eu, er, ar.

Hope this helps! Keep having fun with our amazing little readers!

Marjie Calla