Teaching the Alphabet – Do This to Make the Most Impact

Ready to know what you should do while teaching the alphabet to make the most impact on learning and retention?

Read.

Sounds super simple right? Of course! But yes… there’s definitely more to it than that :). There are some things that you should consider before, during, and after reading while teaching the alphabet.

But reading with your learners is one of the most impactful ways to teach the alphabet. You’re ultimate goal in teaching the alphabet is to strengthen your learner’s letter recognition and phonemic awareness in order to nurture reading success.

And teaching learners how to read is… a BIG deal.

If you are a new teacher or parent, my intention is not to scare you. But if you are a seasoned teacher then you know exactly what I am talking about.

As a teacher, parent, grandparent, or a family friend, I’m sure that you want the best for any little learner in your life. The best gift you can give them is to nurture a love of learning and reading. Because readers are leaders.

The more we read, the more knowledge we have to tackle any challenge we may face. For instance, you’re probably reading this post because you are challenged with the task of teaching young learners how to read. Or you’re looking for fresh new tips.

Am I right?? Well then, let’s get to it!

Let’s talk about what we can do before, during, and after reading in order to make teaching the alphabet most impactful.

Before Reading

First things first, find various alphabet books that you can use as resources to teach the alphabet. Check out this post if you need some direction. The more the better.

We do this because we already know that knowledge compounds. Just think about the compound effect of reading 20 minutes per day.

If a learner reads 20 minutes a day they will have read 3,600 minutes per school year, and 1,800,000 words per year. And if they begin in kindergarten, by grade 6 they will have read the equivalent of 60 school days! Reading often, daily, and for at least 20 minutes per day has some serious compounding effects that we just can’t ignore.

So you will definitely make the most impact on a learner’s reading success, by reading to them. Reading and finding fun ways to teach the alphabet should be a priority.

If you are working with young learners and are working on strengthening letter recognition and phonemic awareness (the 2 most powerful predictors of reading success), then you will want to make sure you have already chosen the letter sequence you will use. This one is the best.

When you have decided on the sequence in which you will introduce the letters of the alphabet, introduce the featured letter with an assortment of quick activities. Just to get your learners exposed before you dive in. Remember, repetition helps to teach recognition while variety will meet each of your learner’s where they are at. So the more activities, the better!

Here are a few super quick no prep activities that you can do as a large group to introduce your featured letter:

1. Write the letter on chart or poster paper. Practice tracing the letter formation together as a group. Encourage your learners to trace the formation with you in the air, on the floor, on a table, on their hand, or a friend’s back. Be creative at this stage. You can implement more structured letter formation activities later.
2. Talk about the sound the letter makes. Take turns naming words that they already know that start with the letter. If some learners say ‘nonsense’ words, encourage it! But be sure to label them as nonsense words. The important thing is that they make the connection between the sound the letter makes.
3. Name familiar items that begin with the letter – animals, food, names, colours, objects. Anything of their interest. Can you also find some in your learning environment?
4. Talk about how the feature letter is the same or different from other letters. For instance, help your learners see that ‘a’ has a circle like ‘g’, but has no ‘tail’. For some groups of learners, this may be best to do after you have introduced a few letters.

During Reading

The book you choose has two jobs. It will expose your learners to the world of reading, and it will be a resource to help you with teaching the alphabet.

The first time you introduce an alphabet book, just simply read the book. Not only will this allow your learners to enjoy the story, but they will also get familiar with the language in the book.

This is important, so don’t skip this step.

The less ‘friction’ a learner feels while learning a new letter, (or any concept really) the better. If its too hard to begin with, it will be too much of challenge and they will become overwhelmed.

So simply reading the story will allow your learner to become more familiar and have a foundation to begin with. Once you have established this, any extensions of the activity will be coming from a place of familiarity.

Use these three tips to get more out of your story when teaching the alphabet:

1. Re-read the story multiple times over a series of days. Each time you re-read the story, ask your learners to listen for your featured letter. Have your learners signal to you every time they hear a word that begins with your featured letter. They can do this in numerous ways. be creative. The simplest is encouraging them to hold up letter cards (that they have made) each time the hear the letter. This will also help you to quickly assess each learner’s phonemic awareness.
2. After a few readings of the story, encourage your learners to join in on predictable words. If they also begin with the feature word, don’t forget to point it out. This can be so much fun! You’ll quickly see how excited learners get when they see how many words they know!
3. If your book has a lot of detailed pictures, ask your learners to look closely to see what objects they can find that begins with the featured letter.

After Reading

Extend the learning with a series of fun activities that help to teach the alphabet:

1. Play a sound game

If your featured letter is p, say the sound for p, and then say a word that starts with p. Make sure to stretch out and repeat the initial sounds as much as you can. For example, ppppppail. Can your learners say other words that have the same beginning sound? Like… pppppat, pppppeach, pppppizza, pppppickeles, or pppppancakes? Make sure to encourage them to stretch out the sound too!

2. Create a learning centre

At the learning centre, your learner can gain additional hands-on experience writing the letter, and practice recognizing the letter. Use alphabet mazes, letter formation activities, or even sensory letter tiles. Repetition is important for retention.

3. Set-up an invitation to decorate

Create an art area with shoe boxes (ask family members to donate) and a variety of art materials. Use construction paper, string, craft letters, glitter glue, and more. Allow your learners to decorate their ‘Alphabet Box’. In the box they can house any letter cards they have made or small letter crafts. They can keep returning to their box again and again.

4. Encourage the learning at home!

Let family members know what letter your working on. Ask them to look around their home or community while outdoors for more words that begin with the featured letter. Learners and their family members can write their words on a recording sheet together, but encourage family members to allow their learners to write the words themselves. In this case and stage of learning, the process is much more important than the product. Also encourage family members to read more books that they may have at home, or access to that includes the featured letter.

5. Do the Alpha Cheer!

Create Alpha Cheer Cards. Cheer cards are useful to get your learners really involved through music and movement. Practice reading the original cheer, and as you learn more words that begin with the featured letter, allow them to create new cheers!

Give each learner their own cheer card that they can decorate and house in their ‘Alphabet Box.’

Write the cheer on chart or poster paper while leaving blanks for each word that begins with your featured letter. Can your learners fill them in together?

Get the instruments out, make megaphones with rolled up paper, and create a marching band while saying the alpha cheer! It may get loud, but that’s what laughing and learning is all about. Annnnd if you’re in a school, your principal or director will hear all the learning happening in your class! 🙂

Follow these guidelines for before, during, and after reading while teaching the alphabet and you will make the most impact with your little learners.