New Insights About Letter Learning By Katherine Stahl

901 Words2 Pages

Do you remember, how you learn your alphabet and the letter sounds? Or which one did you learn first, their names or their sounds? According to the article “New insights about letter learning” by Katherine Stahl it all depends where you grow up. If you grow up in North America you are more likely to know your letter names before their sounds, if you grew up in England you are more likely to know letters sounds before their names. Teaching the alphabet it includes giving children the knowledge of being able to identify letter and letter sounds and as well how to form letters.

In the article it discuss that for North America students it will be confusing to refer to the letter only by their sounds. There was a study done in Virginia were students were taught letter names and letter sounds and another group were they was taught only letter sounds. This study concluded that North American student to refer only the letters by their sounds was not normal and confusing. As well that students should be taught both, their letter sounds and their names and how to apply this skill while reading and writing.

One method that was discussed in the article that teacher use in their classroom is the letters of the –week approach. “Teacher provides children with practice in recognizing, forming and making the sound correspondence of a single letter thought out the week.” ( ) Research have shown the only problem with this is that some letter student will already know and wouldn’t need so much practice unlike other letter they might need a longer time to learn them. Usually letter that involves their first name they would recognize right away. Other letters that students don’t usually use it will be harder for them to recogn...

... middle of paper ...

... which was using the letter of the week approach. I personally don’t think I would use this approach because I believe it would take up a lot of learning time from letters that really need to be taught. While I observed I notice that some letter really didn’t need a whole week to work on since they probably have always seen it or use it. Unlike letters that are barely use, does are the letters that need more time to work on. It’s hard to come up with a lesson that will help all your student and address their specific needs.

In conclusion, there are some methods that the article stated that I would use in my future classroom. Honestly, probably would have to try different methods and see which one works best for students. Making sure that every student learn the alphabet and letter sounds and to learn how to apply this skills to their writing and reading.

Open Document