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Learning the Alphabet
Why begin with the alphabet?
Throughout history, children have always begun with the alphabet when
learning to read. Once they knew the names of the letters, they learned their
sounds, and began blending them into syllables and then words.
Susanna Wesley describes teaching her own children:
The way of teaching was this: the day before a child began to learn, the
house was set in order, every ones work appointed them, and a charge given
that no one should come into the room from nine to twelve, or from two to
five, which were our school hours. One day was allowed the child wherein to
learn its letters, and each of them did in that time know all its letters,
great and small, except Molly and Nancy, who were a day and a half before
they knew them perfectly, for which I thought them then very dull; but the
reason I thought them so was because the rest learned them so readily; and
your brother Samuel, who was the first child I ever taught, learned the
alphabet in a few hours. He was five years old the tenth of February; the
next day we began to learn, and as soon as he knew the letters, began at the
first chapter of Genesis. He was taught to spell the first verse, then to
read it over and over until he could read it off-hand without hesitation; so
on, to the second verse, etc., till he took ten verses for a lesson, which
he quickly did. Easter fell low that year, and by Whitsuntide he could read
a chapter very well; for he read continually, and had such a prodigious
memory, that I cannot remember to have told him the same word twice. What
was yet stranger, any word he had learnt in his lesson he knew wherever he
saw it, either in his Bible or any other book, by which means he learned
very soon to read an English author well.
(Quoted in Charlotte Mason, Home Education, p. 199-200)
Some people have the idea that if children are taught the names of the
letters, rather than their sounds, they will become unnecessarily confused. I
would disagree. Children are no more confused by the fact that the
letter-symbols have both names ("ay", "bee", "cee") and sounds (/a/ as in "at",
/b/ as in "ball", /k/ as in "cat") than by the fact that a dog has a name
("dog"), but makes a distinct sound ("woof"). In fact, from experience, I have
found that children rather enjoy the feeling of superiority that goes with being
admitted to this kind of adult knowledge.
Teaching the alphabet at the outset also means that we do not have to go back
to it two or three years later later, in order to develop those dreaded
dictionary skills. Our own children begin developing dictionary skills long
before they can read with any degree of fluency. As soon as they start asking
the meanings of words in their phonics lessons, they are shown how to look them
up in a children's dictionary. Initially they are unlikely to be able to read
the definition, but they are learning a skill which will stand them in good
stead for the rest of their life!
How to Teach the Alphabet
Here are some suggestions which have worked for us:
Choose one or two of the following activities to do each day. Children will
usually have great fun with this, but if they baulk (especially if they are
younger), leave it until another day, Once the child knows all or most of
the letters, he is ready to begin learning to read.
 | Singing the alphabet and vowel songs Either make up your own,
or use these:
 | Alphabet
song (from the National Institute of Environmental Health Science
(NIEHS). |
| Vowel song
(from the National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS). |
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| Learning the sounds of the letters Make a game of it, or sing a
song. ("A says /a/ like in Alison", "E says /e/ like in elephant", and so
on). Our children love to use the names of people they know for the sounds
of the letters. |
| Alphabet flash cards Make your own, buy them, or print from a
site such as
Jan Brett's. |
| Alphabet chart Young children may enjoy helping to make their
own. Alternatively buy one from an educational supply store or the local
newsagents, then use it to practise the letters. |
| Alphabet blocks (see the photograph above).
This has been the best resource we have ever used for teaching/learning the
alphabet. One of our sons made the blocks from wooden off-cuts, and I used a
marker pen to write the letters on them (blue for upper-case letters, red
for lower-case, and black for the printed forms of "a" and "g"). The board
is an old game board which I covered with coloured strips of paper and then
put contact over the top. Our preschoolers love these blocks, and one of
them insists on doing his alphabet every day, whether anyone else is "doing
school" or not! |
| Alphabet books There are many good alphabet books, but the one
I like best for teaching the alphabet is Dr Seusss ABC.
(Incidentally, we changed the last line in this: instead of "I am a Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz, as you can plainly see", our version goes "I am a Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz, and I'm lying on my bed".) |
| Alphabet jigsaw puzzles Lauri make some good crepe rubber ones.
These are available from various educational supply companies, including the
Timberdoodle. |
| Tracing (or copying) letters of the alphabet
| Write the letters on a sheet of paper for children to trace over.
Have them use pencil, texta, chalk, crayon... |
| Make up your own tracing pages on the computer. |
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ReadyWriter provides practice in "stylus skills" the basic strokes
with which letters are written. This may be purchased in Australia
through Kingsley Educational Pty Ltd. |
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Jan Brett has three different styles of Alphabet Colouring Tracers
(traditional manuscript, modern manuscript, and cursive). |
| Donna Young has a
number of Penmanship resources, including printing readiness sheets,
manuscript, and cursive pages. |
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| Matching upper and lower-case letters and identifying them Use
the alphabet blocks and board for this. |
Copyright © Ruth Marshall 2005
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