Moving Away from Letter of the Week: Enhancing When I saw a - PDF document

That’s Me!!! Moving Away from Letter of the Week: Enhancing ● When I saw a statement that is true to you, stand up and Alphabet Knowledge say, “That’s Me!” ● Notice others in the room who stand up with you. Jennifer Jansen Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency Research Workshop Objectives ● Early alphabet knowledge is one of the single best predictors of eventual Participants will be able to: literacy achievement (National Early Literacy Panel, 2000 & 2008, Whitehurst & Lonigan, 2002) ● Challenges in acquiring alphabet knowledge are indicative of later literacy ● Summarize the research on alphabet knowledge, difficulties (Snowling, Gallageher & Frith, 2003; Torppa, et. al, 2006) Discuss the effectiveness of traditional alphabet knowledge ● The benefits of alphabet instruction appear to extend beyond alphabet ● instruction methods, learning (Erhi et. al., 2001; National Early Literacy Panel, 2008) ● Children who can instantly and effortlessly recognize letters of the alphabet ● Identify the essential components of alphabet knowledge are able to focus their attention on the other literacy tasks (Hall & Moats, 1999) instruction, and By the end of a literacy-rich preschool program, a typical older 4-year-old can ● ● Summarize the elements of Enhancing Alphabet Knowledge often name at least 18-19 uppercase letters (US Department of Education, 2008) and instructional practice. 16-17 lowercase letters (Piasta, Petscher & Justice, 2012) Knowledge of Standards Think-Pair-Share ● How do you teach letter names ? Iowa Early Learning Standards, 3rd Edition (p.190) ○ What sequence ○ Instructional method or routine Standard 6.2.PS Children engage in early reading experiences. ○ Frequency – such as letter of the week Benchmarks: The child... ○ How much time for instruction? ● How do you teach letter sounds ? ● 6.2.PS.7 recognizes increasingly and names more of the letters in ● How do you teach writing letters ? their first and last names and letters they see frequently. ● 6.2.PS.8 recognizes most upper and lower case letters ● 6.2.PS.9 produces the sound of some of the letters she or he knows

Research - Traditional Approach to Teaching Research - Differences Across Letters Letters ● A one-size fits all approach is not effective ● Name Advantage ● Differences in children ● ABC Order ● Differences in letters ● Frequency ● Phonological awareness connection to alphabet ● Letter-Name Structure knowledge ● Visual Similarity ● Phonological Similarity and Pronunciation ● Multiple sounds McKay & Teale, 2015 Piasta, 2014 Jones, Clark, & Reutzel, 2012; McKay & Teale, 2015 Research: Recommended Practices for Essential Components in Alphabet Teaching Alphabet Knowledge Knowledge Instruction ● Exposure and practice ● Name ● Small-group instruction ● Shape (uppercase/lowercase) ● Multicomponent instruction ● Sound ● Order letters are taught ● Target Word ● Pace ● Mouth Shape ● Writing letter form A Case for Quality Target Words A Case for Quality Target Words ● Should have key sound, or one of the two key sounds, of ● Easy to depict the letter ○ For example, apple works well ○ For example, not A is for Arm ● Should not be something easily confused with another ● Should not start with a letter name item that begins with a different sound ○ For example, not E is for Elephan t ○ For example, b is for boat is problematic. Children ● Should not start with a blend because it's harder to may say, “ship” segment ● Likely to be known or easily learned by children ○ For example, not D is for Drum

A Case for Quality Target Words Enhancing Alphabet Knowledge Instruction Good Not so Good ● Brief, explicit lessons Cat Cake ● Multiple, distributed instructional cycles Octopus Orange Sock Shoe Turtle Truck Jones, Clark, & Reutzel, 2012 Enhancing Alphabet Knowledge Instruction EAK Lesson In Action ● Identifying letter name and letter sound ● Recognizing the letter in text ● Producing the letter form Handout: EAK Lesson Template Jones, Clark, & Reutzel, 2012 Enhancing Alphabet Knowledge Instructional Own Name Cycle Cycles ● Own Name Advantage ● Learning advantage for initial letter in first name ● Based on frequency of initial letters in class members names ● Alphabetical Order Advantage ● Highly motivating and responsive to children’s developmental needs ● Letter Name Letter Sound Advantage for constructing self-identity ● Letter Frequency Advantage ● Consonant Phoneme Acquisition Advantage ● Distinctive Visual Features Writing Advantage ● Handout: Overview of Instructional Cycles

Alphabetical Order Cycle Letter Name-Letter Sound Relationship Cycle ● Learning advantage for alphabet sequential order ● Learning advantage for letters that have the letter sound pronounced ● Begin with the letter a and ending with letter z in the letter name ● Prevalent instructional order in AK instruction, its important this is ● Begin with consonant letters that have the letter sound at the not the only organizational pattern for teaching letters beginning of the letter name ( b, d, j, k, p, t, v, z ), then consonant ● Possible serial effects leading to difficulty with letters in the middle letters that have the sound at the end of the letter name ( f, l, m, n, r, of the alphabet x ), then consonants with no letter/sound association ( h, q, w, y ), and finally letters with more than one sound ( c, g, s, a, e, i, o, u ) ● Instruction may proceed rapidly through the easier letters, allowing increased time for more difficult to learn letters Letter Frequency Cycle Consonant Phoneme Acquisition Order Cycle ● Learning advantage based upon letter frequency in environmental ● Learning advantage based upon normative, developmental order of print and other printed materials consonant phoneme acquisition ● Begins with the letters occurring less frequently in text to the more ● Begins with letters more frequently articulated and acquired earlier frequently occurring letters. ( o, e, i, a, u, p, m, h, n, w, b, c, k, g, d, t, f, y ) proceeding to letters for ○ Consonant letters least to most most frequent ( y, q, j, z, x, w, k, h, which children have less experience producing the sound ( r, l, s, z, j, g, v, f, b, m, p, d, c, l, s, n, t, r) v, q, x ) ○ Vowels least to most frequent ( u, o, e, a, i ) ● Teachers can use the normative developmental pattern to identify ● Goal is to increase focus on the letters more difficult to learn due to potential reasons for difficulty with particular letters and focus on the lack of frequency in print oral speech that uses the more difficult to learn letters Distinctive Visual Features Writing Cycle Distinctive Features Same Similar Different ● Learning advantage based upon the number of distinctive features in written letter forms Cc Oo Ff Ii A a Bb ● Letters with similar features presented in small clusters over several Pp Ss Jj Kk Dd Ee days or presentation of letters with fewer distinctive features over subsequent days Vv Ww Ll Mm Gg Hh ● Emphasis is on the critical distinctive features between similar Xx Zz Uu Tt Nn Qq letters Yy

Impact on Children’s Alphabet Knowledge Impact on Children’s Alphabet Knowledge Teacher A 2016-2017 Teacher A 2017-2018 Impact on Children’s Alphabet Knowledge Impact on Children’s Alphabet Knowledge Teacher B 2016-2017 Teacher B 2017-2018 Impact on Children’s Alphabet Knowledge Another Resource “Had to send you a picture to prove “5. Brief, clear, explicit instruction in letter names, the sound(s) associated with the how the letter a day is helping my letters, and how the letters are shaped and students. Some of my students formed (p. 3). have doubled their scores in letter identification!!!! I have never had this kind of growth in my 8 years of teaching preschool!”

Resources So now what? Jones, C. D.; Clark, S. K.., & Reutzel, D. R. (2012). Enhancing alphabet knowledge One thing you heard this morning that got you thinking. instruction: Research implications and practical strategies for early childhood Start Doing? educators. Early Childhood Education Journal , 41, 81-89. Michigan Association of Intermediate school Administrators General Education Keep Doing? Leadership Network Early Literacy Task Force. (2016). Essential instructional practices in early literacy: Prekindergarten. Lansing, MI: Authors. Stop Doing? McKay, R. & Teale, W. H. (2015). No more teaching a letter a week . Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Questions Contact Information Jennifer Jansen jjansen@mbaea.org