Sound-letter correspondence is the first phonics skill we teach.
When we teach students letters, we start our lessons by showing how to connect a letter sound (something they already know from oral language) with the visual representation of the letter — going from speech to print. Then, we help them practice writing the letter correctly. By the end of the lesson, your students should be able to recognize, read, and write the letter!
In a lesson on reviewing a new letter and sound, you might show the letter ‘f’ and say,
This is the letter ‘f’. It makes the /f/ sound.
Say it with me: /f/.
What sound does ‘f’ make?
When we see the letter ‘f’, we say /f/ as in fish.
Holding up your illustrated keyword flash card for ‘f’, model for children how to read it. Say the letter name, keyword, and sound.
‘f’, fish, /f/
Let’s Watch! Kindergarten teacher Monica Peevyhouse, of Prather-Brown Center in Frederick, Oklahoma, models how to explicitly teach the letter ‘f’.
Produced by Reading Universe, a partnership of WETA, Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book
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Monica Peevyhouse: Okay, we're going to learn a new sound today.
Narrator: Kindergarten teacher Monica Peevy house is introducing a new letter today, the letter 'f'. She'll go through steps that she'll repeat every time she introduces another new letter.
Monica Peevyhouse: Our new sound today is /f/. Say /f/ ...
Student(s): /F/
Monica Peevyhouse: Okay. Very good.
Narrator: She begins by saying the new letter's sound and having students try it on their own.
Monica Peevyhouse: Let's make that sound again. /F/. (Ms. Peevyhouse and the students make the sound together.) Is this a voice sound or an uninvoice?
Student(s): Unvoice.
Monica Peevyhouse: It's off. Our voice box is not moving. It's an unvoiced sound. Okay, so we don't need our voice for it. Say /f/ ...
Student(s): /F/
Monica Peevyhouse: Okay. What is our mouth doing? Where are our teeth?
Student(s): Right here, on the bottom ... (they touch their lower lips).
Monica Peevyhouse: On the bottom lip. Our teeth are touching our bottom lip.
Narrator: Talking about how the sound is made and what your mouth looks and feels like when you make it, helps students get the hang of pronouncing it.
Monica Peevyhouse: It continues. We can make this sound for as long as we have breath. If you have breath for a hundred hours. Okay. Let's see how long we can go real quick.
Student(s): /Ffffff/
Monica Peevyhouse: Okay. Very good. Very good. Okay. I'm going to give you some words. Okay? Some of them are going to begin with the sound /f/ and I want you to give me a thumbs up. If it does not, I want you to cover your mouth. Okay. Here we go. Say fire.
Student(s): Fire
Monica Peevyhouse: Does fire begin with /f/? I should see thumbs up. Good job. Okay, say fork.
Student(s): Fork.
Monica Peevyhouse: Does fork begin with /f/?
Narrator: Playing with words in this way provides an opportunity for students to both hear the sound in words and practice producing the sound themselves.
Monica Peevyhouse: Say flipper.
Student(s): Flipper.
Monica Peevyhouse: Does flipper begin with /f/? 9Students hold up their thumbs to respond yes.) Very good. Very, very good. Okay. Our letter that represents the sound /f/ is an 'f'. Very good. It is an 'f'. Okay. This is our uppercase 'F'
Student(s): And our lowercase 'f'.
Monica Peevyhouse: And our lowercase 'f'. Let's sing our alphabet until we find the letter 'f'. Okay. Here we go. (They all sing the alphabet song together). 'A', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f' ... Oh, we found it. Okay. What letter comes before 'f'?
Student(s): 'E'
Monica Peevyhouse: 'E'. Very good. Okay. What letter comes after 'f'?
Student(s): 'G'
Monica Peevyhouse: 'G'. Very good. And what sound does 'f' represent?
Student(s): /F/
Monica Peevyhouse: Very, very good. Here we go. We're going to learn to write the letter 'f', uppercase 'F'. Watch me. We're going to start in the sky and we're going to come straight down to the ground. We're going to come back up to the sky and go across. Then we're going to come to the fence line and go across. Okay. Now I want you to do this with me. This time when we write it, I want you to air write it and I want you to say the sound.
Student(s): /F/ (the students use their fingers to write the letter 'f' in the air).
Monica Peevyhouse: Very good. Now we're going to do lowercase 'f'. We're going to start right here In between the fence and the sky, we're going to curve up towards the sky and then come down to the ground and we'll cross this at the fence. I want you to air write it or write it on the carpet with me this time.
Narrator: Demonstrating how to write the letter on paper while students practice tracing it in the air, not only teaches the letter's formation, it also lays the groundwork for the next step in their journey with this new letter ... dictation.
Monica Peevyhouse: Very good.
Narrator: Enjoyed this video? Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel @RUTeaching. For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to Prather-Brown Center, Frederick Public Schools, and the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the American Federation of Teachers, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and three anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington, DC, the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.
Monica Peevyhouse: I'm Monica Peevy House and this is Reading Universe.
Think about these questions:
Does Ms. Peevyhouse model the letter and sound for students?
Does she ask students to say the letter and sound with her support?
Does she provide independent practice with the skill to see how well the students are learning it?
Paras Know!
Begin with Upper and Lower Case
When students are first learning the letters of the alphabet, we teach the upper and lowercase letters at the same time. In addition, when we teach students to write the letter, we teach them how to form the upper and lowercase letter. Once a letter has been explicitly taught and students have had multiple opportunities to practice naming and writing both the upper and lowercase letters, we shift our focus to representing sounds and words with only lowercase letters. That’s because we read and write lowercase letters much more often than we do uppercase letters.
After your lead teacher introduces a new letter, each student needs review and practice until they can read it independently with fluency. In this video, Ms. Peevyhouse works with students on a multisensory review of letter names and sounds using the Alphabet Arc, a colorful placemat for children to sound out and place letter tiles in alphabetical order.
Produced by Reading Universe, a partnership of WETA, Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book
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Monica Peevyhouse: Now we're going to do another activity with our alphabet arc. Some of our letters are missing. Okay, so we're going to place these where they go. Okay. Aurelius, it's your first letter.
Aurelius: 'I'
Monica Peevyhouse: What sound?
Aurelius: /ĭ/
Monica Peevyhouse: Okay, let's see. Where does that /i/ go?
Narrator: An alphabet arc is an engaging way to offer guided practice in sound-letter correspondence and /a/, /b/,/c/ order. Kindergarten teacher Monica Peeveyhouse asks each student to name their letter, give the letter sound, and place the letter on the arc.
Monica Peevyhouse: Okay, where does it go on her? Do you want to do this real quick? Say it with me.
Aurelius: /A,/ /b/, /c/, /d/ ...
Narrator: Singing the alphabet song while Ms. Peevyhouse points to each letter helps Tenny know where to place her letter.
Monica Peevyhouse: Okay, what letter is that?
Tenny: 'P'
Monica Peevyhouse: What sound is 'p'?
Tenny: /P/
Monica Peevyhouse: Okay. Very good. What letter comes after 'p'?
Aurelius: 'Q'
Monica Peevyhouse: 'Q'. What's that sound?
Aurelius: /Qwa/
Monica Peevyhouse: Very good.
Narrator: Enjoyed this video? Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel @RUTeaching. For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to Prather-Brown Center, Frederick Public Schools, and the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the American Federation of Teachers, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and three anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington, DC, the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.
Monica Peevyhouse: I'm Monica Peevyhouse and this is Reading Universe.
Think about your own students and consider how this activity might support their learning.
On the next page, you'll try out this strategies by practicing in a roleplay with a partner. Doing a roleplay like this helps you get comfortable before using the strategy in your classroom. It's a great way to make sure your students will learn phonics well with your help!
