1. Overview of Letter Names and Sounds

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Teacher Carla Miller: [music] We're just going to say the name of the letter and the sound. Are you ready?

Carla Miller and Students: 'G', /g/. 'Y', /y/. ['Y' sound is garbled.]

Teacher Carla Miller: Okay, let's do that one more time.

Carla Miller and Students: 'Y', /y/. 'E', /ĕ/.

Teacher Carla Miller: Long sound.

Carla Miller and Students: /Ē/.

Teacher Carla Miller: Good.

Carla Miller and Students: 'Q', 'u', /kw/.

Teacher Carla Miller: Rule.

Carla Miller and Students: 'Q' and 'u' are stuck like glue.

Teacher Carla Miller: So good. [music]

A Guide for Teaching the Letters and Sounds

For each phoneme, students should learn the grapheme, how to make the sound, a keyword, and letter formation. This guide includes support for teaching these components and is sequenced in an order comparable to many scope and sequences found in reading programs.

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Morgan Walton: Often our students will add /ǔ/ to the end of sounds. When they do that, it actually turns that one sound into two sounds. For example, /c/ becomes /c/ which is /c/ and /ǔ/. If the word is cat, but students decode the word /c/, /a/, /t/ when they blend the sounds together, the word will be /c/, /a/, /ta/, which is not a recognizable word. So, I'm going to show you a simple, easy tip to help remind students to clip those sounds. Whenever you say sounds that students often add the /ǔ/ to, such as /tǔ/, /dǔ/, /lǔ/, and /pǔ/, teach students to use the imaginary scissors to clip the sound. (She makes a scissor clipping motion with two fingers.). /T/, /d/, /l/, /p/. If you practice this with students consistently, it'll become more natural to say those correct sounds without needing the scissor reminder.

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Monica Peevyhouse: Boys and girls, we're going to work on dictation. I want you to put everything away.

Student: I love that!

Monica Peevyhouse: I know. And get out your pencil. I'm going to have you say a sound, and then I'm going to have you write the letter that spells the sound. Everybody say /f/. What letter spells …?

Students: ‘F’!

Monica Peevyhouse: Very good.

Student: Lowercase or uppercase?

Monica Peevyhouse: We're going to write lowercase … lowercase when we do dictation. We're going to start in the middle of the fence line and the skyline. We're going to go up towards the sky, then curve down to the ground, and we're going to cross at the fence. I want you to move to the second line. And we'll write some more sounds. Everybody say /h/.

Students: /h/.

Monica Peevyhouse: Here we go. I start high in the sky, all the way to the ground. Trace back up.

Everybody say /ŏ/.

Students: /ŏ/.

Monica Peevyhouse: How do we spell /ŏ/?

Students: ‘O'!

Monica Peevyhouse: With an 'o’. Make sure you give yourself a little space. Everybody, I want you to say the sound /a/.

Students: /a/.

Monica Peevyhouse: How do we spell /a/?

Students: ‘A’!

Monica Peevyhouse: With an 'a’. Make sure we give ourselves a little space. Everybody say the sound /m/.

Students: /m/.

Monica Peevyhouse: How do we spell /m/?

Students: ‘M’!

Monica Peevyhouse: With an 'm’. Let's write 'm'. Can we try that one more time? Okay. We have to make sure that we keep our curves underneath the fence line. I want you to start right there. So come straight down to the ground and trace back up. Curve under that fence line. Okay. Trace back up and curve under the fence line. Very good, sister. Good job. Hey, everybody say /t/.

Students: /t/.

Monica Peevyhouse: How do we spell /t/?

Student: ‘T’.

Monica Peevyhouse: With a 't’? Very good. Will you write the letter 't'? Make sure we give ourselves some space. Okay, everybody, you did such a great job. Give your brain a kiss.

Monica Peevyhouse: Say "Love you, brain. Love you, brain.”

Students: Love you, brain!

Narrator: 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 Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and two anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington D.C., the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.

Monica Peevyhouse: I'm Monica Peevyhouse, and this is Reading Universe.