10. Resource Hub: Teaching Letter Names and Sounds

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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.

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Morgan Walton: When we teach our students how to make sounds, it's really helpful to offer cues that help them to see, hear, and feel how the sound is produced. We can also use these cues to correct any sounds that are mispronounced. I'm going to model how to teach the sound of the letter 'b' using these cues. 'B' spells the sound /b/. We call /b/ a lip popping sound because when we say it, we keep our mouth closed and our lips together until they pop open with a burst of air as the sound is made. Let's all say that lip popping sound, /b/. When we say /b/, the voice box is turned on and it feels like we have a motor in our throat. Touch your throat while you say the sound /b/. Do you feel that vibration? Hear how quickly we pronounce the sound /b/. It's a sound that we need to clip off so we don't say /u/ at the end. Let's practice the clipping sound, /b/. OK. What sound does 'b' spell? /b/

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Alison Ellis: All right, Jax, how are you doing today, buddy?

Jax: Good.

Alison Ellis: Good. Okay. We're going to go over some of these letters and you're going to tell me the name of the letter today. All right?

Narrator: Today reading interventionist Alison Ellis is giving a quick one-minute assessment to first grader Jax to monitor his progress in naming letters automatically and correctly.

Alison Ellis: Alright, I'm ready when you are.

Jax: Ready. 'A', 'f', 'g', 'y' ...

Narrator: This is a skill they've been working on in their intervention block because letter naming is associated with proficient reading. As Jax reads the letters, Ms. Ellis records how he's doing.

Jax: 'A', 'm', 'g', 't', 'u', 'e' ...

Narrator: When Jax is done, Ms. Ellis will give him immediate positive feedback and share his results.

Jax: 'C', 'n', 'j', 'v' ...

Alison Ellis: Alright, we're going to stop there. Good job. So you read 43 words today or letters, excuse me. Okay, so we are going to talk about if we've made progress since the last time we did that. And so the last time we did that, you in one minute, you read all the way up to 37. And then what did I just say you did today? You remember what I said?

Jax: No.

Alison Ellis: 43. So did you make progress? Yes, you did. You did better today than you did last time. So we're going to go past that 40 mark on this second bar and we're going to color that all the way up to that mark.

Narrator: They use a bar graph to record how many letters he named accurately. This helps both of them see his growth and keep track of his progress. In the final part of this assessment session, Ms. Ellis will talk through each error with Jax, giving him time to think about each letter he missed and make corrections. This time and conversation are key because Jax is included in developing his own reading skills.

Alison Ellis: Good job. You made progress, buddy. Oh, right. So this is a letter that you got confused on. And what is the trick that we learned about recognizing our 'b' from our 'd'? We make our bed (Jax holds up his 'b' finger and his 'd ' finger ). So, what is this letter right here?

Jax: 'B'.

Alison Ellis: It is a 'b'. Good job. Okay, and then you got this one right here, but you stalled. That means you had to think about it for just a second. And this is a capital 'c'. That's a capital 'c'. And then the lowercase 'c' looks just the same, only a little smaller. Okay, so those are both 'c's, right?

Narrator: Jax is learning that accuracy, which is naming the letter correctly, and the rate, which is naming the letter without stalling, are equally important to becoming a skilled reader. Ms. Ellis will use the data gathered during this assessment for future lessons with Jax.

Alison Ellis: You did a lot better than you did last time. Thanks, Jax. Have a good day.

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.

Alison Ellis: I am Alison Ellis, and this is Reading Universe.