I have a tutoring student this summer who just finished kindergarten. While doing our beginning assessments, I noticed this student had a hard time remembering the letter U. Each time the letter u is encountered, they say /yee/ or the sound for the letter y. This tells me two things right away to drive my instruction:
- We need to work on letter u automaticity
- We need to work on letter y automaticity
The letter u is a pretty obvious start, but why y? Because if the student was automatic with the letter y, they would recognize that u is not that letter and not use it’s sound when looking at a u.
This is a pretty specific example, but the truth is a lot of students within this grade level range (kinder to the beginning of first grade) struggle with the same exact skill, which is letter automaticity.
Automaticity refers to how accurate the student is at giving the letter name and sound + how quickly they are able to retrieve that information. In order to become a fluent reader, students need to have the information stored correctly (linking the right sound to the right letter/s) and be able to say the sounds right away.
So How do we Fix it?
If students are not able to recall the sounds of letters instantly, they will have a hard time learning to read. This makes sense, right? If a student cannot remember the letter a, words like cat, cap, can, and + so many more will be unreadable. This means we have to make sure letter sounds are sticking for good.
It isn’t as complicated as it may seem, because research has told us what pieces we need to add to our phonics lessons in order to make them stick, but sometimes there is a disconnect between research, practice, and making sure teachers know what the best practice is! That’s why I’m sharing this now. A step-by-step walkthrough on how to teach letters so they stick.
Teach Both Uppercase and Lowercase Formation
When we are teaching students sounds and letters, we want to make sure we are using both the uppercase and lowercase formation. Both formations will be encountered in print and both need to be mastered in order to reach letter automaticity, so teach them both simultaneously. Along with teaching both the uppercase and lowercase letters, we want to draw specific attention to how each letter is actually formed. When introducing the letter, it can be helpful to show them on handwriting lines. This draws specific attention to the differences between uppercase and lowercase letters and helps students to connect the sound their learning to the letter form they will see when reading.
Teach the letter name AND the letter sound
This seems to be a debate between educators as to which is better- the name or the sound. The answer actually appeases both side of the argument! BOTH the letter name and the letter sound are important when making learning stick. This means we need to teach both of those letter characteristics to our students, and we should teach them at the same time.
Add a Picture
Research (linked above) has shown us that adding a picture key to letter sounds is highly beneficial for helping students develop alphabet automaticity. Specifically, we know that embedded mnemonics is extremely helpful for allowing students to master sounds their matching letters.
I’ve added these simple alphabet introduction cards into my free resource library. You can sign up below!
Continuous Review
As with many aspects of education and learning to read, we cannot do all of the previously listed activities once, move on, and expect students to master the skill. Research tells us that 4-6 weeks of continuous review is necessary for learning to truly stick, which means we need to constantly review previously taught letter names and sounds with our students.
I am linking you to a previous blog post I wrote about the warm up drills we complete in class each day to make sure we are continuously reviewing previously learned information. I go into a lot of detail, so if you’re interested in how this can be an easy addition to the start of your phonics lessons-check it out here!
Connect Letters and Sounds to Reading and Spelling
The purpose of learning our letter names and sounds is to allow students to read and spell. Because this is the end goal, we need to quickly tie our alphabetic knowledge to words. If you have taught the letter a and the letter t, then students should be practicing reading and spelling the word at. When you teach the letter “p”, students should be reading and spelling words like at, ap, pat, and tap. Add in the letter s and students can now practice reading and spelling words like at, ap, pat, tap, sat, and sap.
In my opinion, this is the most underrated part of making learning stick, especially in students entering first grade. When we teach letters without applying them to reading and writing, we are separating the skill for its entire purpose! The reason we learn letters and sounds is to read and spell, and we need to explicitly bridge the two skills together for our students.
Lesson Application
Now back to my summer tutoring student. I am going to walk you through an example lesson tackling the letter u and y confusion to give you a real time sneak peek into how I teach letters to make them stick.
Introduction
I start by introducing the letter name and the letter sound while showing a picture of the letter. I always show the letters on handwriting lines to reinforce those size and shape differences.
Teacher says “Today we are going to learn/review a letter. This is the letter U. When we see the letter U we say /uh/ like the first sound in up. We are going to practice together! Say it with me like this “U spells /uh/.””
Hand Motions
I also like to connect the letter sound to a kinesthetic motion. For the u sound you might point up to the sky to remember the key picture. This is so silly, and some people won’t like it, but I like to do a soft gut punch. When we hit our stomach, we say /uh/. It sounds silly, but it really works!
If a student gets stuck on a sound while trying to recall, I will sometimes do the motion without saying a sound. This is a scaffold to help kickstart the retrieval process without giving the answer.
Letter Formation
We spend time after our introduction looking at the formation of each letter. The green dot (seen above) helps us to see where the letter starts. During this time I will explicitly tell students how to write the letter on the handwriting lines.
Teacher says “When I write an uppercase U I start at the top line. I pull my pencil down past the dotted line. Before I get to the bottom line I am going to curve my line over, touch the bottom, then curve up and back to the top.”
Then I will give students time to practice with my help and on their own (while I am watching). Then we practice the lowercase letter.
Teacher says “When I write a lowercase U I start at the dotted line. I pull my pencil down, but before I get to the bottom I curve my pencil over, touch the bottom, curve up and back to the dotted line.”
I again give time to practice with me and on their own. If you’re not sure what to say to help students, start with these Peterson Handwriting Prompts!
Connecting it all together
While we are practicing the letter formation, whether we are tracing or writing, I have students say the letter name/sound simultaneously. If we are tracing the letter U with our finger, we are also says “U says/spells /uh/”. This is just a very simple way to help connect these three points (name, sound, and formation) together.
Connecting to Reading and Spelling
This is where the meat of our lesson lies. We spend the majority of our time using the new/reviewed information in the context of reading and writing.
Reading Word Lists/Sentences/Stories
These activities can vary in look, but all serve the same purpose. Students are spending time reading words containing the focus sound and letter, connecting all of the pieces together for their purpose. Below are some examples of reading activities you may do with your student(s).
If I have a student with a specific letter or letters we are working to master, I will pull up a google doc, type words that contain the letters we need, print, and have the student read them. It doesn’t have to be fancy to be effective!
I am also linking one of my favorite word reading games. It is called “Got It” and there are word reading cards for a variety of skills! *This is an affiliate link.
Roll and Reads
This is a type of word list reading, but it adds an element of fun to the lesson. The University of Florida Literacy Institute has a variety of roll and reads available for free. I have also linked a free roll and read template for you HERE. What I love about creating your own roll and read is the ability to specifically choose words (or letters) to match the needs of your student(s). In the roll and read shown above, I chose words with the letter U and the letter Y to target that specific student learning goal.
Word Chaining
In this activity, students are starting by spelling a word using tiles or by writing on their own. Then, the teacher asks the students to change one sound/letter in the word to create a brand new word. For example, a student might start by spelling the word up. Then, the teacher asks the student to change the word up to the word cup. In order to do this, the student must add a c to the beginning of their word. Next, the teacher may as the student to change the word cup to the word cut. In order to do this, the student would need to erase the p and replace it with a t.
This activity is hard to show in a picture, so I am adding in an Instagram video giving you a sneak peek at a word chaining routine with my son.
Sound Sorting
I love doing sound sorting activities with students because they are so versatile but so high impact! Similar to word chaining, students are using their knowledge of both sounds and letters to complete this activity. One way I complete sound sorts with students is by giving them picture cards or items to sort by beginning, middle, or ending sound into one of the a few categories that I choose. The categories match the specific student learning goal (in this case I would choose letter U, Letter Y, and possibly other letters to review).
Because this student is missing a short vowel sound, I also complete a vowel intensive. In this drill, the student has some way to identify all of the vowels (letters on sticks, vowel index card tents, or simply written at the top of their whiteboard). I say a word, the student listens for the vowel sound within the word and grabs/points to the visual representation of the vowel sound. If i say the word “cup” the student grabs or points to the letter U. If I say the word “cat” the student grabs or points to the letter A.
Word Sorting
This is yet again a very similar activity to the ones listed above (with slight variations) that is easily adapted to whatever skill you need. I start by writing words on index cards or on a whiteboard that fit into specific categories (ex. words with the letter u and words with the letter y). Students read the words and sort them into the correct category.
Whiteboard Spelling
This is probably one of the most underrated activities for helping letters and sounds really stick. Writing on whiteboard (specifically when you follow the method I am about to share) is another high leverage activity that connects all the pieces together for you. At the beginning of the year or session, I always teach my students a specific routine for spelling words. First, I say the word and students repeat it. We make sure we all have heard the word correctly. Then, we tap the sounds. This is a student friendly way to say we are segmenting the sounds within a word. If the word is “bag” we would hold up one finger when we say the /b/ sound, another finger for the /a/ sound, and a third finger for the /g/ sound. Next, we write a line on our board for each of the sounds we hear in the word. For this example, we would draw three lines. Finally, we go back through the word sound by sound and write the letter that represents the sounds we hear. For the first line we write a b because the /b/ sound is represented with a b.
This seems very tedious and time consuming. Honestly, it is for the first few sessions; HOWEVER, students quickly begin to recognize the routine and we go through each piece seamlessly. The best part? We quickly fade out of the teacher dialogue during spelling and students use these steps as needed to spell words on their own. We are reinforcing that all words are made of sounds and if we can identify the sounds we can spell the word.
Think about your students who miss a blend sound or misspell a long vowel for a short vowel. If we reinforce the process of sounds first, we are always adding in a student check point while spelling. It also reinforces the sound and letter formation through repeated practice.
Alphabet Arc Activities
There is nothing special about the arc shape, but there is something special about using a printed alphabet for teaching letters so they stick. An example of an alphabet arc is pictured below if you’ve never seen one before. I love using the alphabet arc when teaching or reviewing letters. There are so many activities you can plan using this resource!
One of my favorite activities is to call out letter names or sounds and have students either circle the letter that matches or place a colored chip over it. Shameless plug…I am partial to my alphabet arc (they are a freebie linked here) because of the Elkonin boxes. After students identify the letter, I have them write it in the box. Yet again, we are connecting sound to letter formation in multiple ways and reinforcing the skill over and over without just skilling and drilling.
When we are spelling words, I have the students follow the same steps I listed above, but instead of writing lines I have the student(s) cover the letters with chips. Then, the student used the Elkonin boxes to write the word.
Conclusion
Below I am going to share a sneak peek at all the steps to the lesson I completed with my online kindergarten tutoring student. Remember- this is just one option from a variety of choices you can make to completely customize lessons to match your students needs. Here is a simple rule of thumb for each lesson:
- Warm Up Activities
- Intro/Review
- We do application activity (alphabet arc, sound sorting, word sorting)
- Reading Practice
- Spelling Practice
And there you have it. A practical, step-by-step lesson on how to teach (or review) letters so they stick. If I can leave you with just one final comment, it would be this- do not underestimate how much time you spend practicing. The most important piece after you’ve given the content is allowing students to dive in and use the skill themselves. Please drop any questions below in the comments or find me on Instagram @hughesheartforfirst and send me a message!
Are you looking for an activity that makes it easy for you to implement these practices into your letter lessons? I get it! I was looking for something that tied all the pieces together in one resource. That is why I created my Alphabet Review Resource! I am posting a walk through video, showing you the slideshow and student worksheet you can use while teaching or reviewing letters and sounds. The resource is apart of my alphabet teaching bundle on TPT- linked here. If you signed up for my free resource library, you will also find a sample of the alphabet activity pack.
