Letter of the week?

The manner in which we expose children to phonics and reading in early years is a very debated topic. I have been in many different early childhood classrooms, and I have witnessed many different methods of exposing children to literacy. Waldorf schools are known for introducing children to letters at a later age than most schools. They generally spend early years engaging students in conversations and different forms of storytelling to strengthen their comprehension skills. Students are introduced to letters as they become interested in letters and words. I have also been in preschool classrooms where 3- and 4-year olds are introduced to a weekly letter, and everything revolves around that letter in all subjects. Some teachers refer to this as cross-curricular instruction, but how is the study of one letter of the alphabet strengthening a child’s knowledge in other subject areas?

Susan B. Neuman wrote an article titled, N is for Nonsensical, where she describes her experience observing an “exemplary” preschool classroom in an inner-city public school. She describes the instruction of the letter N in this classroom. The students learn the letter, and do many small activities with the letter N. They are seen reciting the schedule and the days of the week, and answering questions in unison. Neuman explains that the students’ minds are not properly engaged during this type of instruction. Although a classroom like this one may look good from a behavioral standpoint, when are the students able to generate their own knowledge based on their experiences? They are not being given the opportunity to discover information for themselves. When students are genuinely interested in what they are learning, they are more likely to retain the information. At the end of the article, Neuman describes a classroom in which the students are thoroughly engaged in their learning. The classroom that she describes shows many qualities of the project-based learning approach. In this approach, the teacher assists the students in identifying a topic to explore, and he or she facilitates this exploration. Through this type of instruction, students can gain knowledge based on real-life experiences. Their exposure to letters and letter sounds will be much more authentic, and therefore will make a more lasting impact.

In previous years in my classroom, I have tried to use mostly project-based instruction, but have used flash cards for letter recognition at times. This year, I have not explicitly taught letters in isolation without a specific context. I discuss letters and letter sounds in the morning message on a daily basis, and the students complete writing activities during science and math time where they are encouraged to use their knowledge of letter sounds to create words, but are given assistance when appropriate. Students with very little knowledge of letter-sound correspondence are able to dictate their thoughts to me, and I am able to write them as I discuss each word, letter, and letter sound. In small groups of four students during literacy instruction, students are introduced to phonics while writing as well, but they are given much more assistance. The progress my students have made this year in phonics has been extraordinary without any isolated letter recalling. I can see that students are remembering letters and words because of their interest in a previous project or assignment. This type of instruction allows for more flexibility, and ultimately less preparation for teachers. More teachers need to learn the dangers of having children only recite and recall information for understanding. Susan B. Neuman explains that in order to reduce the knowledge gap of low-income students, “we need to encourage children to question, discover, evaluate, and use higher order thinking skills” (Neuman, 2006.)

Also read this very informative blog post on the topic here: http://www.pre-kpages.com/lotw/.

Neuman, Susan B., (2006). N is for Nonsensical. Educational Leadership. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sbneuman/pdf/nisfornonsense.pdf