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Moving Away from Letter of the Week

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A Teachers.Net live chat meeting transcript from the chat archives…Kindergarten teachers debate the best ways to teach early literacy skills, focusing upon alternatives to Letter of the Week, what works better, and why.

Kathleen – Hi, I guess we can get started. The topic is “Moving Away From Letter of the Week – Why? How?” Let’s start with Why?
Addie k/mo – moving away from letter of the week allows the children to learn their letters and sounds in the real context of reading and writing
Betty/K/IL – Most of my students last year knew the majority of the letters/sounds coming into K.
Djinn – Kathleen – I find letter of the week to be an artificial – isolated – way to teach letters. My kids learn them easier when imbedded in print. I know letter of the week is more organized, but my kids did very well with out it.
Mary K & 1 – Because it isn’t a “natural” way of learning about the letters – At least that’s how I see it. I never thought about teaching letters that way – never heard of it until I heard it at T-Net.
Jules/K/GA – My county spent a lot of money last year on a “letter of the week” curriculum and since I want to move away from it, what are some good arguments I can present to my admin?
Kathleen – Letter of the week slows kids down, wastes the time of those who know the letters, it’s artificial
KinderKorner – it’s also a goofy thing to try to build themes around when there is so much terrific integrated curriculum stuff to do instead
Betty – Slows readers down, and too fast for others kids.
Djinn – Exactly Kathleen – it is so difficult to transfer a letter in isolation to the printed word
Kathleen – Kinderkorner, thanks for that point, too. Using the individual letters to initiate themes steers away from more dynamic curriculum
Mary K & 1 – Kathleen, I agree, it’s too slow for some, too fast for others, but it doesn’t match with the needs of any child
nancy – Do you follow a certain order when you introduce them??
Djinn – My students learn the letters in the names activities right from the beginning.
Kathleen – nancy, my point is that letter of the week is not the way to teach reading
Addie k/mo – there isn’t a certain order that you need to follow. if you do authentic activities like those in M by M 4 K, the kids will be exposed to the letters many, many times. the ones you may need to watch out for are some of the less frequently used letters. you may want to examine your activities over the course of the year and make sure everything is covered.

Kim – what are some activities that you do to introduce the letters?

Kathleen – Kim, we use the daily shared writing, mini-lessons over journals, that kind of thing

Month by Month Reading, Writing, Phonics for Kindergarten

Djinn – Kim- I use the Month By Month name activities. We talk about the letters, count them, compare their shapes etc. It’s all in the names

Kathleen – Djinn, yes, and the other book related to Month by Month, Building Blocks, activities with names teach the letters VERY quickly and in a meaningful context that is transferable.

Teacher's Guide to Building Blocks: A Developmentally Appropriate Multilevel Framework for Kindergarten

Sherrilee – so do any of you think letter of the week is appropriate for individual or small groups who DON’T know their letters?
Betty – Sherrillee, we did other activities for those kids.
Hope – I think some good activities would be to concentrate on vocabulary and the type letters that go into making those words, also the patterns, rhyming ect.
KinderKorner – sherrillee, it would take half the year to introduce them to the letters, and that’s way too long for kids who need that knowledge quickly
Addie k/mo – letters and sounds are integrated throughout the day in everything. shared reading and writing, individual reading and writing, learning center activities, responses to other curricular areas, charts, calendar board, etc. letters are everywhere! as you begin to point this out to the kids, they begin to notice all the letters and ask questions and want to learn letters.
Hope – Sherrilee, I do think that it would slow down the groups. I would concentrate on the letters that give them the most trouble.
Mary K & 1 – There are lots of great Letter Books and Alphabet books that can be read along with all of the other wonderful books that are now available – so much now than when I started teaching!
Kathleen – The kids who struggle with learning the letters are probably the ones who are least helped by teaching letters in isolation.
Mary K & 1 – Kathleen, that so right – they need something to help them make connections – isolating letters doesn’t do that
alaska-Kinder – I gave up letter of the week six years ago. The kids and I are much happier and more successful with more authentic language learning activities.
Djinn – Interactive writing and modeling is very powerful. You can concentrate on particular letters
Kathleen – alaska, that is what everyone who departs from letter of the week finds out
KinderKorner – mary’s point is a good one … if you own a bunch of letter of the week materials, you integrate them in other ways
KinderKorner – and we write alphabet books on all topics, all year long … lots of fun
nancy – is month by month the same as building blocks?/
Addie k/mo – Month by Month and Building Blocks are 2 books of the same program for K
Kim – so MxM has activities in it to teach letters?
Addie k/mo – yes, kim, not specifically “here are ideas for A”, but lots of literacy building activities that build the children’s understanding of letters and sounds over time.
Kathleen – The best way to teach letter and sounds in kindergarten is to teach them via students names and also via environmental print
Kim – I guess word wall activities would also help with letter identification?
Kim – do you start word wall when the children first come back to school?
Addie k/mo – i start the word wall with one name per day, so we start building it the first day
Betty – Kim, I didn’t do Word Wall activities In K, I did in !st. Are you in K/1 split?
KinderKorner – kim, what grade? not in kinder, unless you’re using environmental print and kids’ names
alaska-Kinder – we “notice” letters and sounds everywhere, in names, environmental print, kid chosen books, teacher selected books, I use the newspaper a lot
nancy – do you use word walls in k?
Addie k/mo – alphabet books are a wonderful genre to explore a variety of topics.
Doug – kathleen- that is so true. names are a great start
Kim – Kindercorner, so the word wall for kindergarten is just environmental print and the kids names? do you add high frequency words at any time?
Gumbo/K/La – I used a name wall last yr…..gonna do it again this yr….
Betty – Kim, instead I posted words all over the room. labeled everything.
KinderKorner – my kinder word wall is much different from my word wall when i teach straight first grade … in kinder, it builds slower
Djinn – I also taught sign along with the letters – We may be the mainstream class this year – exciting
KinderKorner – yes, kim, i add the high frequency words during the year
Hope – Kim I would do that in first grade. I would put high freq. words on their desks as well.
Djinn – Kinderk – i start out with names, then environmental print , then add words from their writing and word charts – like, I, a, Mom, Dad etc.
Addie k/mo – i do use a word wall in k, but i must clarify that it is not recommended from the mxm book. we start with the kids names and then i begin to add some sight words that we are doing visual matching with in our big books. the children are not required to spell the words correctly, like you would in first grade and we don’t drill on the new words, but the wall is a resource for the children who are ready
Betty – I had my names on a poster board, stapled under my board. I make sure everything is at eye level for the kids.
Sandy/K/MO – one day during center time a couple of the girls added some of their sight words to the wall on their own.
Jules/K/GA – Kinder…when do you start adding hf words?
Lynda – Djinn, I believe sign is a positive addition to teaching letters also.
Mary K & 1 – Kids learn about letters through the many Phonemic Awareness activities – they get the connections built during these and hear how letters (sounds) work – through reading and writing they see how letters work – they learn the system
Gumbo/K/La – I use a lot of sign language in my class……
KinderKorner – jules, i add them when the kids are ready for them
Addie k/mo – we compare words, identify letters in words, # of syllables in words, # of letters in words, and use the words for games. the kids who are ready do begin to use the word wall when they are writing and during our read the room time.
Kim – are these activities you mentioned , Addie, in MxM?
Addie k/mo – no, the word wall activities are not in mxm for k, i think you would find them in the first grade book.
Djinn – another great activity – graphing their names and making an alphabetical name bookname book
KinderKorner – djinn, we do that with Chrysthanemum (don’t you hate having to spell that name?)
Sandy/K/MO – We do it with Ms. Bindergarten too
Angie – Do you do anything pertaining to letter formation?
KinderKorner – angie, you mean like formal handwriting practice?
Kathleen – Angie, that is something else I focus upon during our shared writing activities. And the children follow-up with their indiv. dry erase boards
Amy/K/MA – I intro all letters in ABC order by showing a puppet, learning a song, and making a book. I teach by themes. I also do many varied reading and writing activities. Is this still a “letter of the week” approach?
KinderKorner – amy, it sounds like letter of the week to me ) but you’re also doing many other things
Kathleen – Amy, yes, that is a letter of the week approach, teaching in isolation
Kim – Kinder, you mentioned alphabet books, are they ones that you made up for the kids to write in?
KinderKorner – no, kim, we read a lot of alphabet books (esp. great ones from Jerry Pallotta) and then make our own Big Book innovation as a group
Kim – Kinder, can you explain more on how your class makes the big book for the alphabet?
KinderKorner – Kim, a simple/early one in my room would be a color alphabet book, on one color only >>> Red … we brainstorm an alphabetical list of things that are red, then the kids make illustrations of them to put in the book (I do the words). In kinder, it would have single words only (early in the yr), in first it would have sentences that say “A ____ is red.” We’d have apple, ball, candy, etc.
Jules/K/GA – so kinder, do you come up with a response for each letter of the alphabet for your book and if so, what do you do with x and other hard ones?
KinderKorner – X is always a middle or ending sound, like Fox …. we also have fun with the letters that don’t work, sometimes we just make a note that there are NO red things with an X (except that there are … box, fox, etc)
Amy/K/MA – Do you all feel that letters need to be introduced and how do you do it?
Sandy/K/MO – Amy, my kids love to write letters home..intro. letter names and sounds as we do this
Kathleen – Amy, I introduce them as I write with the kids, shared writing, using their names. I recommend Pat Cunningham’s Month by Month reading and writing for k book
Lynda – Amy, I believe letters should be non intrusive but available in the classroom
Addie k/mo – i have a program called success in kindergarten reading and writing. in one part the letters are introduced one letter per day beginning with all lowercase, then all caps, then blends, then word families, then vowel sounds, and last “letter dictation”. i like having this systematic method along with the more integrated method, but i am willing to put money on it, that the kids learn from the integrated activities better.
Amy/K/MA – Do you feel that all students gain a knowledge of sounds and symbols without directly teaching them?
Djinn – Amy , by the time we have all of their names cheered, compared, cut up and put back together – many know all or most Capital and lower case
Mary K & 1 – When you do guided, shared and group writing, you are saying the words slowly – this generates discusion about what letters could be used to write what we hear – this is where the learning of letters takes place
Djinn – Amy – you are directly teaching – just in context – you are having a dialog with your students. It’s almost Socratic
BettyAgain – Amy, no that would put all of our students in one container, and they don’t fit that way. Some kids don’t respond to learning the letters/sounds with the MM act. because many of the act. are whole group. I had a couple of kids last year that just didn’t listen well. they got a lot of 1-1 time with my Assit.
Amy/K/MA – Djinn…I am unsure what you mean.
Addie k/mo – amy, i do think they learn the sounds and symbols without direct teaching. they probably would if i didn’t do the direct teaching of each letter per day. i assess the kids at least quarterly to be sure they are making progress in this area. i assess kids who are having trouble more frequently.
Addie k/mo – ooooo, i like djinn’s answer much better. i guess we are directly teaching the letters, we just aren’t presenting each letter as a lesson to be learned.
Amy/K/IL – what about assessment—our report card has qtr taught for each letter and we fill in the qtr that we teach it—any suggestions for how to handle that??
Kathleen – Amy, change the report card! LOL!
KinderKorner – amy, enter the quarter that they’re able to read it when you do your assessment
Rick – Does anyone have an assessment card/sheet to assess letters/sounds?
Amy/K/IL – wish I could–our dist. just did–the letters aren’t the only thing I don’t like!!!
KinderKorner – rick, i use marie clay’s observational survey
Paulie – We used assessment sheet for letter recognition and sounds last year. . .
Kathleen – Amy, form a committee with the purpose of introducing the method that will help kids advance in their skills more quickly. Then show the Month By Month book
Mary K & 1 – Amy, you can assess them on individual letter sounds, but you don’t have to teach them that way – when they understand how the system works, when they know what letters to use and when to use them, they will also be able to show that to you in assessment activities
Kathleen – Rick, I don’t understand what you mean, a card with the letters on it?
Gumbo/K/La – kat—-nice idea, but not workable in large system……..
Rick – Kinderkorner – Tell me more. Where to I find out about this observational method?
Sara/k/TX – I use the Sunshine Assessment Kit – Wright Co. To assess letters/sounds.
Hope – Sara, what’s that like?
Sara/k/TX – It has a section to assess writing, reading, letters/sounds. The l/s sheet has a space to assess each area about 4 times in the year. (Cap/lower case , sound and then give a word that begins with that letter.)
Rick – Sara/k/TX – Where do I find these ready made assessments?
Sara/k/TX – Rick, I got mine from the Wright Co. It is called the Sunshine Assessment Kit. It has some small books to assess reading skills, also.
Addie k/mo – rick, i made one. i just have the letters typed on a sheet and i show the kids flashcards out of order and they id the letters. i circle the correct answers and make notes about incorrect answers. i use a different color pen each time i assess, so that i can easily see when they got the answer correct. for sounds i say “what letter starts in Butterfly?” with emphasis on the /b/. again i circle correct answers on their sheet.
Djinn – We use Marie Clay’s Observation Survey in all k-1
Rick – Kathleen, a tool that will allow a first grader to see his progress through the world of letters/sounds onto more reading/writing.
Kathleen – But Amy said she has to account for WHEN EACH LETTER is taught, so she can report that every letter is covered by the end of the first period for sure
Angie – You can easily continue to assess at intervals and record that data on the quarterly reports
Kathleen – Rick, I show kids their writing from where they start with me to where they progress. That is a good indicator of what they have learned. It’s pretty dramatic
Addie k/mo – also, you can share exciting anecdotes about things that happen in class or show some of the kid’s writing progress. especially later in the year they write and draw some really cute things.
Mary K & 1 – A writing journal is a great tool for showing when a child started doing different things – it’s a great asset in conferences also – shows the growth, or in some cases lack of
KinderKorner – Kathleen, do you have Marie Clay’s books available?
Kathleen – kinder, I have The Early Detection of Reading Difficulties right here, kinder
Jen – I teach with two other K teachers and they will be using letter of the week. What should I do?
Addie k/mo – jen, look for support here, if your co-teachers are not supportive. begin working with your class and share ideas when they become curious about what you are doing.
Amy/K/MA – I feel that you need to teach in many ways. Some students need a brief but focused intro to each letter. Others learn about letters from other classroom experiences.
Kathleen – Amy, I know that many believe that, but once you depart from letter of the week you’ll find that is not the case
Amy/K/MA – For those who don’t do letter of the week…when you focus on a letter in context such as in writing, do you provide activities to reinforce the letter sound?
Kathleen – Amy, that happens as you write and pronounce, emphasize
Djinn – Amy – some of my learning center activities and games address sounds, letter id. etc. They are practice activities
Addie k/mo – sometimes we learn raps that go with the letter or play games with a variety of letter sounds either as a class or in learning centers, after the kids are showing that they are understanding the concept of letters having sounds.
Sara/k/TX – I use the Saxon Phonics program and it focuses about 4 days on each new sound, Then it spirals each sound learned.
Kathleen – Amy, try telling the parents that you have become aware of a method that will allow their children to really take off, rather than plodding through the alphabet, one letter at a time, taking 26 weeks. If you have the parents excited, you set the stage for support for change
Jules/K/GA – Since I have to follow some kind of l.o.w. plan for my admin, would it be horrible to have a l.o.w activity as reinforcement in centers?
Amy/K/MA – So since I teach letters in order, ABC, and although I provide and support interactive writing, guided reading, shared reading etc, I am still teaching letter of the week and that is a “bad” thing?
moly – we will be using Saxon phonics for 1st time and I wonder isn’t it the letter of the week thinking also????
Kathleen – A lot of the time, my students know the letter sound before they easily recall the name of each letter.
Mary K & 1 – Kathleen, very good point! It’s like learning the names of their classmates – they can tell you things about different kids before they can remember their names – the same is true about the letter’s names – they can learn things about the letters before they know their names – the only reason that we need to know letter names is for conversation – to know what we are talking about when we want to talk about how a word is spelled or some other aspect of a word
Sara/k/TX – Amy, no it is not. You are doing right.
Kathleen – Jules, your administration actually mandates letter of the week?
Djinn – Jules- we all do what we have to for our admins. I send out alphabet booklets each week for homework – it satisfies everyone
Amy/K/MA – The activities that I do reinforce phonemic awareness and phonics skills. The children love them and the lessons are brief. I feel that I must defend my teaching to those who feel letter of the week is “bad”. I feel that I am presenting phonics skills.
Rick – Does anyone already have writing assignments pre planned for the beginning of the year that will encourage use of beginning and ending sounds.
Sara/k/TX – Moly, it is in a way. You can use it like that. But some skills may take longer and the need to stay is there. Such as learning the VC rule….
Jules/K/GA – Yes Kathleen. The county wants all k teachers to be on the same letter at any given time.
Addie k/mo – amy, i dont know if we should catagorize some activities as “good” or “bad”, but some activities go better with the way children naturally learn than others and then you have this fact in your favor….question for you – if you are doing all the shared reading and interactive writing, do you normally find that most of the kids begin to know the letters before you have “introduced” them?
Kathleen – Amy, imagine what else you could do with the time you use when you are doing lessons about individual letters. It’s not so much harmful to use letter of the week methods, but not a good use of time
Lynda – keep portfolios of the children’s work it is good for you and parents and admin
Kathleen – Jules, that is too bad Assuming that every child needs the same thing at the same time all over the county.
elaine – Rick, use assessment sheets found in the Month by Month book
Rick – Elaine, Thank you. I’ll look for those. That’s what I was looking for. I don’t have MM yet, but plan to get it.
Amy/K/MA – Addie…yes, for some students. Others seem to need a short intro to each letter. The time I spend is brief. I show a puppet, read a book, and sing a song…all activities that have many benefits.
Rick – In our county, we have to give the CSAB to all first graders. They will be staggered in for two or three days. Maybe 4 students per school day. Wouldn’t this be a wonderful time to also assess letters/sounds? (Not just part, but all expected of 1st graders?)
Jules/K/GA – Agreed Kathleen. That is why I am trying to figure out ways to do this without upsetting the applecart too much. That’s why I am thinking that doing LOW in centers might not be so bad.
Addie k/mo – amy, that is what convinced me. when, i moved away from LOW and following the curriculum materials exactly i did both for a while. and pretty soon it was obvious to me what they were learning from. that is what convinced me.
Amy/K/IL – Amy/K/MA—you seem defensive—I don’t think anyone is attacking you nor are your teaching methods under attack
Kim – can someone answer this…when you are doing a big book, .. do you have the child fill in the missing word even though it might probably be spelled wrong, would you put the correct word underneath their misspelled word?
Djinn – Kim- It’s all interactive writing – you can edit right on the page – or use a white board and recopy to a chart later.
Sara/k/TX – Kim, you can or you can spell it correctly and add the word to the word wall.
Addie k/mo – kim, i leave it in the child’s invented spelling. we do those kinds of activities in small groups so i help the children stretch the words and hear the sounds.
Peachy – What other books do you all use along with M By M and Marie Clay’s books?
Rick – Djinn – Please tell more about MM.
Jules/K/GA – Month by Month Reading and writing in Kindergarten by Pat Cunningham
elaine – About 15 years ago I realized that many of my kindergarten students were not learning letters and sounds by LOW. I began using lots of predictable charts, shared writing, journal writing, and coached writing and I saw tremendous growth and most of all…… a real boost in SELF ESTEEM .
Kathleen – elaine, it’s difficult not to want others to abandon letter of the week and other in-isolation methods once you have experienced the results of the alternative, right?
elaine – Yes Kathleen- I always tell groups I train that I would like to to do a commercial for literacy…….HOOKED ON CUNNINGHAM AND HALL instead of PHONICS
Addie k/mo – jules, i think doing a LOW center is a fine idea. it does allow the kids to focus on a letter and do related hands on activities.
Sara/k/TX – I use the Phonemic Awareness Book listed on the chatboard, also. It has a great way to level your children for guided reading groups.
Addie k/mo – in our class, we focus on a certain letter each week in our big book and we play games and go over the sound of that letter. i don’t think that anyone is saying that you would never put a letter in isolation and have the kids notice it!
Amy/K/IL – Does everyone teach full day K? I have lots of time to fill when I get rid of LOW stuff
Addie k/mo – amy, i teach FDK . i have the phonemic awareness book that you are describing. haven’t actually used any of the activities, but looking forward to them
Addie k/mo – we do the “letter of focus” activities in very short 5 – 10 minute mini lessons. id the letter, match letter cards with the text in the book, etc. then in our centers there are some related activities. to me, LOW means relating everything around a letter. like on d week you study dinosaurs, eat donuts, draw daisies, etc. it drives what you are doing. i don’t think having some activities or games with isolated letters along with a good print rich environment and lots of literature and interactive writing is wrong. you cant throw out the baby with the bathwater.
smagee – The mxm book for k doesn’t do environmental print until April? Are ya’ll going to wait that long to do it or will you start the year with it?
Addie k/mo – smaggee, i hope someone has an answer for that. i wonder that too!
Mary K & 1 – smagee, that’s a good question – but if you want to do it sooner, I don’t see any problem – you are the teacher – you know what your students need and what they are ready for – you should have the freedom to use whatever is needed
smagee – Addie, you aren’t going to wait until April are you? I’m planning on using it early in the year.
Addie k/mo – no, i am using environmental print early on, having the kids bring things in….saving the containers of things we cook with for projects, etc.
elaine – month by month gives 2 very detailed lesson plans for environmental print in the spring but in our Building Blocks model classes we do environmental print all year: Names, Cereals, Restaurants, Snacks, etc…… We focus on an particular theme each quarter but we always begin with NAMES.
Addie k/mo – we begin with names too! their favorite words!
Djinn – Maybe we could ask about environmental print on the 4 blocks board? I use it right away
Kathleen – Good night