Have you ever had a student, or students, that despite getting lots of exposure to the alphabet letters, just can not tell you the names of some (or all) of the alphabet letters? They might be able to tell you the sound for the letter, but they have trouble telling you the letter name. I have had a few students like this and last year after using many strategies, I happened to try one and it worked! I basically knew that the more senses I involved and the more I engaged the students, the chances were better for them to transfer their learning from short-term to long-term memory (we call it "making it stick"). I also know that repetition is important and some students might need exposure to a letter 30 or more times before it "sticks."
So, desperate for something to work, I tried this during small group reading. First of all, I focused on two very different looking letters. Only two for a couple of days. Of course, we worked with all letters all day, but for these students, I had to break it down. The students used the dry erase boards and we wrote the letters as I sang a song (included in the packet). Then they wrote it and erased it 3 times. I gave them a sheet and they colored each letter a certain color as I said over and over "This is the letter a, alligator begins with the sound for a" and other things about the letter (I felt really silly doing this, but they needed to hear it). After they finished, I asked each student individually to tell me the name of each alphabet letter. This activity involved hearing (me over and over-repetition), seeing (the letter sheet and dry erase board) and kinesthetic movements (with the coloring and writing).
If you need another strategy for those students struggling to remember the alphabet letters, please feel free to use this.
Click here for the link.
What kinds of interventions or strategies do you use to help students?
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