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Shirley from Arizona asks:
Teaching the alphabet
"Should the alphabet be introduced in A to Z order?"
Thank you for writing, Shirley. I'm sorry that summer plans kept me from getting back to you sooner.
Whether or not to teach the alphabet in ACB order depends on a few things. If the child is in preschool or kindergarten the letters are usually taught initially in the alphabet song. This activates the auditory memory (the fact that it's in a song and rhyme form) making it easier to remember and retrieve.
When the letter sounds are introduced, then the order is changed. The particular order they're taught depends upon the reading curriculum used by the teacher. Frequently the correct formation of the letter is taught at the same time, ie., the teacher will teach the children how to print an h as well as how to recognize and remember the sounds the letter makes.
For my work, I follow the sequence used in the Slingerland method. It starts with high-frequency letters and moves from there. After the first 5 letters are taught it's easy to begin building and reading small words, such as mat, sad, sam, mad. Slowly add the rest of the letters, practicing their formation with their sound, writing and reading small words made from these letters. If you don't have a different sequence at hand, here's one that works well:
m, t, a, s, d, i, f, r, th, l, o, n, p, e, h, v, sh, u, b, k, ck, c, g, j, w, ch, tch, x, z, qu, wh, y
I hope this helps. If you need more information, please write back.
Happy back to school,
Deborah
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