Learning your letters seems like an easy task, but for many kids it is challenging work. Learning your letters is the basics to early literacy. As a teacher it may seem frustrating at times when students just don't get it! But have no fear, I have the perfect thing for you and your struggling students.
I am a reading interventionist and I thought I might share with you some of the strategies I use when teaching students the letter names and sounds! This resource is a complete scope and sequence for a 13-week intervention plan for students who do not know their letter names and sounds.
Each week students learn two to three new letters, and I build off the previous weeks lessons. There is a weekly lesson plan PLUS additional resources for EVERY week. There are over 350 activities in this resource! Each week students will learn new letter names and letter sounds and review letters from the previous weeks. I have also included a weekly assessment for data collection.
First, the specific scope and sequence is detailed and spaced out so your students have time to truly master each letter. Each week has a detailed lesson plan for the designated letters with a BUNCH of awesome resources. The best part is that students only work on the letters that they have learned so far.
I hated working with resources and programs that expected the students to somehow just know ALL the letters at once. What if the student doesn't know ANY letters? Where do you start? Well, I decided to make something that I could ACTUALLY USE with these kiddos! Each week adds more letters and reviews the previous letters. Thus, I can truly get my students to master the letter names and sounds.
There is a detailed lesson plan for each week and a bundle of different activities each week. These activities are engaging, hands out and fun! Below I lay out ALL of the different activities that are in this product. I love all of these activities because they are consistent AND diverse.
Letter Warm Up:
This is a fun way for students to review letter sounds, first they put their finger on the letter and then slide their fingers to the different dots and say each picture. They stress the beginning sound that matches the letter. This is a super fun warm up that I use with my students before every lesson. I have these laminated so that I can use them over and over again.
Letter Practice:
The first activity most students practice is identify the letter and writing the letter with the letter practice pages. These pages are simple and effective. After just two to three weeks of instruction, students understand what is expected of them and can do these pages independently. These pages are great for letter formation too, students practice writing the letter OVER and OVER! They get the hang of it really quick!
Letter Sorts:
One big skill that children need to learn is identifying and differentiating different letter shapes. Students are learning new letters that come in weird shapes! Let's be honest, they are not easy to tell apart! Just look at b, d, p, q!?! They all look the same just flipped one way or another!
Therefore, students need to practice not only writing but identifying and differentiating the letter shapes. They can do this by completing these letter sorts. The best thing about these sorts is that the letters are in different fonts too! Because we all know that now a days students see letters in a variety of "cutsie fonts" in the classroom. So it is best to get them used to all the ways we can represent the letters!
Find and Color:
What kid doesn't like to color? All of my students love the beginning sound find and color activities. These are so simple for stations, homework, small group table or more. Students simply color the pictures that start with the assigned beginning letter. This is also a great way for you as the teacher to identify which students need more support with these beginning letter sounds.
Beginning Letter Sounds Sorts:
Sorts are probably my go to activity in the classroom! I think they are essential because they demand students to identify AND differentiate. The other thing about sorts is they can be differentiated so easily. In a kindergarten classroom you can see students sorting beginning letter sounds, while in 3rd grade you can see students sorting words with different greek and latin roots. There is so much you can do with sorts!
There are over 40 different beginning letter sound sorts in my intervention binder. Plus they follow the scope and sequence that has been taught to students. They will never be expected to sort pictures with letters they haven't learned yet! This makes YOUR life as the teacher THAT MUCH EASIER!
Write the Beginning Letter Sounds:
This is my go to activity for Fridays. This activity allows me to really see which students have mastered the letter sounds we have learned this week and in the previous weeks. Students simply write the beginning letter for each picture. These are all pictures they have seen throughout the week, so there is no big surprises.
Find and Dab it:
Every kid I have ever met is fascinated with bingo dabbers. I do not know what it is, but they love them! So I decided to incorporate them into my activities and games. In this activity students dab the letter. This helps them practice identifying the letter. Then students color in the pictures that start with that beginning letter sound. A perfect way to keep kids engaged and stay hands on with learning their letters.
Letter Maze:
One of the many BONUS activities that I have included in this reading intervention binder is a letter maze for every letter. These are simple worksheets that have your students practice identifying the letter, both upper case and lower case. Students move from start to finish by coloring in the boxes with the assigned letter.
Data Collection:
The number one thing about intervention is data. What is the point of any of this if we are not sure that our students are growing and learning. I track informal data daily with observational notes. But I also track formal data weekly. Each week students take a one minute letter sound assessment.
The best part about these weekly assessments is that it only has the letter they have LEARNED! This is so essential, how can I expect a student to know the letter sound if I have never taught it to them!?!? So, each week the assessment becomes more challenging. I add new letters. You can see an example below, it is a simple page of letters and students move across the page saying each letter sound for one minute.
Each week, I track their score and monitor their progress. Ideally, we want our students reading these letter sounds faster, thus getting ready for CVC words and beyond!
Each student also has their own "Student Profile." This is where I can document the basic information about the student and track their data with a graph. I strongly encourage students to graph their own data. This motivates students and I always see an increase of letter sounds!
You can find ALL of these fun and engaging activities and lesson plans at my TPT store. Be sure to check out my other resources like my CVC Intervention Binder, Decodable Books and more!!!
Click here to get this
Learning the Letters
Intervention Binder
Kommentit