{"id":26485,"date":"2022-04-26T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T13:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teachingstrategies.com\/?p=26485"},"modified":"2025-04-28T14:55:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T18:55:34","slug":"why-i-dont-have-a-letter-of-the-week-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachingstrategies.com\/blog\/why-i-dont-have-a-letter-of-the-week-anymore\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Don\u2019t Have a \u201cLetter of the Week\u201d Anymore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Letters and Words<\/h3>\n

I used to think I was an effective preschool teacher when every child in my class had earned 52 checkmarks for recognizing all 52 letters of the alphabet. (Yes, there are 52: 26 uppercase and 26 lowercase). Children would sit \u201ccrisscross applesauce\u201d for more than 20 minutes at a time, reviewing and \u201clearning\u201d a letter each week.<\/p>\n

I spent hours preparing worksheets, activities, and assessment checklists and gathering books focused on the letter P when the children\u2019s names were Grayson, Timothy, Rashawn, Micah, Sofia, Marquese, Natalie, and Britany. The point is that no one in the class had a letter P in their name, so why devote a whole week to the letter P? Well, we just finished O, and in alphabetical order, it\u2019s O, then P, and then Q. (I had to sing it to make sure. Did you?)<\/p>\n

I thought alphabet knowledge (recognizing and naming each letter) was imperative to \u201cpreparing children for kindergarten\u201d and teaching children how to read. So, I would sit with each child one-on-one to \u201cassess\u201d their knowledge of the alphabet by displaying letters out of their usual sequence and asking the child to identify each one. When a child could identify all 52, I pronounced him \u201cready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

But what does this kind of \u201cready\u201d have to do with reading? It turns out, not much.<\/p>\n

I have since realized that learning to read requires the development of a richer set of skills than simply being able to name letters in activities that are devoid of any meaningful context. The time I spent creating and implementing these activities\u2014not to mention the time the children spent engaged in them\u2014could have been used far more wisely. Now I know that children need phonological awareness skills along with alphabet knowledge to be successful readers. I also know that these skills can be explored and developed through authentic, meaningful, play-based learning experiences.<\/p>\n

So I don\u2019t do \u201cLetter of the Week\u201d anymore.<\/p>\n

I also no longer<\/p>\n