My Emergent learners are on their 8th or 9th cycle of Letter of the Day lessons, which are implemented by my Special Education Assistants in a 1:1 setting (not ideal for collaborative learning, but the needs of our kids require this at the moment). This week, we are focusing on vowels (a e i o u) and exploring long and short vowel sounds.
Our Letter of the Day routine follows these steps:
- Adult and Student expectations
- This is primarily for staff members implementing the instruction. I have found it helpful to have a slide in my lessons that reviews what staff should and shouldn’t be during when providing instruction; this helps all of us refocus on best practices and supports consistent implementation no matter who is working with a student.
- I also include the Core Words of the Week (CWOWs) to prompt staff members to remember to model these focus words throughout the lesson.
- This is primarily for staff members implementing the instruction. I have found it helpful to have a slide in my lessons that reviews what staff should and shouldn’t be during when providing instruction; this helps all of us refocus on best practices and supports consistent implementation no matter who is working with a student.
- Guess the Letter
- My “hook” activity lately is Guess the Letter. This activity attempts to catch the attention / interest of my learners and bring them into the lesson. I try to incorporate logos, special interests, characters, food preferences, Core Words, student and staff photos, etc. to increase student interest. Additionally, I include the Core Words “I/me/my” and “think/know” to prompt staff and students to model/use Core Words when guessing the Letter.
- My “hook” activity lately is Guess the Letter. This activity attempts to catch the attention / interest of my learners and bring them into the lesson. I try to incorporate logos, special interests, characters, food preferences, Core Words, student and staff photos, etc. to increase student interest. Additionally, I include the Core Words “I/me/my” and “think/know” to prompt staff and students to model/use Core Words when guessing the Letter.
- Letter of the Day Video
- We use Letter of the Day videos from Youtube to reveal the day’s focus letter. Lately my kids have been into the Let’s Learn About the Alphabet series from Jack Hartman. This is another opportunity to engage students and model language on AAC.
- We use Letter of the Day videos from Youtube to reveal the day’s focus letter. Lately my kids have been into the Let’s Learn About the Alphabet series from Jack Hartman. This is another opportunity to engage students and model language on AAC.
- Find the Letter
- We complete two activities during Letter of the Day block to locate the letter in print. The first activity is to find the letter on our AAC system. Staff model thinking aloud, navigating to the letter on a modeling device, and saying the letter.
- Next, we find the letter in a text. Lately we have been using leveled books from Reading A-Z, to which my District has a subscription, as they are short, decodable, and can be tailored to the instructional level of each student. It is also quick and easy to find a book that features our Letter of the Day, which helps reduce prep time. We also will use poems, nursery rhymes, and other types of texts, but I typically lean on Reading A-Z for consistency and routine.
- Each student gets a copy of the focus book to take home to families, and a copy of the focus book is added to our Classroom Library. This way, students have opportunities to share their learning with families and they can return to their favorite texts during Self-Directed Reading block.
- Students are encouraged to highlight, point to, or say the letter when they see it in the text. I also include our CWOWs again so staff can have a reminder to try to find opportunities to model the Core Words of the Week across all settings and activities.
- We complete two activities during Letter of the Day block to locate the letter in print. The first activity is to find the letter on our AAC system. Staff model thinking aloud, navigating to the letter on a modeling device, and saying the letter.
- Form the Letter
- Students practice different modes of letter formation each day. These activities focus on fine motor development, correct letter formation, and practicing the use of multiple types of writing utensils. I pull lots of activities from Teachers Pay Teachers, our school’s phonics curriculum, Education to the Core and other random resources I find on the internet.
This Letter Workmat is from Education to the Core, which requires a subscription. I have had the premium subscription for about a month now, and it does have a seemingly endless supply of activities and worksheets; however I am still deciding if it is worth the cost for the number of activities I actually use. The letter activities have definitely been helpful to provide a variety of different formation opportunities to my students.
- Students practice different modes of letter formation each day. These activities focus on fine motor development, correct letter formation, and practicing the use of multiple types of writing utensils. I pull lots of activities from Teachers Pay Teachers, our school’s phonics curriculum, Education to the Core and other random resources I find on the internet.
- Activity
- Students complete a daily hands-on activity for additional practice with the letter or for supplemental phonics learning. Sometimes the activity is a letter craft (like an Octopus made out of an “O”), an iPad learning application, or another hands-on activity. For our A day, students worked with our Acorn Alphabet Activity from Lakeshore. I love these little acorns because they allow for multiple levels of practice – matching upper and lower case letters, full alphabet letter-sound correspondence, or focused letter exploration.
- Students complete a daily hands-on activity for additional practice with the letter or for supplemental phonics learning. Sometimes the activity is a letter craft (like an Octopus made out of an “O”), an iPad learning application, or another hands-on activity. For our A day, students worked with our Acorn Alphabet Activity from Lakeshore. I love these little acorns because they allow for multiple levels of practice – matching upper and lower case letters, full alphabet letter-sound correspondence, or focused letter exploration.
- Wrap Up
- When all the activities are completed, students transition to Choice Time. A visual schedule guides students through the steps of the lesson and items are checked off as they are completed.
Reflect with me:
- Do you implement Letter of the Day / Enhanced Alphabet Knowledge in your classroom?
- What are your favorite parts of the lessons, and what challenges are you still working through?
- How do your classroom staff support EAK both during and outside of your Letter of the Day Block?
- How do you support graphemic awareness with nonspeaking students?
❁ The Authentic Classroom Project 
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