PERSONAL ALPHABET BOOK
To support a child to learn all letters of the alphabet, a personal alphabet can be useful. The aim of the alphabet book is to link the child’s experience base with an individual letter as a way of remembering (a mnemonic device).
Initially, the alphabet book includes only those letters the child knows something about. Over time, this book contains all letters of the alphabet – both Upper and Lower case forms – and, because the links to the letters are the child’s, they are more likely to be remembered. As Marie Clay explains, published alphabet books can be very confusing as …they contain pictures of objects the children cannot name, more items than are easily remembered, and often they depend on letter-sound links that do not apply across dialects and countries. What we need for our learners is one or two clear exemplars that this particular child can immediately call to mind. (Clay, 2005b, p. 37)
Please note: A child does not need to know all letters and sounds to be a reader and a writer but it does help! For parents who cannot resist the temptation to teach their children letters and sounds – be authentic! Teach them in a meaningful way, through conversation and using an inquiring stance e.g., “did you notice that there’s an ‘M’ on the Milo tin?” … “Can you see the word ‘stop’ on the stop sign? Stop starts with the same letter as Steven, an S.”
OLIVER’S ALPHABET BOOK
Oliver can read and write his name. He writes the letters of his name in the correct sequence and knows when he has finished writing his name. He writes using a capital ‘O’, and intermittently uses the capital and lower case forms of ‘L l’ and ‘E e’. He writes ‘i’ ‘v’ and ‘r’ using lower case. Oliver can also identify (read) his brother Elliot’s name.
Knowing that Oliver has these understandings about letters and words and knows that there is a difference between a letter and a word, is the foundation to build his knowledge of all letters of the alphabet.
1. Make a book with 26 blank pages.
The left and right pages of the book will be used for individual letters. This encourages a child to understand the concept that the left page is read before the right page and that a page is
turned over once the right hand page has been read.
2. Enter into this book Oliver’s known letters, in alphabetic order eg., the Capital ‘E’ and lower case ‘e’ can be written on the 5th page. Lower case ‘i’ can be written on the 9th page.
3. A picture (or photo) that Oliver links to the known letter/s is included. For example, on the ‘E’ ‘e’ page, a photo or picture of Elliot could be included.
4. Over time, new letters are added. Use both letter names and letter sounds in an authentic way. For e.g. … “your name starts with the Capital O and the sound O makes in this word is …”
