Moving beyond "Letter of the Week"

Teaching Pre K-8, Jan 1996 by Fisher, Bobbi

BY BOBBI FISHER,

Kindergarten teachers frequently ask me about Letter of the Week. I reply that although I think it's important for children to know letters and sounds, I believe focusing on one letter at a time for an extended period doesn't support children in their literacy development. Letter of the Week sends the message that reading and writing is lowing letters and sounds, not the construction of meaning; the children's interests, rather than a letter of the alphabet, should direct and guide the curriculum.

Limits of letter of the week. "Doing" Letter of the Week with kindergartners means learning and drilling on letter names and letter sounds by focusing on one letter at a time for about a week.

By overemphasizing the graphophonemic (letters and sounds) cuing system--and thus minimizing semantic (meaning) and syntactic (grammar) strategies--Letter of the Week conveys the following misconceptions about reading and writing: reading is sounding out; lowing letters and sounds is a prerequisite to learning to read; the graphophonemic cuing system is the most important system in learning to read; each letter is equally important in reading and writing; and writing is labeling.

Letter of the Week suggests a sequential view of reading in which letters are learned first, then sounds, and finally words, which are eventually put into simple sentences.

It also requires that all the children participate in the letter activities. This wastes the time and limits the reading and writing development of those who know the letters or who can already read, and decontextualizes literacy for children entering kindergarten as emergent readers or with limited experience with print.

In order to fit a Letter of the Week program, curriculum tends to focus on contrived topics or isolated subjects (usually picked by the teacher) and is limited by a weekly time frame, rather than by the engagement of the children. Letter of the Week directs, and therefore limits, curriculum content and the ways that children and teachers generate curriculum, thus restricting children's development as life-long learners.

Letters and sounds throughout the day. How then do we help children learn about letters and sounds in a kindergarten that does not do Letter of the Week? How do we expand the literacy growth of the children who already know letters and sounds, or who are reading? How do we generate meaningful curriculum for everyone?

The following vignettes describe how children, in varying degrees of literacy development, interact with letters in meaningful contexts in my kindergarten, and how I respond to and evaluate them during these authentic literacy events.

It is 8:40 and the children begin to enter the classroom. Mary puts a note in the basket telling me that she will be picked up. I read it with her and comment that the in Mrs. Fisher starts like her name. Stevie gets his name strip to copy as he signs in. I acknowledge that he's writing a lowercase e.

When I start singing "The Wheels on the Bus," the children gather at the rug area. Throughout group time, I point to the enlarged texts of songs, poems and big books. I ask children to raise their hands if they have a B at the beginning of their name. Billy and Tom Brown respond. Debby says that she has a b in her name.

For a minute or two, there is chatter about letters in names. The group refocuses as we sing "If I Had a Hammer." I ask the children what they notice and call on individuals so we can all hear what is said. Sam notices the pictures of the hammer and we point to the corresponding word. I ask everyone to count the number of h's on the chart. There is silence. I raise my pointer and the children whisper the answer. The I move it along the text and we say the sound of h every time we come to a word beginning with h. I say the word.

Someone ask if we will be going outside for recess and I refer the class to the day's schedule on the board. Ryan has learned to read it (Recess is important to him.) We talk about looking for the R in recess.

Next, the leader for the day picks the big book The Enormous Watermelon (Rigby, 1986) by Brenda Parks and Judith Smith to read to the class. It's a favorite that we've read many times. I decide to focus on the title for few minutes. Then, I ask, "If you were the author, what word could you use instead of enormous?" As I write the suggestions on the board, we talk about their meaning and spelling. We decide to read the story with the word hungry, and I write it on a removable sticky note, which I move from page to page.

Elsewhere. In the writing area, Meagan is saying the alphabet as she points to the letters on the wall. She stops when she gets to h and writes it under the house she has drawn on her picture. Then she adds some random letters and turns to Stephanie to tell her about her new house.

Scott asks Dennis if cat begins with c or k, and Dennis writes a c on his paper. Rachel asks me how to spell walk,, and I tell her to write it as best she can on scrap paper, before I talk with her about it and provide the conventional spelling.