How to Use Alphabet Charts to Teach Early Reading Skills
When I first started teaching, I knew I needed an alphabet chart. But I didn't know how to be intentional with it. And I definitely didn't know about the speech to print connection, let alone anything about evidence-based literacy instruction.
I eventually learned that letter knowledge (names and sounds) and basic phonemic awareness (beginning sound isolation) are the two strongest predictors of future reading outcomes in K-2 (NELP 2008; NRP 2020). Armed with this understanding around the importance of these skills, I began to explore different ways to use a standard alphabet chart to support letter knowledge and phonemic awareness learning with my students.
Today I am going to share with you exactly how I use alphabet charts. The key is using a scaffolded approach and keeping our end goals in mind.
Using a Scaffolded Approach
I use scaffolded alphabet charts that follow this progression from easiest to most complex. You will see images of the following throughout this post:
Uppercase and lowercase with keyword pictures, in ABC order.
Uppercase and lowercase with keyword pictures, in random order.
Just uppercase OR just lowercase with keyword pictures, in ABC order.
Just uppercase OR just lowercase with keyword pictures, out of ABC order.
Uppercase and lowercase without keyword pictures in ABC order.
Uppercase and lowercase without keyword pictures, in random order.
Just uppercase OR lowercase without keyword pictures, in ABC order.
Just uppercase OR lowercase without keyword pictures, out of ABC order.
In addition I use a chart with just pictures to teach phonemic awareness, and to use for letter and key word picture matching practice.
Remembering our End Goals
There are three skills I want you to keep in mind as your end goals for anything you do with an alphabet chart:
Letter ID (letter name knowledge). This means I can say “find A on the alphabet chart” and the student can immediately and correctly identify A, uppercase or lowercase.
Letter Sounds (letter sound knowledge). This means I can say “I’m thinking of the letter that spells the /a/ sound like in the word ‘apple’, can you point to it?” and the student can point to the letter A immediately.
Basic phonemic awareness (beginning sound isolation). This means I can ask the student to touch a picture on the alphabet chart, tell me what the picture is, and tell me the first sound they hear in the word. “Touch the pumpkin. Great! Say ‘pumpkin’”. (students say pumpkin). “What’s the first sound you hear in the word pumpkin?” (students should say /p/).
Introducing the Alphabet Charts
I take a day or two just to introduce the alphabet charts to students. We look at the pictures and make sure everyone knows what the pictures are and how to identify them. Depending on the age of my students, we might sing the ABC song and point to the letters as we sing the song slowly. For this I use the charts with both uppercase and lowercase letters as well as the key word pictures. I also use the charts that include both short and long vowel sounds so that students understand from the beginning that vowel letters represent more than one sound. (You will thank me later when you teach long vowel spelling patterns ;)).
Daily Routine: Whole & Small Group
Once all students are familiarized with the charts, I do a daily automaticity routine whole group. For this I use the charts with both uppercase and lowercase letters as well as the key word pictures to begin, but you can remove the scaffolds of the pictures when students are ready.
This is our routine:
Letter naming drill To practice letter name knowledge set the alphabet chart in front of the student. Move through an alphabetical order chart for students who still don’t know the alphabet automatically and fluently. Model first, show students how to touch and say the letter name while speaking or singing the ABC song. To increase the difficulty of this activity, use a chart with the letters out of order or a chart without the picture supports.
Letter sound drill Just as with letter names, the easiest way to do this is to start with an alphabetical order ABC chart. Students should touch and say each letter sound. They don’t have to say the letter name, just touch and say the sound. To increase the difficulty of this activity, use a chart with the letters out of order or a chart without the picture supports. I prefer to use the chart with all lowercase letters and letters out of order so that I know if students really know the sounds!
Visual & Auditory Drill For the visual drill, students point to the letter and say the sound. Say “touch the letter B. What’s the sound for B?” (students should say /b/). Repeat this with a handful of letters you have previously taught. Remove the scaffold of the keyword picture when students are ready. The visual drill supports early reading because it helps students become automatic in connecting sounds to print. They gain automaticity in seeing letters and immediately knowing which sounds they represent.
The auditory drill is exactly the opposite of the visual drill and facilitates letter sound knowledge but targets encoding, or spelling. For the auditory drill, using letter sounds you have previously taught, say a sound and have students either touch or cover the correct letter with a transparent bingo chip. You can say “I’m going to say a sound and you touch the letter. /b/”. (students should touch the letter B). You can easily turn this into a bingo game if you wanted!
Practice new and previously learned letters. For this I ask students a variety of questions to review the letters we have previously learned. This cumulative review provides interleaved practice, which means that as students learn a new letter each day, we continue to review learned letters as well each day. Here are some tasks I might give to students:
Place a chip on the letter that spells the /t/ sound.
Color the keyword picture that starts with /p/.
Trace the uppercase letter T with your pointer finger and say the sound. (same for lowercase)
Touch each letter and say the sound.
You’re essentially combining steps 1-3 here and using this opportunity to target letters students are struggling with.
5. Practice Activity
There are a few other activities I switch in and out of my alphabet chart routine. They are:
Teaching voiced and unvoiced sounds
Learning voiced and unvoiced sounds is important for early reading skills because it helps students articulate letter sounds correctly. If our children think that the /c/ sound is voiced, meaning the vocal cords vibrate when the sound is produced and you can actually hear your voice when saying the sound, they might say “cuh” instead of a clipped “/c/”. This can impact reading and spelling in a negative way, causing the student to think the “uh” is another sound, which will cause them to spell the word incorrectly. To review voiced and unvoiced sounds, cut the alphabet chart into individual “letter tiles”. Model and practice saying voiced and unvoiced sounds to students. Then, have students sort the tiles into voiced and unvoiced sounds!
For reference, voiced and unvoiced sounds are below:
Voiced: b, d, g, j, l, r, m, n, z, v, a, e, i, o, u, y, w
Unvoiced: p, t, c, k, q, f, h, s, x
Mystery Letter This activity promotes the acquisition of beginning sound isolation, but it works on letter knowledge simultaneously. The teacher should say a word and ask students to tell them the first sound they hear. It should sound like this:
T: I am going to say a word, and I want you to tell me the first sound you hear. Watch me first. The word is “mop”. The first sound I hear in the word “mop” is mmmmm. Your turn. What is the first sound you hear in the word “mop”?
If students struggle, the teacher should scaffold by stretching out the first sound like this:
T: Listen to me say the word again, “mmmmmmmmmmop”. The first sound you hear in the word “mop” is mmmmmmmmm. What’s the first sound you hear in the word mop? (students should say mmmmm). Then connect it to letters by asking students to cover the picture that starts with the /m/ sound with the correct letter on their alphabet chart!
Continue like this for 5-10 words. Even better if the words begin with sounds you have been previously working on. This activity bridges phonemic awareness to phonics, which is exactly what the research consensus suggests for teaching phonemic awareness.
Memory or Matching For extra practice, you can cut the letters and the pictures and do a memory or matching game as a center or in small group.
Final Thoughts:
I know I’ve mentioned this a few times, but the key in using an alphabet chart effectively is to remember its purpose- to facilitate letter knowledge and phonemic awareness. When these skills are met, we no longer need to use the chart. If our students no longer need the support of key word pictures to remember the letter name or sound, we should remove the key word pictures! I’d love to hear the ways you use alphabet charts. Leave a comment or send me an e-mail!
