Why We Should Teach Phonology First

I must say, Darlene, that that train of thought is very interesting. I was taught the "ABC" song first as well but now you've got me thinking that perhaps we could just go straight to 'A is for apple' (using cards) becuse the students will still learn the letters. In addition, why do we do the "ABC" song? Is it to teach the order of letters? Very interesting food for thought.

When I am trying to put words in alphabetic order, I say the abc song. I am stumped on this one.

This is definitely an interesting topic! As a kindergarten teacher, I never relied on the ABC song to teach my students the alphabet. Rather, I would teach letters and sounds in the context of my morning message, big books, student names, and other words around the room. This approach was more meaningful to students than the traditional "A is for apple, B is for bear..." strategy. By identifying letters in a variety of ways, the students were able to attribute sounds more effectively. In the end, I guess you could say that the ABC song was very rarely rehearsed in my classroom and the alphabet cards were used simply to teach students the correct alphabetical order.

Darlene -
Yes, I agree that many children already know the ABC song when they enter kindergarten. I found it easier for students to be able to identify letters in other situations by teaching them in context. Many students would rely on the ABC song to identify letters. I wanted them to be able to pick a letter from anywhere and provide the correct name and sound without having to refer to the alphabet chart. Also, using the "A is for apple" strategy often confused my ESL students. They would sometimes identify letters by the association. Rather than pointing to the "C" and saying "C", they would say "CAT". This approach caused much more confusion than necessary. I have had great success with teaching letters/sounds through meaningful experiences.

Darlene,
Our teaching style for phonemic awareness skills seems to be very similar. I have taught kindergarten and first grade and agree children see more success when the letters/sounds are taught through meaningful experiences. When a child has a strong phonemic awareness background and is able to apply reading strategies, I often see a more successful reader.

I agree that rote memorization is not the most effective way of teaching, however I do believe there is something to be said for it and should not be thrown away completely. I am a Pre-K teacher and teach my letters when they correlate with what they are learning and not necessarily in any specific order. We talk about the letter, letter sound, and different words that begin with that letter. The students then point out to me all the places they find that letter throughout the week. I know they are focused on that letter and it's meaning. However, I also believe that the ABC song and other memorization tools would come in useful at this point because it would help them understand what a letter is and that they just learned a "piece of the puzzle." I taught 4th grade as well and the idea of memorizing multiplication facts was frowned upon for much of the same reason you are discussing with the ABC song. It is frustrating though because sometimes memorization proves a useful tool in setting a foundation for understanding to begin.

I teacher kindergarten, and I also like to teach the letters and sounds using our morning message, big books, etc. Because the students learn the ABC song, I sometimes have a great deal of trouble getting them to recognize the letters out of order. In our reading series, we also have AlphaFriends, which are just different characters to help the students remember the letter, the sound and how to write it. For example, Yetta Yo-Yo for the letter Y. Each letter comes with a song that we sing and these activities really seem to help the students. I also try to use different songs to help the students. We also love to use highlighters and go through newspapers on "letter hunts."

I've used Fundations with success to teach letter sounds where the children say the letter, say the word, then say the sound, i.e. a/apple/ă, and is repeated daily for all the letters of the alphabet and in later grades vowels, diagraphs, blends, etc.. I don't think there's harm in teaching the ABC song -- it's fun and the children are singing. If a child isn't able to sing the song through I think that tells you something about that child.