Memorizing vs. Connecting

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After reading three articles related to the power of phonemic awareness in young readers, I have been carefully weighing the advantages of specific strategies used to teach reading skills. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of teaching students to read is the alphabet. I think that it is pretty safe to say that it is crucial to spend a lot of time on each individual letter while learning to read. A common strategy used in kindergarten classrooms is the 'Letter of the Week'. I know that I participated in this activity as a child and I consider it a fundamental reading strategy. Having a entire week designated to a letter gives the students time to learn the sound the letter makes, how to write the letter, and words that start with the particular letter. This seems like an effective strategy, right?

I would completely agree that using strategies, like the 'Letter of the Week', are the best way to teach fundamental reading skills and phonemic awareness. However, what happens when the students forget about the letter and everything that goes along with it? What do you do when several of your students are learning English for the first time and do not recognize the alphabet yet alone the words that start with the letter? I had never thought of these issues until reading the articles. I realized that many of the strategies used are geared towards children who are already familiar with the alphabet and who already have experience reading. For the students who are not familiar with English these strategies allow them to memorize rather than connect the letters with words and meaning.

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I believe that as teachers we must use strategies that would be most beneficial to each and every student. For example, in the article by Bell and Jarvis one of the teachers strung letters of the alphabet across the classroom. She then put pictures of each student under the letter that their name started with. What I found my fascinating was that she also used universal objects, such as a McDonald's bag, and hung them under the letters. This allowed every student to connect the letter with something they are familiar with. While they may still struggle pointing out specific letters on demand, this strategy allows the students to connect familiar words to the letter. Connecting words to letters is what is really most important to reading, not memorizing letters.

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• Do you agree with forgetting about the 'Letter of the Week' type strategies?
• What type of strategies were used by your elementary school teachers?
• What are other activities that could be used to connect familiar words to letters, especially for students who are learning English as a second language?