Balance

Balance is essential in the classroom, especially when working with emergent readers and writers. I listened to a very interesting podcast with an interview with Dr. Piasta, a developmental psychologist and applied educational researcher. She has spent her life finding ways to incorporate alphabet instruction into the classroom without just drilling children with flashcards. She said that we, as teachers, need to find the balance between alphabet instruction and phonological awareness instruction. But where is this balance? And how do we make this interesting for children? I have some ideas :) 

One way to bring alphabet instruction in a fun way is to have the kids make their own alphabet book. As a class, the students and the teacher can brainstorm different objects that start with each letter of the alphabet. The kids can then make their own books by writing the uppercase letter and the lowercase letter and drawing or painting the object. This will be fun and it will help the students understand not only what uppercase and lowercase letter go together, but what order they go in with respect to the alphabet. This also can help with phonological awareness because the students can read the book by saying the letter name and then read the book again by saying the sound the letter makes. 

Another way to bring alphabet instruction into the classroom in a fun way is to play alphabet charades. The teacher can pair up the children. Each pair can draw a letter of the alphabet out of a bowl. Each group will have a turn to come in front of the class and use their bodies to make the letters. The students in the class can guess what letter the students are making by either saying the letter (or saying the sound the letter makes if the teacher is trying to incorporate phonological awareness). 

There are so many different ways to find this balance between alphabet instruction and phonological awareness. What ideas can you come up with?