What is the alphabetic principle?
- The alphabetic principle is the ability to connect letters to their sounds.
- Phonological awareness necessary to master the alphabetic principle as it is the ability to recognize individual sounds in the spoken language.
Why is the alphabetic principle important?
- When children learn to use the alphabetic principle fluently and automatically, they are able to devote all their attention to understanding the meaning of the text.
What about irregular words?
- Irregular words are more difficult to read accurately using the alphabetic principle. They require a different teaching approach. However, learning the alphabetic principle is still a superior strategy to sound out most words in the written language.
- The most common irregular words should be taught early in reading development so students will be able to read more complex and interesting texts that are otherwise highly decodable.
How do you teach the alphabetic principle?
- Overall, systematic and explicit instruction and lots of accuracy practice are vital.
- Teach students to connect letters to their most common sound or sounds.
- Teach students to read words using what they know about the sounds that letter and letter combinations make.
- Students should begin learning the individual sounds and blending sounds for simple consonant-vowel-consonant words before moving on to more complex words.
- An “I Do, We Do, You Do” strategy could be used to accomplish this.
- Have students begin reading texts that contain a high percentage of decodable words. This will help them build fluency.
