Today’s Stream of Consciousness Prompt is Letter

As a  teacher I tend to think of  “letter” as a member of the alphabet.  And you can’t even think of using the other meaning of the word until you begin with ABC.    From there we start to understand that each letter has a phoneme or more associated with it.

I like the last method of teaching Reading and Writing that my school uses.  It is called THRASS – Teaching Handwriting, Reading and Spelling Skills.  It is a fun and thorough approach which takes the child through the Foundation Phase and beyond.   It involves rapping the alphabet and the phonics chart daily as she learns the intricacies of literacy.  The bright reference pictures, posters and work books are invaluable.  It makes learning a new letter every few days a great adventure.

The most exciting part of teaching is when the little learner finally breaks through and actually reads and writes on her own!   All those letter combinations finally make sense and all of a sudden she is reading.  Every time it happens, it amazes me because I don’t teach a child to read.  I simply present the tools and she catches Reading like she catches Chicken Pox!

Just as exciting is when she writes those first sentences.  She learns to use the words from the chart, words posted around the classroom, words from her reading book and words in her dictionary to make up her very own sentences.   Sometimes her spellings are not perfect but they make sense and are the cutest thing to read.

Finally she can start writing her own letters to the teacher.  I have many of these which I will always treasure.  And it all started with a simple alphabet letter!