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Beginning Literacy Practice Ideas

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Teaching Basic Literacy: Some Starting Places

Can the student:

  1. say the alphabet?
  2. point to the alphabet letter that you name?/name the letter that you point to?
  3. tell you the sound that each letter makes?
  4. form the letters him/herself?
  5. write his/her name?
  6. recognize written names of other family members?
  7. identify the initial consonant of a word (e.g. "What letter does the word "baby" start with?")
  8. sound out three letter words?
  9. Fill out a simple personal information form (name, address, phone, birth date, signature)?
  10. match a simple sight word to a picture or object?
  11. copy these sight words and read them back to you?
  12. recognize simple sight words like: book, mother, dog, house, milk?
  13. read simple signs (stop, men/women, push/pull, danger, etc.)
  14. recognize words related to: clothing, colors, body parts, family members, foods, animals, household objects, etc.?
  15. read simple sentences using such vocabulary? (See suggested sentence patterns below)
  16. copy and read back such sentences?
  17. complete simple exercises using the patterns below? (scrambled sentences, fill in the blanks, "yes or no" [true or false], etc.)
  18. generate sentences by him/herself following patterns such as those below?

Simple Sentence Patterns

You'll need to find out the names of your student's family members/friends in order to generate a series of true sentences. A good way to start is to look at family photos, or work on a family tree diagram.

One series of sentences is usually enough for a day's lesson-don't introduce too much new content at once. Introduce the pattern orally first (to clarify the meaning), then generate 5-10 written sentences using the same pattern. You can write yourself into the pattern too!

This page last updated on November 1, 2007