My journey as a Reading Recovery teacher is filled with unique stories of young learners overcoming literacy hurdles. Among these, one particular case stands out as exceptionally challenging yet profoundly rewarding. This post is dedicated to sharing insights from one of my most demanding rounds, focusing on a student who significantly struggled with Learning Letters. All four students in this round started with notably low scores across all tasks of the Observation Survey, indicating significant literacy challenges. Beyond basic literacy skills, these students faced a range of additional complexities, including speech and language delays, motor skill delays, inconsistent school attendance, and disruptive behaviors stemming from their kindergarten experiences that unfortunately disrupted crucial early instruction.
Entering this Reading Recovery round, I embraced the program’s inherent optimism. I was prepared to thoroughly assess their existing knowledge (“roam and around the known”) and create an environment ripe for discovery. Initial lessons reinforced my positive outlook. I was genuinely encouraged by their engagement with reading and writing tasks, and their own enthusiasm was infectious. However, the initial weeks soon brought the weight of addressing each student’s very specific and considerable needs. I found myself deeply immersed in resources like Literacy Lessons Designed for Individuals (LLDI) and actively seeking additional strategies to support oral language development, refine letter formation, boost motivation, and tackle memory difficulties. Each student became a constant focal point, my mind buzzing with lesson plans and potential pathways to success, even invading my dreams as I mentally rehearsed lessons and anticipated outcomes!
As this first round concludes, I’m reflecting on the progress made. One student has shown remarkable acceleration and will transition out of intervention services, moving to monitoring. Two others, while not exhibiting accelerated progress or a formal progressed designation, have still achieved a full year’s growth within just 20 weeks. Every student has taught me valuable lessons this year. However, for this reflection, I want to concentrate on the student who presented the most perplexing challenges, particularly in the area of learning letters.
This student’s initial scores mirrored my other Reading Recovery students, except in letter identification. His letter ID score was notably lower, recognizing only 12 letters – six uppercase and their corresponding lowercase forms. He demonstrated understanding of 5 out of 24 concepts about print, could not read any words, and struggled to represent sounds in writing (producing only numbers and two drawn stars). He could write one word – his name – and successfully reread a dictated sentence we created together. Initially, I wasn’t overly concerned, attributing some of these challenges to missed kindergarten instruction. My plan was to build upon his existing knowledge base and move forward from there. During the Observation Survey, his enthusiasm for books was evident; he was animated and eager to share his love for reading. He approached each task with initial confidence, but quickly became apologetic when faced with difficulty.
During the “roaming around the known” phase, he readily grasped basic concepts of print. He quickly internalized the repetitive language patterns in the books we read. He adopted word-by-word pointing with minimal modeling, identified known letters, recognized his name, demonstrated excellent letter formation, showcased strong oral language skills, became fluent with his known letters, and expressed genuine excitement for reading and creating his own narratives, especially those featuring lizards.
As we transitioned into formal lessons, I began introducing new letters and simple words. Our daily activities included letter sorts with magnetic letters, repeated letter formation practice using the verbal path method with diverse materials, letter identification within books, and the creation of a personalized ABC book featuring his known letters. However, over time, a concerning pattern emerged: he struggled to retain newly learned letters and words. Recalling letter and word learning from one activity to the next within a single lesson, and across subsequent days, proved extremely difficult. Throughout this period, I consulted with colleagues and implemented various suggested strategies, but progress remained minimal, especially concerning learning letters.
The urgency to expand his letter knowledge beyond the initial 12 became palpable. Marie Clay’s insight that “children who know only a few letters will learn words very slowly” resonated deeply with my observations of this student. Clay also emphasizes the need to “get the entire set of letters known as soon as possible,” while respecting the child’s learning pace (LLDI, p. 62). I needed to discover how to make letter learning more impactful and memorable for him. My focus intensified on effective strategies for learning letters.
A quote image with a person in silhouette against a bright, colorful sky. The quote reads: "Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it, you can never get it back." – Jay Shetty
The turning point in my teaching approach came through the consistent support of my teacher leader. Her insightful questions prompted critical reflection on my instructional decisions. She carefully observed my teaching practices, identifying potential sources of confusion, and closely monitored my student, noticing subtle behaviors I might have missed. Crucially, she guided me to the most relevant and helpful sections within LLDI, providing targeted support for learning letters.
For those interested, I want to share some of the strategies that facilitated a significant shift in this student’s learning trajectory, specifically in learning letters. It is important to remember that these techniques were effective for this particular student and may not be universally applicable to all learners struggling with letter recognition.
I adopted an even more intentional approach to teaching letters. I meticulously selected letters that had already piqued his interest or that he showed some prior, even minimal, familiarity with. At times, I even allowed him to choose the letter he wanted to learn next, fostering a sense of ownership in his learning letters journey. For example, he was captivated by the farmer’s exclamation “Quiet!” in The Farm Concert by Joy Cowley. The letter “Q” caught his attention, and he asked if he could learn that letter next. I meticulously documented all letter learning activities and his responses to them. I brainstormed creative and engaging activities tailored to his specific interests, always with the goal of making learning letters fun and relevant. Detailed records were kept regarding the time it took him to master each letter.
Once I identified letter learning activities that genuinely captured his attention and fostered progress in learning letters, I consistently utilized that set of options for subsequent letters. Initially, it took him slightly over a week to learn a single letter. However, after this adjustment, the learning time for subsequent letters decreased to 4-5 days. Notably, once his known letter repertoire reached approximately 21 letters, he began to independently learn letters that were not explicitly taught, demonstrating a significant breakthrough in his ability to learning letters.
Here are some of his most successful and engaging letter learning activities that proved highly effective in supporting his learning letters:
- Shaving Cream Letter Formation: (Every time we used shaving cream, he enthusiastically exclaimed, “This is such a satisfying feeling!”). The tactile experience greatly enhanced his learning letters.
- Letter Songs: He was particularly fond of the Jack Hartman letter songs. The auditory and rhythmic nature of these songs made learning letters more engaging and memorable.
- Wiki Stix Letter Creation: Using Wiki Stix to form letters was another favorite. After mastering a letter, he proudly decorated the wall with his Wiki Stix creation, reinforcing his learning letters in a visual and celebratory way.
- Student-Generated Verbal Paths: He developed his own verbal paths for letter formation, often drawing connections to classroom learning. For example, “ball, then bat” became his verbal path for the letter ‘d’, demonstrating a personalized approach to learning letters.
- Textured Alphabet Tracing Book: We used a Jan Richardson-style alphabet tracing book, enhancing the tactile experience by outlining letters with puffy paint. This multi-sensory approach aided in learning letters by engaging his sense of touch.
- Rosie and Bella Letter Books: Reading the Rosie and Bella letter books provided context and reinforcement for learning letters within engaging narratives.
- Surprise Letter Item Introductions: I would greet him in his classroom with a surprise item starting with the letter we were working on. For instance, a stuffed fox for the letter ‘f’ (knowing his love for animals). This element of surprise and personal connection made learning letters more exciting and relevant to his interests.
Throughout this intensive focus on learning letters, I constantly reminded myself to maintain balance. Isolated letter and word work remained a focused but relatively small segment of each lesson. I ensured that letter learning was consistently embedded within the meaningful contexts of reading and writing. Explicitly connecting his known letters and the new letter being learned within the text became a key strategy. Careful book selection, intentionally choosing texts that highlighted familiar letters and provided opportunities to practice new ones, was crucial in making memorable connections and solidifying his learning letters. Helping him recognize his existing letter knowledge within the books we read extended to him noticing and pointing out letters in environmental print at school and even at home, as his mother reported. This broader application demonstrated the real-world relevance of learning letters.
By the end of the lesson series, although this student didn’t achieve accelerated growth or progress to the next intervention level, his time in Reading Recovery was undeniably valuable. It provided critical insights into the teaching strategies that effectively supported his learning style, particularly in learning letters. Many of the successful instructional approaches discovered within Reading Recovery could be readily applied to other areas of his school day, such as number learning in math, demonstrating the transferability of effective strategies for learning letters.
Currently, I would describe this student as a strategic, confident, and joyful reader when engaged with text at his instructional level. He exhibits pride in self-monitoring and self-correcting his reading. During our final week of lessons, he beamed with pride after independently performing a letter-by-letter sound analysis to decode an unknown word, requiring no prompting or support. His excited reread of the sentence conveyed genuine surprise and accomplishment at his newfound ability to “figure it out.” This success in learning letters and applying that knowledge to reading was a major milestone.
Despite the initial challenges with reading and writing, he consistently expresses his love for reading. He clearly views himself as a capable learner, making self-aware comments about “fixing” his reading or successfully decoding words, often exclaiming “I’m smart!” upon achieving a new milestone. This growing self-efficacy, fostered through focused support in learning letters, is invaluable.
In a time where Reading Recovery programs often face pressure to demonstrate quantifiable results, I acknowledge the desire for faster progress for this student. While I wished for him to conclude the series reading at grade level and for his literacy journey to become easier, I firmly believe that Reading Recovery played a vital role in his success and growth at the beginning of first grade. I adopted the mindset that it was my responsibility to discover effective teaching methods tailored to his unique needs. Attributing his lack of progress to the student himself would have been unproductive. Reading Recovery provided crucial motivation and a sense of accomplishment, even with limited initial letter knowledge. This was achieved by consistently meeting him at his current level, rather than focusing on predetermined benchmarks. Through Reading Recovery, I gained the freedom to create personalized learning experiences based on his interests and motivations. It is likely this student will require special education services in the future. However, the insights gained about his learning preferences and effective strategies, especially in learning letters, will be invaluable contributions to his Individualized Education Program (IEP).
As an educator, this student has profoundly impacted my professional growth, teaching me to:
- Sharpen my observational skills, noticing subtle cues and learning patterns.
- Enhance intentionality in lesson planning, ensuring every activity is purposeful and targeted.
- Emphasize explicit connections between known elements and new learning within text.
- Recognize and leverage the immense power of student interests as motivators and learning tools, especially in learning letters.
How did your first round go this school year? What valuable lessons have you learned from your most challenging students, particularly in the realm of learning letters and early literacy development?
