Sunday, February 21, 2010

Letter Naming Fluency? Alphabet Memory!

Your student is having trouble with Letter Recognition (expressively naming the capital and/lowercase letters of the alphabet) or Letter Naming Fluency (expressively naming the cap/lowercase letters quickly in one minute of time).

First, collect baseline.  You could use the DIBELS benchmark score (K or 1) for the beginning of the year.  You could also use http://www.interventioncentral.org/ and print your own Letter Naming Fluency Probe with data collection sheet.

Next, try this- ALPHABET MEMORY GAME.

Materials:  Cards with capital and lowercase letters printed on them.

Use 8-12 pairs of cards depending on the students.  Ask 2 or more students to play (the lower the number, the more "intense" the intervention.  Decide how often you will complete this "intervention" (ex: twice a week for 10 min.).

Students should take turns choosing 2 cards and attempting to match the capital and lowercase letter.  Each student should say the letter names out loud (expressively) before taking a match or flipping over a non-match.

Monitor progress.  Once a week, pull your student for one minute to complete a Letter Naming Fluency probe.  These can be found on interventioncentral.org or you can make your own.  Time your student for one minute. (DIBELS beg. benchmark is 8; midyear benchmark is 27 for a Kindergarten student.)

This intervention can be found (with print ready materials) on the Florida Center for Reading Research website- http://www.fcrr.og/.