RICA Subtest 1: Concepts about Print, Letter Recognition, & the Alphabetic Principle

Letter Recognition

The ability to identify both the uppercase and lowercase letters when a teacher says the name of the letter and the child points to it

Letter naming

Ability to say the name of a letter when a teacher points to it

Letter formation

Ability to write the uppercase and lowercase letters legibly

The alphabetic principal

Is that in English speech sounds are represented by letters. Letters represent sounds

What are the concepts about print?

(1) Awareness of the relationship between spoken & written English & an understanding that print carries meaning, (2) Letter, word, & Sentence representation, (3)The directionality of print & the ability to track print, Book

What is the awareness of the relationship between spoken & written English & an understanding that print carries meaning

*most important concept. Child en should be aware that printed words are talk written down.  Children must know that printed words are used to transmit messages in stories in picture books, product names in advertisements, and menus in restaurants

What is letter, word, & sentence representation

Knowing the difference between letters, words, & sentences. Knowing how many letters in a word, how many words there are in a line of text. Children must also know where sentences end and begin, which requires the recognition of and punctuation

What is letter recognition?

The ability to correctly point to a letter

What is letter naming

The ability to correctly say the name of a letter when a teacher points to a letter

What is letter formation ?

The ability to write the Letter of the alphabet

Instruction for letter recognition

Direct instruction with practice writing letters

Assessment for letter recognition

Teacher names letter, child points

Assessment for letter naming

Teacher points, child names letter

Assessment for letter formation

Isolation

Awareness of the relationship between spoken English and an understanding that print carries meaning

the most important concept. children should be aware that printed words are talk written down. must know that printed words are used to transmit messages

Letter, Word, & Sentence Representation

knowledge of the differences between letters, words, and sentences.

the directionality of print and the ability to track print

knowing that English is read left to right and top to bottom. Tracking is the visible observable evidence that this concept has been learned

Book Handling Skills

reflect knowledge of how to hold a book when reading, where the front cover is, where the title page is, where the story starts, when and how to turn the pages, and the location of the back cover of a book

Concepts of Print Instruction

The Shared Book Experience: An instructional activity for young children in which a teacher uses a big book, an oversized picture book with large print.

Concepts about print

basic principle about how letters, words, and sentences are represented in written language.

Letter recognition

the ability to identify both upper and lowercase letters when the name of the letter is spoken (“Point to the big A’’)

Letter naming

reverse task. Point to a written letter and ask the child to name it.

Letter formation

aka letter production. The ability to write out upper and lowercase letters legibly.

Alphabet principle

letters represent sounds.

Concepts about print: What are they?

i. Awareness of the relationship between spoken and written English and an understanding that print carries meaning. Basically, print is talk written down. This is the most important concept!

ii. Letter, word, and sentence representation: the knowledge of the difference between letters, words, and sentences.

iii. Direction of print and ability to track print: left to right, top to bottom; can follow the print with a finger or pointer while it is being read.

iv. Book handling skills: how to hold a book, where the cover or title page is, when and how to turn pages, etc.

How to teach concepts about print

i. Read aloud to students: this teaches that print carries meaning and models book handling skills, and book enthusiasm! But doesn’t always teach much about the actual reading.

ii. The shared book experience: digs deeper with more explanation and student involvement. Attempts to achieve with a group what has long been accomplished when an adult sits and reads a picture book with a child 1:1. Has the potential to teach all concepts about print.

iii. Language experience approach (LEA): Used to help develop/support reading and writing abilities. Done by having a child verbally share an experience in detail while an adult records it by writing it down. This teaches most concepts about print, including directionality and tracking of print, but not book handling skills.

iv. Environmental print: printed messages that people encounter in ordinary, daily life. Includes signs, packaging, menus, tshirts, etc.

v. Print rich environment: all classrooms should have plenty of writing language on display. Ideas for this include labels/captions, morning messages, and mailboxes/cubbies. vi. Explicit/direct teaching of concepts about print: some students will need more attention and support when learning about print.

Importance of letter recognition in reading development & instructional strategies

research shows that acute and rapid letter recognition is an essential component in learning to read.

What are phonograms?

Rimes that have the same spelling.

Words that share the same phonogram are word families.

Ex: Rime or phonogram (at); word family: cat, bat, sat, hat.

How do you teach concepts about print?

1. Reading Aloud to Students: Reading aloud to students will teach them that text holds meaning and help them recognize the components of a book.

2. The Shared Book Experience: Big books are used by the teacher (1) introducing the book by looking at the cover and pointing out features of the book (I.e., author’s name, illustrator’s name, the title page); asks “What do you think this book will be about?”; (2) reads the story with full dramatic punch, overdoing it; pausing occasionally to encourage comments or predictions; if the teacher wants to stress directionality and tracking of print, they will point to every word as they read; (3) a discussion occurs before, during, and after the text reading; (4) the story is reread on subsequent days with the whole group, in small groups, pairs, or individuals acting out and enjoying the language patterns.

What is the language experience approach (LEA)?

• Intended to help develop and support a student’s reading and writing abilities.

• Children share an experience while the teacher records it verbatim; the teacher and student read the text; the text is saved and bound in a child’s personal reading book.

• This approach teaches students that print carries meaning, directionality and tracking of print, and sentence, word, and letter representation.

What is environmental print?

Printed messages that students encounter in ordinary, daily living (e.g., candy wrappers, menus, shirts, ads).

Can be used to show students that print carries meaning and letter, word, and sentence representation.

What is a print-rich environment?

1. Labels/captions on classroom items.

2. Morning Message of the day’s activities

What is the importance of letter recognition in reading development?

Accurate and rapid letter recognition is an essential component in learning to read.

Kindergartens that are able to quickly identify letters have a great chance of being successful at word identification and comprehension.

stages of spelling development

1. Precommunicative stage: The child uses symbols from the alphabet but shows no knowledge of letter-sound correspondences.

2. Semiphonetic stage: The child begins to understand letter-sound correspondence and starts experimenting with using single letters to represent whole words or significant sounds within words.

3. Phonetic stage: The child uses a letter or group of letters to represent every speech sound they hear in a word.

4. Transitional stage: The child is transitioning from phonetic spelling to more accurate spelling.

5. Correct stage: The child spells words correctly according to standard conventions.