Video: Progress on Naming Letters with Intervention Students

Day nine of kindergarten

Most of the content of this post is in the video. I wrote (and talked) here about how I do letter name interventions at the beginning of the year with those students who come in knowing very few letter names. Each year I choose about nine students because that seems to be the max number I can work with during our daily 35-minute quiet time/intervention time.

Now that we are in “full swing” with the one-on-one letter name practice routine, you’ll get glimpses in the video of how I manage each student’s letter card stack. The letters they are currently working on—letters in their name and letters I’ve introduced during whole group phonics—are rubber-banded together. The remaining letter cards are laying loose in their letter box.

I show one letter at a time by laying it on the table. If the student names the letter, I leave it there. If the student cannot name the letter or needs to look at the clue on the back of the letter card before naming it, I pick it up and put it back in the stack I am holding. I do not put it at the bottom; instead, I put it two or three positions down. This is so the student will see the same letter again soon and have a chance at naming it before it leaves their short-term memory. If they are able to name it upon seeing it the second time, I might leave it on the table or, if time allows, put it back in my stack two or three positions down again. This technique works amazingly well in increasing the number of letters students can identify.

Interestingly—and I just found this out this summer—David Kilpatrick, author of Equipped for Reading Success, works on letter names with struggling students in the exact same way! From his book on page 110:

When a student cannot identify a letter sound (or letter name), correct the error immediately. However, do not put that card at the back of the stack. Put it 1 or 2 cards back in the pile so the student will see it again soon. Do the same when the student responds slowly but correctly. If the student gets it correct the second time, still refrain from putting it in the back. Rather, put the card back 4-5 cards behind the front card. This gives the student further opportunity for reinforcement. Only correct items responded to instantly the first time go to the back of the deck.

When a student knows about 90% of their stack of letters, I will add in a few more to start practicing.

In today’s video you will see how much progress the intervention students have made already in just nine days of school (which is about seven days of intervention). Hopefully you observe how much progress is made in just one session, too. You’ll see, like I do, that some of the students are going to make faster progress than others; that is why I will reassess at the end of September and decide on the nine students I will work with during the month of October.