Nahid Behnam

CHD 119
Dr. Schull Spring 2016

My second literacy project choice is an alphabet tracing book called: MY

Alphabet Book. This book is available to teachers in FCPS through eLearnIt course. The
objective is to recognize and name capital and lowercase letters. It is a great resource for
children who start kindergarten with little knowledge of the alphabet recognition and or
letter sounds. We work with those students every day for five minutes introducing four
letter each time. When they master the four letters we introduce four new letters. This
book come with a manual page for the teachers, The Hand Writing song, Additional
Lyrics and a Letter Tracing Record page.
The purpose of the Letter tracing is to help intervention students to learn the
letters of the alphabets in different ways. Letter tracing teaches students the letter
formation, and sounds. Students are to trace the uppercase and then the lowercase letter
then they are to say the sounds it makes. There are a colorful pictures on each page and
big letter to trace by their index finger. The instructional assistant or adult tutors can be
receive training to work with these individuals. If this resource use with student every
day for five minutes, the students will learn their uppercase and lower case letters in six
weeks. We have used these resources with four of our students this year and they learned
the alphabets and their sounds.
We select these students after testing the DRA2 word Analysis target letter.
If the student didnt meet the benchmark
1. (20/26) for capital letters.
2. (12/26) for lowercase letters
3. Or students who are not secure in knowledge and are confused.
It was very easy to make this book. I first printed a copy of complete FCPS Letter
Tracing Book FCPS Letter Tracing Record for each selected student.
I cut the pages, bind and used a sticky notes to tab targeted and known letters.
Update records and tab as needed. Each time I work with the student I put a minus
sign next to the targeted letter pair, then when the letter is known I created a vertical
slash through the minus sign to indicate the latter is known. If the student know one
letter in the pair I made a plus sign next to the known letter and minus next to the
unknown letter.
We selected letters for tracing book by beginning with unknown letters. To know
which letters are known we used Tasks 5 to 6 of the DRA2 WA. And if the student
didnt know any letters we started by the students first or nickname. As the student
progressed we add more focus letter.
The following letters-learning sequence is suggested.

o b, m, r, s, a
o t, g, n, p, o
o c, h, f, d, e
o l, k, j, w, i
o y, z, v, x, q, u
Once focus letters were know by the students we add a new letter as appropriate for
that student. Below is an example of the first page of the book. Since it was a pdf file

I couldnt up loud it to my project. But the address above is open to all FCPS
employee through eLearn It.

Procedure
Use the FCPS Letter Tracing Book with individual intervention students.
For each letter, the book has the capital letter and the lowercase letter on top and an anchor
picture under them.)
The student should always trace with his or her pointing finger. A pencil or marker must not be
used. Always practice letters in alphabetical order.
Model using the FCPS Verbal Pathway (included in this file), which almost always directs
students to begin at the top, but do not say the pathway. Say and trace the uppercase and
lowercase letter form followed by saying the name of the picture (e.g., B, b, banana). If the
student does not know the name of the picture, teach him or her the picture name and how to
say it.
Allow the student to practice. Teach, prompt, and reinforce as appropriate. Stop the student and
model or redirect at the point of confusion. The tutor may lightly hold the students hand to
assist with tracing.
Cease support as soon as the student demonstrates independence.
Remember to ensure the student overlearns each letter and recognizes letters fluently.
My next favorite thing teaching this intervention method was, the Hand Writing Song, Additional
Lyrics and a Letter Tracing Record page.

The Handwriting Song

Sung to the tune of
If youre Happy and You Know It

I always start my letters at the top!

I always start my letters at the top!
When I write another letter,
I get better, better, better,
If I always start my letters at the top!
Additional Lyrics
Teacher (points to bottom): Is this the top, top, top?
Students: No, its the bottom!
Teacher (points to middle): Is this the top, top, top?
Students: No, its the middle!

Teacher (points to top): Is this the top, top, top?

Students: Yes, its the top, top, top!
Teacher: Where do you start your letters?
Students (raise hands): At the top!

The Handwriting song is public domain.

Permission is granted by Nellie Edge.
Author of additional lyrics is unknown.

Finally the verbal for pathway formation: This is also a great tool
for teachers to learn and work with the students. When I worked with
my students with their Letter Tracing Book, and saying the letter
formation the students right away say what letter it was. I would
recommend this reading resources for teaching students who are in
need of intervention. What I like most about this book is that its simple
and easy to read for children with no or little understanding of
alphabets and their sounds.
The colors are so vibrant, the children dont get tried and they
dont get stress out since they dont have busy pages. Most
importantly it is tied with VA Standard of Learning and the big Five
Phonics and reading. K.9 The student will print the uppercase and lowercase letters
of the alphabet independently. K.10 The student will print his/her first and last names.
K.11 The student will write to communicate ideas. a) Draw pictures and/or use letters and
phonetically spelled words to write about experiences, stories, people, objects, or events.
b) Write left to right and top to bottom. K.12 The student will explore the uses of
available technology for reading and writing.
Please check below for viewing the two Letter Formation pages.