Starting at Square One
Chapter 5

Teaching Letters, Single Words, Phrases with Flashcards

Using flashcards to teach has been around for ages.  The technique works.  Sometimes it works too well. Why?  Because children want to please their parent or their teacher by getting the correct answer.  So their minds sometimes use shortcuts.  For example, when a child is being quizzed with a typical set of ten flashcards, the child may seize upon the fact that the word elephant is the only long word in the group and it starts with the letters el.  So now when he reads “Jack got on the elevator to go to the fourth floor,” he reads it as “Jack got on the elephant!”

So too, if a child sees only ball and stick letters the child may have a difficult time recognizing and reading other styles.  Notice the difference in these letters:  a  a  a   A   A a A.  They are not alike.  Yet the child must learn to respond automatically to all of them in order to become a good reader.  

That is the main reason why we suggest that you make your own flash cards.  Use your computer and its ability to change fonts, copy, and paste to make sure that as your child learns to read they won’t be dependent on seeing a letter or a word in just one font. We also suggest that you have at the top of your dry erase board an alphabet strip such as:

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

I

j

k

l

m

n

o

p

q

r

s

t

u

v

w

x

y

z

This happens to be D’Nealian® but it could just as well be Getty-Dubay Italic or whatever handwriting system you intend to teach.  We do hope that is not a stick and ball type system.  The important thing to do WHEN you first start to teach is to cover ALL the letters except the letter A so that it looks like this:

A

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Then, when you get to the letter B you uncover the B so that the chart looks like this:

A

B

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a

b

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Then, when you get to the letter C you uncover the C so that the chart looks like this:

A

B

C

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a

b

C

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, after teaching the D, the R, the S, and the T, when you get to the letter Y you uncover the Y so that the chart looks like this:

A

B

C

D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

R

S

T

 

 

 

 

Y

 

a

b

C

d

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

r

s

t

 

 

 

 

y

 

This uncovering of the letters as you teach them serves several purposes.

1.  It keeps the alphabet from becoming like wallpaper.  Wallpaper is something that’s there that you ignore most of the time.

2.  It keeps the children’s minds focused on the letter they are learning and those they have just learned.

3.  It gives the children a visual chart of their progress. 

4.  It gives you a visual reminder of what letters you can use to teach new words that are 100% decodable.

As you teach the alphabet, you should also be teaching words and phrases.  For example, once you get to the letter T (ABCD RST) you can teach the phrases START A CAR, a car starts, and Cars start using different cards and different fonts.  This can all be done on your own computer and is another reason for having your children learn the computer keyboard AS they are learning the alphabet and AS they are learning to read and to spell and to print.

Start a car.

A car starts.

Bart starts a car.