ABSTRACT
This chapter explores additional ways that knowledge of letters, sounds, and words are developed through word study lessons. Research on beginning reading indicates that letter knowledge is a strong predictor of children’s success in reading. Rimes are very useful for helping children develop spelling knowledge: nearly five hundred primary-grade-level words can be derived from a set of only thirty-five rime patterns. As children progress through the word study continuum, it is important that lessons be designed to be interactive and multimodal. Through repeated practice, children internalize specific knowledge about printed language. One of the earliest things children learn about literacy is a category for letters. Children must learn how to discriminate letters quickly and effortlessly. Letter Name Identification assessments allow teachers to see how many letter names children have acquired. A good way to achieve automaticity is for the teacher to design sound/symbol instruction so that it is multimodal.
