Are you teaching letter sounds to English learners? If so, you know it takes repetition and practice for it become automatic. Introduce just a few letters at a time and teach the letter name, the most common sound to start, and a picture to build a connection. As you teach the letters and sounds, give students plenty of opportunities to practice these letters both in isolation and in context.
Integrate Speaking with Letter Sounds
To support English learners, I provide lots of practice through games and fun activities. A memory or matching game is a great way to practice a few at a time. You can help students learn beginning sounds while building academic vocabulary and social language too.
Sort By Beginning Sounds
Practice those beginning sounds and vocabulary with English learners by sorting. Students will practice isolating the first sound to sort.
Make learning letter sounds fun!
Once students know most of the letters of the alphabet, I introduce bingo. It’s a fun way to review and practice the letters of the alphabet and their corresponding sounds
More Letter Sounds Practice
Learning a language takes repetition, so integrate different ways to use new words in all language domains. Adding some sentence starters helps support English learners as they begin to speak in complete sentences. It also gives them a chance to practice new vocabulary in context. Finally, it’s a great introduction to high frequency words.
Integrate Print
Be sure to include environmental print, poems, alphabet books and more. Finding letters in context will continue to help you English learners grow their letter sound knowledge!
Resources for Teaching Letter Sounds to English Learners
Most of the resources found here are in my Beginning Sounds Bundle. The photographs alone are a wonderful resource to use with English learners. Check out all the materials here:
