Step #4 Learning About Speech to Print

Estimated time to complete this step: 15 minutes

LETRS

You should become familiar with the term “speech to print,” often associated with researcher Louisa Moats who developed LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling). You may have heard of LETRS before as numerous states have passed legislation requiring it or a similar program for professors at schools of education who train teachers in early literacy. Many school districts, including mine, are now requiring teachers to undergo this 160-hour course or one similar while carrying a full-time teaching load. Please appreciate the efforts your teachers and professors are making, as well as the grieving that they may be doing, as they retrain in more effective methods.

View Program and Watch LETRS Overview Video

Hopefully, within the next few years, all elementary education students will gain this sort of knowledge before graduation and be given the opportunity to teach reading as a student teacher under the supervision of an experienced educator. Too many young teachers end up alone in their own classrooms teaching reading for the first time without actually knowing how to do it! This is a recipe for disaster. Thank goodness, surgeons are not trained this way! No wonder we lose so many valuable teachers within their first five years and have so many frustrated students and parents. Most teachers want to do right by their students and are hungry for this knowledge. Donna Hejtmanek (pronounced Height MAN ek) created the Facebook group for teachers called The Science of Reading: What I Should Have Learned in College which has over 209,000 members. You may want to join them as there are good educational programs featured there.

More on Speech to Print

Nora Chabhazi developed the EBLI program to speed up the “speech to print” learning process. EBLI is quite unique and so is Nora. Please grab a white board and marker (or a paper and pencil if you don’t have those yet) and become a student for her free lesson 1 with the words “up, tea, earn, and weigh.” Nora has many sequential lessons available online which allow you to segment words and spell them with fresh ears. I think that EBLI could work for any age but would be particularly useful for adolescents and adults because it moves along so fast. Please follow Nora’s instructions to the letter (a little phonics humor) and start to rewire your very own brain!

Video:
1, 2, 3 and 4 Letters for 1 Sound – Supercharge Literacy Lesson 1: Up, Tea, Earn, Weigh – EBLI
Nora Chabhazi

Watch Video

Step #1: The Big Picture

Step #2: Understand How Reading Works

Step #3: Toddlers and Reading

Step #4: Learning About Speech to Print

Step #5: Decodable Text

Step #6: What NOT to Do for Initial Reading Instruction

Step #7: Handwriting & Reading

Step #8: How English Works

Step #9: English Language Varieties

Step #10: For Extra Credit

Go to Step 5