RICA Reflection

4
Cassaundra Mayer
EDUG 547

Concepts about Print, letter

recognition, and the Alphabetic
principle

Cassie Mayer
October 5, 2015
EDUG 547
RICA Reflection 4
Concept about Print, Letter Recognition, and the Alphabetic Principle
Understanding concepts about print is the knowledge about letters,
words, and sentences and how they are represented in written language. The
following concepts about print are outlined in the RICA book: the relationship
between spoken and written language and the understanding that print
carries meaning; letter, word, and sentence representation; the direction
print goes and the ability to track print in text; book-handling skills (Zarrillo,
2011). Letter recognition is the ability to recognize and identify both
uppercase and lower case letters. Which leads to the Alphabetic principle,
which is understanding that sounds are represented by letters. This RICA
competency may seem like something that should come naturally, but these
are skills that need to be taught in primary grade levels.
In the kindergarten classroom I volunteered in last year I observed the
teacher teaching concepts about print to her students using modeling and by
asking questions of the students. Every day when the students came to the
carpet to read together she would read the title of the story presenting the
cover of the book and who the author and illustrator was. She also used her

finger to glide across the text from left to write, demonstrating that she was
reading the words with directionality. TPE 10: Instructional Time, requires
that teaching candidates allocate instructional time to maximize student
learning. In my classroom I want to provide my students with every
opportunity to view myself as a literate reader, and model those behaviors
for them. By modeling how to handle print and books my students can then
mimic my behavior and maximize their exposure to print.
Research shows that accurate and rapid letter recognition is an
essential component in learning to read (Zarrillo, p. 34). One of my tutees
has a difficult time recognizing letters. I have discovered this when we were
attempting to create words using manipulatives. I would ask my tutee to find
a certain letter that was in front of her, and she often found difficulty in doing
so. In order to help address the situation I plan on bringing flash cards with
the letters of the alphabet to work on individually. TPE 4: Making Content
Accessible requires candidates to vary instructional strategies according to
purpose, lesson content, and student needs. Another means of intervention
a teacher may use to help scaffold a student struggling with letter
recognition is by partnering the child with a more capable peer. According to
Vygotskys zone of proximal development, a child who can accomplish an
activity with the aid of a teacher or peer is in their zone of proximal
development and what a student can do with help today, they may be able
to do on their own soon enough.

Understanding that letters represent sounds is the alphabetic principle.

A child who understands the alphabetic principle knows that the purpose of
letters is to represent the sounds of words (Zarrillo, 2011). It can be difficult
for young children to grasp the concept that each word is represented by a
group of letters that ach have their own sound or blend together to create a
sound. Using formative assessment, a teacher can gather knowledge about
her students understanding of the alphabetic principle (Burden & Byrd,
2013). One of the boys I tutor during the week is in first grade. By reviewing
his writing I understand that he is just now gaining a firmer grasp that letters
represent sounds, and which of those letters goes with which sound. For
example, he may want to write, Ms. Cassie is a nice tutor, instead he may
write, Ms. Kase is a nis totr. He is hearing the sounds in the words he is
attempting to make, but he either misses a sound or spells the word
phonetically.
Concepts about print, letter recognition, and the alphabetic principle
almost seem second nature looking back on the last twenty years of my life.
But in all actuality this competency is something that I learned through my
family, teachers, and practice. As a primary teacher I plan to do my best to
model print concepts, and provide my students with continuous opportunities
to gain more knowledge about letter recognition and the alphabetic principle.

References
Burden, P. R., & Byrd, D. M. (2013). Methods For Effective Teaching: Meeting the
Needs of All Students. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.

California teaching performance expectations. (2013). Retrieved from Commission

on Teacher Credentialing: http://www.ctc.ca.gov/educator-prep/TPA-files/TPEsFull-Version.pdf
Vytgotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society. Interaction Between Learning and
Development, 79-91.
Zarrillo, J. J. (2011). Ready for Revised RICA A Test PReparation Guide for California's
Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.