An exploration of symbol–sound relationship

An exploration of symbol–sound relationship

 Primary Years Programme
An exploration of symbol–sound relationship

Published March 2019

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An exploration of symbol–sound relationship

Making connections

Setting the scene

Learning goals • Observing play helps educators to monitor and assess student
understanding.
• Student learning can be documented over time, with supportive and age-
appropriate opportunities and activities.
• Documenting inquiry supports assessment and planning.
Learn about The early learner
Assessment

School context
Anglo-American school, Russia
Monitoring and documenting students during their play provides opportunities for teachers to understand
where students are in their learning, and to plan for activities to extend this learning.

What is in a name?
Names hold great meaning for children and are, for many, the first written symbols and words they learn to
recognize by sight. We wanted to play with our names and see what understanding of symbol(letter)-sound
connections we can make. This is the story of our inquiry.

Figure 1: Alphabet wall

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Making connections

How we organize ourselves

Our initial provocation … We noticed our names were written on our library bags …
Central idea
Signs and symbols are human made systems that help people to communicate.
Concepts/related concepts
Form, function, connection, symbolism, systems, communication
Lines of inquiry
• What signs and symbols are
• How signs and symbols help people to communicate
• Systems of communication

While observing play …

While observing the children playing, we noticed that a small group were looking at the alphabet frieze and
were pointing out the initial letter of their name, excitedly saying, “That’s my name!” Two children claimed
the same letter, raising a bit of concern. It seemed that among the children there was an understanding
that the written symbol of a letter can be used to represent their own name, but confusion arose over how
the same letter could represent two different names. We decided to explore this idea further.

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Figure 2: Names board

Why are these names grouped like this? (Asked individually)

“They are all friends. But me and Veronika is friends. Maybe boy, boy, girl?”—Margarita
“Because they all playing or go to the houses together?”—James
“Because the square is big so has big group. If the square is small, only one name fits.” (Spoken in Russian.)
—Veronika
“Because in name the same letter, then it has group where have same letter.”—Sasha
“Because they eat together at their home. And the ones by self eat with their families?”—Tobias
“Maybe because they have the same letter?”—Lola

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Figure 3: Named student bag

“Mmm … did they play together today?”—Daria

With everyone recognizing each other’s names, we decided to introduce the alphabet wall. Each name was
shown and run along the letters, and the children would say “Stop!” when they thought it belonged in the
letter pocket. Everyone decided that the first letter was the important one to determine which symbol
(letter) pocket it would go into.
Our names were there when we were signing-in each morning … “Who’s here today?” is sung in the
morning while showing each child’s name. If a child sees their name, they respond with, “I’m here today!” If
a child is not there, we all sing, “Not here today!”

When we need the attention of the children, we call out “Cha-cha, cha-cha-cha.” and the children respond
with the same call. Lately, we changed ‘cha’ to be the beginning sound of a student’s name.
“V-v, v-v-v! Whose name?”
“VERONIKA!”
“M-m, m-m-m! Whose name?”
“MAX/MARGARITA/MARCELO!”

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Figure 4: Morning meeting activity

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Figure 5: Exploring names

Overheard in Russian culture class while looking at Russian letters

“I see a triangle.”—Tobias
“I have that letter in my name!”—Daria
“I see E like in English.”—Leo
(Pointing to A) “This is in my name.”—Max
(Pointing to A) “I see my name too.”—Sasha
“I see my T.”—Tobias
(Holding a Russian D) “This is in my first name.”—James

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Figure 6: Taking notice of names and numbers

After finding out that the majority of the children did not really take notice of the initial letters of each
other’s names, we decided to start to play with their names—learn about them, find out what we are
noticing about our names. Where do we see them? How do we know it is someone’s name? Why does the
name appear there in the list and not somewhere else?

Figure 7: Exploring the form of letters

Shortly after the first day of drawing attention to names, recognition started to happen all the time.
Children found their names, and started seeing their friends’ names, on the walls, around the classroom, on
their lockers, in the circle time games we play, and sometimes in the morning message.

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Making connections

Two weeks later we revisited the same question, looking to see if the children’s thinking had changed …

How do we make a message?

“Ummm … write words. Go at the alphabet wall—see and then write the words. I know Mommy … M, then
o, then m. Like Margarita’s M!”— Jonathan
“You can see their names on the message box or use the alphabet wall to know the letters.”—Daria

Figure 8: Introducing the message box

Overheard during play

“Can you write me a message?”
But you have to write me one first, then I will …”
“But you need to write me first, then I will!”
“Look, look what we did! We wrote so many to Jonathan! He has so many letters to write!!”
“Who to write … hmmm … [staring at and running a finger over the letter pockets of the alphabet wall]
James! J-J-J-James.”

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Why are these names grouped like this? (Asked individually)

Figure 9: Revisiting the names board

“My name belongs with Lola because she has two Ls, like my name has an L.”—Leo
“Marcelo and Margarita with me because Muh, Muh, Muh.”—Max
“This is the letter Muh. Leo and Lola will be letter Luh. Isabella is letter I and everyone is not.”—Margarita
“J and J in me and Jonathan. They are M, M, M in Max, Margarita and Marcelo. Same with Duh, Duh, Duh.
But there is no Tuh anymore for Tobias. We need somebody else Sss to go with Sasha.”—James
“Because their first letter is the same. But no one has the same as me. I’m a Tuh.”—Tobias

Teacher reflections
On inquiry
Our team took two weeks to focus on the children’s names to help inspire and support understanding of
symbol–sound relationship. During this time, children were first observed during play in order for us to
know the best way to set our invitation for learning. Then we asked each child questions to better know
their individual understanding, documented their thinking, and from that data we decided on our
approach—playful games, chants, songs and activities that use the names of the child and their peers.

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Making connections

We wanted to design our environment to promote this understanding—we set out the children’s sign-in
cards in areas that they are not normally placed, and found natural ways to draw attention to
environmental print. We continued to adapt our learning spaces to help promote our unit of inquiry and to
deepen children’s thinking as we observed their play.
At the end of these two weeks, we found that all of the children felt motivated and empowered by being
able to recognize and “read” their own and their friends’ names. Many were looking at books and noticing
the words that used the initial letters of their friends’ names. They started to use and share their knowledge
when writing during play: “You need a Daniel letter … D!” The initial letters of names started to show up
more in word approximations and student-initiated labelled drawings. Children were choosing to make
messages, using writing as a system to communicate with each other and with their family members.

On students
• Jonathan was comfortable with Korean symbols for sounds, but shy to share his knowledge with his
peers. Maybe we can speak to the different symbols that languages have for the same sounds?
(Families from our class can support Greek, Korean, Russian, Turkish, Spanish, Czech and Uzbek
alphabets.) This would support our line of inquiry systems of communication. Possibly an ongoing
project for the year?
• We noticed Daria writing other children’s names in full (from memory) and writing word
approximations with improving accuracy, freely labelling her drawings and bringing in work/writing
she’s made at home.
• James is often seen writing messages during play. We wonder if we can extend this by partnering him
with Daria—invite him to make books and use publishing apps to share his thinking with classmates
and family. He would motivate others as he is a strong social leader.
• Marcelo is still struggling, unsure of any other letter sounds apart from “M” and “O” (in English). We
continue to monitor him and create invitations to play with letters—in small groups— for example,
“Alphabet Bingo”, language games, EAL integrated support.
• Max has good understanding of sound–symbol relationships; however, his weak fine-motor skills may
be the reason he is not interested in playing with writing—he sits with friends but leaves shortly after,
leaving only faint writing markings. In what other ways can we further his sound–symbol thinking?
Motivate mark-making?
• We are presently developing our own Stages of Writing visuals so that the children are better able to
self-assess their own writing. We will hang the stages near our message-writing area with a small
explanation under each example. We will inform parents of the stages of writing via grade-level blog.

Questions
First impressions
1. How does this learning story connect with the unit of inquiry?
2. How are the children playing with names? What are they demonstrating or practising naturally with
this play?
3. What theories are children bringing to this inquiry? (Consider contexts—cultural, previous
experiences, languages)
4. How can you set (and continue to adapt) your environment to invite thinking about the symbol–
sound relationship and communication?

Deepening your understanding

1. How are the children talking about or demonstrating new symbol–sound understanding? How do you
know?
2. What is a good next step for those who are ready—in terms of unit, skills and curriculum? (Stretch this
thinking and understanding.)

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3. What might parents look for at home about their child’s learning during this inquiry?
4. What new inquiries is this inquiry leading you towards?

Acknowledgement and disclaimer

The IB wishes to thank the author and school for their time and effort in making this teacher support
material.
Appearance of branded products and well-known logos in this TSM is incidental. The IBO disclaims any
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