When young children learn reading skills through lively and engaging lessons, the skills they acquire are retained and form the foundation of all their learning. The five online classrooms in iRead’s Beastie Hall present this knowledge in a fun and explicit way to give children an edge in foundational reading skills.
Today you’ll learn how Miss A and Coach Z approach phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge.
Meet Miss A and Coach Z
As their names imply, the dynamic teaching duo of Miss A and Coach Z is found in Beastie Hall’s Alphabet Classroom, and their focus is on these foundational skills that are most predictive of long-term reading success. (In fact, their classroom motto is “A little letter goes a long way.”)
- Alphabetic Knowledge
- Phonological Awareness
- Letter Sounds
- Rapid Letter Recognition
In addition to ensuring that children learn to recognize the shapes and names of the letters we use to read and write, Miss A and Coach Z emphasize phonological awareness, which iRead® contributor Dr. Anne Cunningham defines as the ability to hear sounds in the dark—independent of any text. Their lessons also focus on rapid letter naming—the ability to rapidly identify all upper- and lower-case letters.
Recognizing that alphabet knowledge forms a critical foundation for all learning—and that engagement is key to children’s retention of these important skills—this team takes a highly intentional yet fun approach, making sure that the learning sticks and becomes the building block it is meant to be.
Explore all of Beastie Hall’s classrooms here, and watch this space to meet more foundational skills experts in the coming weeks.
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