Curriculum Evaluation Letterland

Kimberly Clark Appalachian State University Dr. Melanie Greene July 2013

Biographical Information The Letterland program was developed Lyn Wendon, originator and author, Lisa Holt, author, and Sarah Edwards, author, in 1968. This program is a phonics-based approach to teaching reading, writing, and spelling. That is geared towards 3 to 8 year olds. Letterland uses childfriendly characters to explain letter sounds and shapes. The creator of the program, Lyn Wendon, was born in Florence Italy, but grew up in the United States. She received a BA from Wellesley College and received a diploma in Experimental Education Psychology from the Cambridge Institute of Education. She then worked in primary schools a various independent schools as a peripatetic special needs teacher. She has three children and remains a consultant to Letterland. Lisa Holt, the author, attended York University where she studied English Linguistics. Afterwards, she taught English in the United Kingdom and abroad. She became a writer, editor, and designer of childrens books and has written over 30 phonics titles and recently won the Gourmand Cookbook Award for the title Letterland Cookbook. Author, Sarah Edwards is a designer and editor in the childrens magazine and book sector with over ten years experience. She has written stories for several childrens magazines and a number of Letterland titles including Dippy Ducks Day of Discovery.

Content Area/Constituents The program marketed for students age 3 to 8 provides lessons focusing on phonics-based approach to teaching reading, writing and spelling. The standard black letter shapes are transformed into child-friendly pictograms. Simple stories about these characters explain the full range of dry phonics facts that motivate children to listen, think and to learn. The stories are created to explain letter sounds and shapes, allowing children to progress to word building, reading and writing. Letterland believes that small is beautiful. We are a family-owned independent publisher with a big reputation to uphold. For over 40 years, our mission has been to ensure that as many young children as possible have fun learning to read, write and spell. We want our smallest customers to enjoy our books and to develop a love of reading that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. (http://www.letterland.com/)

Aims/Goals The goal of the Letterland Program is to provide students with the confidence to read and write. They believe in order to do this; children need to develop a wide range of skills in their early years. Phonic knowledge is an important part of this, by learning letter shapes, and the sounds they make in words, the children become confident and secure readers.

Letterland states:

Our friendly letter characters provide visual memory clues for children - so they'll learn and retain letter shape and sound correspondences quickly and securely. Our books are bright, enjoyable and fun - making learning to read a pleasure not a chore. Each title includes easy-to-follow tips and guidance written by education experts - so you can be sure you're not making any mistakes, or contradicting what your child is learning at nursery or school. Our wide range of titles, from picture books, story books and activity books to CDs and award-winning software means there's always a way for you to engage even the most reluctant reader. The books are high-quality, bright and attractive - your children will want to come back to them again and again. What's more, our teaching and learning titles are all in-line with the very latest education policies, so you can be sure you're buying the very best for your child. Used in thousands of schools, Letterland books are endorsed by experts, trusted by teachers and loved by children across the world Overview of Content, Activities, Approaches

This program offers kits for different grade levels. They offer kits for Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade. Not only do they offer kits for teachers, but they also offer packages for parents. The fully multi-sensory program offers pictograms, visual mnemonics for letter behavior, song, rhyme, alliteration and storytelling that stimulates auditory learning for different age groups. Each grade level offers different curriculums that build from the previous one. The pre-school curriculum offers activities in phonic awareness, uppercase letters and lowercase letters shapes and sounds, and language development. The kindergarten curriculum offers activities in phonemic awareness, alphabet immersion, blending/segmenting, and high-frequency sight words. The first grade curriculum offers activities in multi-sensory learning, decodable stories, and fluency focus. The second grade curriculum offers activities on word structure/syllabification, prefixes/suffixes, fluency/comprehension, plays and word games, consonant doubling in multi-syllable words, the six types of syllable division, variant plurals, and silent letters. The second grade curriculum also offers a review of all of the first grade concepts in more challenging words. Each of the curriculums offer assessments for the teachers, systematic instruction, interactive lessons, intervention activities, for the students who are struggling. Each curriculum offers a lesson plan for teachers to follow. The lesson plans gives you a review for the previous section, lays out the unit to be studied, how to introduce the unit, and possible activities, worksheets, group activities, songs, books, or videos. The end of the lesson plans is where you will find the assessments and intervention activities.

Kindergarten offers teacher guide, student reproducible workbooks, CD s, onset and rimes flipchart book, phonics chart, Letterland character story books, flashcards, videos, puzzles, big books, magnets, posters, and frieze for teachers. The First Grade curriculum offers letter cards, posters, puzzles, teachers guide, reproducible, workbooks, CDs, and alphabet frieze for teachers. The Second Grade curriculum offers teachers guide, letter cards, video, and workbook. Literature books based on the characters, and sing-along CDs for teachers to use. Philosophical Principles Based on the Letterland website and the lesson plans, the curriculum most aligns with progressivism. The authors believe that small children should have fun learning to read, write, and spell. They want each of their students to enjoy their books and develop a love of reading that will stay with them the rest of their lives.

Letterland follows a six step process that they believe will allow children to progress quickly to word building, reading, and writing. The six steps are: 1. Letter Sounds; once you have met the friendly Letterland characters, just start to say their names for the correct letter sound. 2. Letter Shapes; Simple stories about the Letterland characters ensure correct letter formation, avoiding confusion over similar looking letters. 3. Action Tricks; Actions for the alphabet are linked to each character, forging a strong connection between the action, letter shape and sound. 4. Word Building; Blending & segmenting all through words is introduced very early on, covering blends, digraphs and trigraphs. 5. Advanced Spelling; Phonics stories give children a friendly logic for remembering all 44 letter sounds and their major spellings. 6. Multi-sensory Learning; Letterland activates every learning channel through music, actions, movement, song, art, craft, games and role-play. Letterland states The use of characters and actions to teach phonics is supported by scientific research. The Letterland system is also in line with research on memory and the way we learn. Each Letterland character has a personality and lives in a realistic environment filled with alliterative objects. By integrating phonics with life experience, they provide children with a systematic and motivating framework for learning all 44 sounds and their spellings and for developing full literacy. (http://www.letterland.com)

Worth of the Curriculum

If you are looking for a fun, colorful and exciting way to teach students to read, spell, and write, this curriculum may work. They offer numerous engaging activities that teach skills that align with North Carolina Common Core Reading Standards. Students are engaged and excited about the program. Teachers have opportunities to attend training sessions. Positives: This curriculum aligns with the North Carolina Common Core Reading Standards: Foundational Skills in Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade. This curriculum is a high quality product that is colorful and an attention grabber. It captures students attentions and they enjoy the characters. Students learn letter sounds and new concepts Has easy to follow lessons. Offers Letterland Day at Tweetsie Railroad in Boone, NC, where students can ride the Letterland train and meet Letterland characters. Now offers e-books and IPad options. Offers training opportunities for teachers. Parents can purchase books, CDs, etc.

Negatives: They only use Zaner-Bloser. Some schools use DNeilan, so students have to learn letter shapes twice. The program is harder to incorporate over into the aspects of other literacy programs (Rigby, Basal, Open Court) Kids only know the characters, but dont realize the letter . Example, they know Fireman Fred, but dont know he is an F. Student can become too dependent on the characters.

If you are looking for an engaging way for students to learn to read, this is a good one. If your district does not use the Zaner-Bloser writing style, it may be confusing for the students. But overall this is a good curriculum.

Resources
http://www.letterland.com/documents/pdf/us_kindergarten_volume1.pdf

http://www.letterland.com/

http://www.letterland.com/documents/pdf/Letterland-Correlation-Common-Core-State-StandardsJune-2011.pdf

Clark, K. (2013) [Interview of Janet Keever, Family and Consumer Science Teacher at South Caldwell High School].