Word Work, the Reading Recovery Way - Pt. 2

It's about time, teachers, for Part 2 of Word Work, the Reading Recovery Way.  If you missed my 1st post, you can read it here.

Let me start with an aside:  In America, we typically work on all of the upper case letters first.  As I understand it, our British friends commence with lower case letters.  I say,  "Well done, Brits," because when you introduce proper nouns, it is much easier to instill the need for capitalizing the first letter.  This is as opposed to us Yankees trying to "unlearn" writing every word with a capital letter.  Just food for thought...

Regardless of the letter case you tackle first, you will eventually reach the time when your student must differentiate between upper and lower case letters.  In a sorting activity, that means you will include both cases of known letters.  

Ask the student to sort by letter first.

When she demonstrates automaticity with this sort, proceed to sorting by 2 characteristics:  letter & case.

Up the ante by adding more letters to the pool.

Again sort by letter first.

Then sort by 2 characteristics again.

Before you start working with actual words, conduct other characteristic sorts.  For example, find all the letters that have humps; letters with sticks; letters that start like c.

Go forth & sort!  Then come back for more Word Work, the Reading Recovery Way.

Be sure you check out my facebook page for the grammar gaffe of the day.