Early Literacy Skills in A–Z for Mat Man® and Me

Structured Flexibility

• We know that children learn best from a systematic approach to learning the alphabet, so we recommend the letter sequence shown. • We also know how busy you are and how overwhelming it can be to orchestrate your many learning resources. A–Z for Mat Man® and Me invites you to choose how to incorporate this program into your plans. • The Student Letter Books and their accompanying lessons can be taught in any order you choose. In your digital dashboard, you can set your letter sequence. • The Letter Learning and Meaning Making Lessons in this teacher’s guide fall in alphabetical order so that you can easily find which lesson you want to use based on your sequence. And the good news is that the instruction for each letter book stands on its own.

Essential Instruction

Alphabet Knowledge Skills Every Letter Learning lesson provides instruction on the target letter. Students learn to: • Identify the name and sound of letters • Practice the forms of the capital and lowercase letters

Narrative Comprehension Skills Every Meaning Making lesson provides instruction in listening and reading comprehension. Students learn to: • Identify characters, settings, and major events in a story • Identify the problem and the solution of a story • Describe the major events • Describe the actions and feelings of the main characters • Describe the setting • Use text evidence to support a response to a story

Skills Practiced

The Student Letter Books use target letters in context of fun stories. They are also intentionally designed to give word recognition practice in the following skills.

Recommended Letter Sequence:

m Tt Aa Nn Ss Rr Pp i Dd Hh g Ll Oo Ff

Phonics Skills • Consonant sounds, including hard c, /k/ for c; hard g, /g/ for g; and two sounds, /ks/ for x • Short vowel a • Short vowel i • Short vowel o • Short vowel u • Short vowel e • Final double consonant letters • Ending -ck • Endings -s, -es • Decode and encode VC and CVC words Top 25 High-Frequency Words* • the • of • and • to • a • in • is • that • it • was • for • you • he • on • as • are • they • with • be • his • at • or • from • had • I

* From The Educator’s Word Frequency Guide (Zeno et al., 1995) * High correlation to Dolch and Fry lists * Words in blue are decodable at this level.

Early Literacy Skills in A–Z for Mat Man® and Me

The Literacy Block

We recommend that you use this program during small-group rotation. • Follow the same routine with each letter. Teach Letter

Learning, followed by Meaning

Making. • Keep in mind that not all letters need the same attention. • Observe and move on quickly when students are successful or stay on a letter longer when students need more support.

Small Group

(15–20 minutes per session)

Plan for shared reading of each Student Letter Book. Lead an interactive read aloud or invite children to read with you. • Day 1: Teach each letter, using the Letter Learning lesson. • Day 2: Use the Meaning Making lesson to reread for discussing the story.

Centers and Independent Work

(15–20 minutes per session)

Children can stay actively engaged on their own through practice. • Use the Practice for Emerging Readers and Practice for Developing Readers for children to work on their own. • Have children work in pairs on hands-on activities, including with LWT manipulatives and the

A–Z for Mat Man® and Me Student App.

Optional Whole Group: You may occasionally want to gather all your students for reading aloud and modeling. Use both print books and project the stories from the A–Z for Mat Man® and Me Interactive Teaching Tool including the read aloud book, Mat Man® and the Great Alphabet Parade.

Bb Cc Zz Vv U Kk j Ww Ee y Xx Qq

Additional Early Literacy Skills

Each lesson offers guidance on how to incorporate additional early literacy skills before, during, and after reading each Student Letter Book. Phonological and phonemic awareness are incorporated into each lesson. You will find extensions for more sound practice related to each letter. As you read each book, you also can model concepts about print and encourage children to demonstrate their skills in their own copies of the books. Finally, children are continually expanding their spoken and written language skills with every book they read with you and every activity they do after reading.

Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Concepts About Print Language

• Recognize rhyme • Segment and blend syllables • Segment and blend onset-rime • Isolate initial phonemes • Isolate final phonemes • Isolate middle phonemes • Segment and blend phonemes • Manipulate phonemes • Recognize capital and lowercase letters • Follow words on a page, from top to bottom and left to right • Recognize words in a spoken sentence • Recognize written words represent spoken words • Through conversation after being read to and reading, use words and phrases • Discuss topics, with prompting and support • Provide an oral, pictorial, or written response to a story • Clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words