How is the alphabet taught?
The teaching of the alphabet is built on your child’s experiences in the Waldorf Kindergarten (van Kleek, A and Schuele, C.M; 2010). The role of the teacher at this stage is to foster children’s imaginations. Literacy is introduced through stories and fantasy play. Traditional academic skills, such as the alphabet, is not introduced until children are 6 or 7 years old, however the approach emphasis oral and visual communication through story telling. Children are introduced to the alphabet through learning how letters emerge from pictographs.
The teachers always begin with capital letters. Each letter is assigned a character and story, such as M for ‘Mountain, and a story featuring a mountain trek. The stories are usually old fairy tales (still with all the gruesome bits), which the teacher learns off by heart, so they do not read from the book but rather give their full attention to acting out the tale. When introducing the letter, the teacher draws on the chalk board, showing how the letter is embedded in the picture. The sound that the letters make can also be used to help introduce the letter, such as the sound of the waves for the letter W. After the letter is presented, the children can draw the letter in the air with their hands and on the ground with their feet, including the ‘whole being’ in the process. Following this, the children recreate the letter, and the mountains, in their books, slowing creating their own text book of letters (Alphabet Letters, Waldorf Style; 2011).
Reading is seen as growing from writing, and writing evolves from the children’s art. This art was the basis of their alphabet education (van Kleek, A and Schuele, C.M 2010). Steiner education finds it appropriate to make this transition with caution (Larsson, J and Dahlin, B; 2012). As learning the alphabet is a transition from oral to written language, when teaching the alphabet, each letter is shown to grow out of a living form; for instance, an S may be seen to come out of the neck of (a picture of) a swan.
The use of narratives such as fairy tales do as much good for the children as they are entertaining. Foremost, these stories are used to build a platform on which the letter that the children are studying can sit. They provide a background of information, rather than just a singular letter that is a completely new concept to your child. On top of this however, the narratives and activities relating to story structure are also providing an effective opportunity for instructing young children in comprehension strategies (Pentimonti, J, Zucker, T and Justice, L; 2011). These strategies will aid them in their developing literacy skills, such as learning to read and write effectively.
The teachers always begin with capital letters. Each letter is assigned a character and story, such as M for ‘Mountain, and a story featuring a mountain trek. The stories are usually old fairy tales (still with all the gruesome bits), which the teacher learns off by heart, so they do not read from the book but rather give their full attention to acting out the tale. When introducing the letter, the teacher draws on the chalk board, showing how the letter is embedded in the picture. The sound that the letters make can also be used to help introduce the letter, such as the sound of the waves for the letter W. After the letter is presented, the children can draw the letter in the air with their hands and on the ground with their feet, including the ‘whole being’ in the process. Following this, the children recreate the letter, and the mountains, in their books, slowing creating their own text book of letters (Alphabet Letters, Waldorf Style; 2011).
Reading is seen as growing from writing, and writing evolves from the children’s art. This art was the basis of their alphabet education (van Kleek, A and Schuele, C.M 2010). Steiner education finds it appropriate to make this transition with caution (Larsson, J and Dahlin, B; 2012). As learning the alphabet is a transition from oral to written language, when teaching the alphabet, each letter is shown to grow out of a living form; for instance, an S may be seen to come out of the neck of (a picture of) a swan.
The use of narratives such as fairy tales do as much good for the children as they are entertaining. Foremost, these stories are used to build a platform on which the letter that the children are studying can sit. They provide a background of information, rather than just a singular letter that is a completely new concept to your child. On top of this however, the narratives and activities relating to story structure are also providing an effective opportunity for instructing young children in comprehension strategies (Pentimonti, J, Zucker, T and Justice, L; 2011). These strategies will aid them in their developing literacy skills, such as learning to read and write effectively.
This video provides an overview of the method and basic theory behind the Waldorf approach to teaching the alphabet (Schwartz, E).