Some milestones that mark a student becoming more familiar with print include:

• Noticing print on books.

• Recognizing the function of print like on a menu.

• Knowing that print is read from left to right.

• Knowing that print goes top to bottom.

• Knowing that spaces appear between words.

• Agknowledging punctuation.

Functional print: Have young students recreate print that they may have seen previously like shopping lists, schedules, or birthday cards. This helps students recognize the function of print.

• Knows the sounds that letters make.

• Acknowledges that some letters make more than one sound.

  
  

Animals: Have each letter be associated with an animal that begins with that sound. (Example B: bear) This helps students form a connection between letters and sounds.

Milestones:

• Can identify individual sounds in a word.

• Can blend sounds in words.

• Segments word sounds.

• Can change sounds in spoken words.

Ask students to change a sound at the end of a word. This will demonstrate the students ability to add or change letter sounds.

Blend minor sounds: Instead of full words have students blend just a few letters together like th, st, or ing. This demonstrates their blending skills.

Milestones:

• Knows the names of letters based on printed shapes.

• Identify letter sounds.

• Can write letters.

• Apply letters to skills like reading and writing.

Dyslexia: Have students first look at printed pictures and smaller words. Have them work on things like left to right and top to bottom.

ESL: Use visual aids and words in their native language. Instead of B:bear it could be B: ballena (Whale.) This helps still form that connection to sounds.

Dyslexia: Students can use books with rhyming language as it helps them make the connection between blended sounds.

ESL: Have them identify letters in names because it is the same in English and their native language. This helps build a connection between words and their shape.