Do You Know the 4 Properties of a Letter?

Hi, friends. Just this week, one of my middle schoolers was impressed with my handwriting and exclaimed. "Your handwriting is so pretty! How do you do that?"

Have your students ever asked you, "How can you write so quickly?" or "How can you write without looking at the letters?" These are questions that have been repeatedly asked by my students over the years, especially my older students who struggle with letter formation and handwriting fluency. 

When I think about how I learned to write letters, my mind goes back to my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Katz. We had half-day kindergarten that consisted of lots of direct teaching followed by hands-on application and practice that felt a lot like play. 

One of the activities she did with us to help with letter formation was to teach the letter strokes using verbal cues, skywriting, and, my favorite, circle writing. She used to have us form a circle where we would face our peer's back. She would then give us a sound. We would say the sound, say the letter name, and write the letter on our peer's back while practicing the correct letter formation.

Our class also played a game where partners would have to guess what letter was written on their back. Mrs. Katz would hold up a letter card so only the person writing could see the letter. Then, the partners would switch roles and do it over again. 

As children, we thought this was fun, and there were always lots of giggles. As an educator, I can reflect on the best practice that Mrs. Katz was bringing to her kindergarten class; lots of multi-sensory applications of letter writing that focused on the properties of the letters. 

Did you know that there are four properties of a letter?

The Four Properties of a Letter

1️⃣  Name

The letter names are the only stable property of letters. The name of the letter always stays the same. All other properties vary. Letters are the written symbols that make reading possible. They represent the spoken sounds in our language. 

What this means for our instruction

When we explicitly teach letter names, we provide students with an anchor to connect the other properties. Letter knowledge provides students with names and the knowledge that letters represent sounds in our spoken language. Linnea Ehri stated that "letter name knowledge not only helps students infer sounds but also helps students remember those sounds." Letter knowledge is needed for phoneme-grapheme mapping. 

2️⃣  Shape

The shape of the letter may vary. Regardless of if a student is learning print, cursive, or both, we want students to be consistent and automatic in their letter formations. This aids in freeing up the cognitive demands of writing. As educators and parents, we can provide ample practice and immediate corrective feedback for letter formation.

What this means for our instruction

While teaching of correct letter formation should be done from the start of formal letter instruction, there are developing stages and prewriting motor skills that need to be covered first. Prewriting skills such as left to right, counter-clockwise and clockwise movements, top to bottom, and diagonal lines, should be taught and reviewed. Sometimes, even older students may need explicit instruction in these strokes, especially if they are forming printed letters from the bottom up. If you are unfamiliar with these prewriting strokes, you may find my Multi-Sensory Cards for Prewriting Strokes helpful. Click the image to read more about this resource. 

When students learn to write individual letters, they are developing both hand movement (graphomotor) and letter knowledge (orthographic) skills. 

Ways that we can explicitly teach letter shape

• Use verbal descriptions. Using language cues assist students and provide a memory cue when they have difficulty recalling the correct letter formation. Educators and parents should use the same language to reinforce this letter formation practice. The Neuhaus Education Center has a free downloadable PDF that includes language cues for educators to use when explicitly teaching letter formation. You can find that HERE.
• Model and practice skywriting where you use large motor skills to practice the letter formations while saying the verbal cues aloud with students.
• Provide opportunities to practice letter formation strokes in a multisensory way (sand trays, play dough, sandpaper, shaving cream, etc.). Practicing letter formations the same way creates the muscle memory needed to make handwriting automatic. 

3️⃣  Sound

The letter's sound varies depending on its placement in a word, syllable division, accent, spelling situation morphology, and etymology. Linking sounds to letter names and keywords assists in building the automaticity of phoneme-grapheme correspondences. The letter provides an anchor for the sound. 

What this means for our instruction

Explicitly teaching letter names and their corresponding sounds is essential for beginning readers because this is the basis for phoneme-grapheme mapping. Research has found that students who can segment words into sounds and identify the letter names and sounds progress faster in their ability to learn to read than those who do not have these skills (National Reading Panel, 2000; Share et al., 1984). These phoneme-grapheme connections provide the glue for sight-word reading. 

Studies have also shown that embedded picture mnemonics assists students in their recall of letter and sound linkages, especially in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade (Ehri et al., 1984). Programs like Lively Letters and Zoophonics have these mnemonic pictures embedded into their letter flashcards and lessons. 

Choose keywords that allow for the purest sound production in isolation. As educators and parents, we need to be thoughtful of alphabet images sold in stores as they often have keywords in which the sound production is morphed or altered in some way. Be on the lookout for a blog all about this. 😉 

4️⃣  Feel

The feel of a letter may vary both for the sound and feel in our mouth (mouth formation) and the feel when touching or forming the shape of the letter (letter writing). 

What this means for our instruction

Have you ever placed plastic letters in a bag and tried to guess the letter based on the feel in your hand? 🤚 There are indicators that connect with the form, name, and feel that assist you in quickly naming letters. This tactile awareness aids in our recall and links our knowledge of the four parts of a letter. 

When we introduce students to the sounds of the letters, we explicitly teach the articulatory features of phonemes (sound production):

• Use a mirror to identify the place of articulation or where the sound comes from within our mouth (front, middle, or back of the mouth)
• The manner of articulation (what are the teeth, lips, and tongue doing?)
• The use of voice or unvoiced sound production strengthens phonological awareness

If you are unsure of where to begin with articulation features, begin with a mirror and think about what your mouth, tongue, and voice are doing for each sound. You may also wish to view the OG Deck app or look at my mini sound wall alphabet chart and vowel valley charts, as they have explanations about sound production and articulatory features. Click the image below to take a look. 

Why is it important to teach letter knowledge?

Research has shown that letter knowledge is a strong predictor of reading success. In addition, knowing letter names provides a springboard for learning and remembering letter-sound relationships. 

Remember, when beginning readers automatically recognize individual letters, they begin unitizing orthographic clusters, the familiar letter sequences, which is a necessary step towards automatic word recognition. 

Have you thought about letters beyond their names before? How does this impact our instruction?

Leave your comments below. Next week, we will talk more, in detail, about the use of cursive with our dyslexic learners in mind. 

Don't forget that The Literacy Nest's online conference is being held August 2-6 with three months of access. There will be 17 amazing presenters sharing their knowledge about structured literacy, multi-sensory teaching, and dyslexia awareness. Click here for the downloadable brochure with information about the presenters and their presentations or register here. I will be one of the presenters, and I really hope you will join us! 😊

Have a great week!

Casey