to enhance their visual salience for the individual student. • Number of Items: Some students may have an alternative pencil with all 26 letters showing, such as an eye gaze dis- play. Other students may have a limited letter set (e.g., 3 - 6 letters) showing at a time, in a flipbook format. Students with Phase I CVI (who are still learning to use their vision) may benefit most from a tool (high tech or light tech) that presents only one letter at a time. • Font Type, Effect and Size: As with showing letters for shape identification, partners should carefully consider the type font. Letters should be presented in simple fonts such as Century Gothic. For example, Hanser (2020) provides al- ternative pencils with letters that have a glow highlighter around the edges of the letter (made using the Glow text option in Microsoft Word). See Image 3 and 4 below.
ters C and K, and /m/ represents the letter M. To check success, the adult says: “What sound does this letter represent?” as s/he shows a letter. This is a tricky task for students with a combina- tion of CCN and CVI. For this task, students can identify words that begin with the target sound. Strategies from the ‘name let- ters’ task can be used to identify target sounds. The complexities and concerns for students with CCN and CVI that are notewor- thy for the letter naming tasks will persist when applying these strategies to identifying sounds that the letters represent. Mini Example: Lissie is a 5th grader in a classroom that is using the Readtopia Curriculum. Lissie’s group is using the Learning Letters part of that curriculum. During the activity, the leader fol- lows a script to tell students the sound that the letter represents and shows how the sound looks (on the speaker’s mouth) and feels when she is making it. Lissie can’t see the leader’s mouth, but her aide Yvette makes the sound to show her how it is made. Students are asked to practice making the sound, and Yvette re- minds Lissie to ‘say it to yourself.’ Then the class goes on a sound hunt. Yvette gets three objects (drink, hat and book) and quickly records ‘That’s it!’ into a single message device and gives it to Lissie. Yvette asks Lissie ‘Does this start with the /b/ sound like bat and best?’ Yvette offers one item at a time and names it then waits to see if Lissie answers ‘That’s it.’ Lissie says ‘That’s it’ after the hat and Yvette says ‘/b/ hat. Is that the same? No, /b/ /h/ - those are different sounds. Let’s try another.’When they get to book, Lissie says ‘That’s it.’ Yvette waits to give her a high five, first saying, '/b/ book. Yes, book starts with the /b/ sound like bat and best.’
EMBEDDED ALPHABET INSTRUCTION: CONSIDERATIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH CVI
Musselwhite, Wagner, & Hanser (2020) share a wide range of instructional activities intended to be used throughout the day, at school, at home and in the community. Embedded alphabet instruction consists of opportunities for students to move be- yond just identifying letters and sounds and forming letters or choosing them on an alternative pencil. Embedded instruction helps students learn the why of letters and sounds – that they are used for reading and for writing, and that written letters rep- resent speech sounds. This is the basis of the ‘alphabetic princi- ple’which is essential in learning to read and write. The following section highlights a few alphabet activities that are highly ap- propriate for learners with CCN and CVI. Alphabet Immersion Through Alphabet Books Alphabet books are great for all learners, and help students build an ‘ear print’ for the letters of the alphabet. Musselwhite, Wagner, & Hanser (2020) suggest finding alphabet books that connect to the curriculum and to learner interests. Ideas for sup- porting learners with CVI: • Write Personally Meaningful Alphabet Books Connecting students' personal experiences to the alphabet is an ex-
Image 3: 3 Location Print Flip Chart with font using Glow Text Option (By Gretchen Hanser)
Image 4: Single letter per page Print Flip Notebook, by Gretchen Hanser (Idea from Linda Burkhart)
Identify Sounds That Letters Represent The final explicit alphabet knowledge task is to identify sounds that letters represent, such as /k/ represents the let-
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