Vowel clustering begins with the lower-case alphabet. Vowel clustering teaches students to recognize that the letters of the alphabet represent sounds. Students are taught to sound words out letter by letter instead of guessing. Students must be able to identify both the capital letters and lowercase letters to be able to read. We read mostly lowercase letters, but schools often teach only the uppercase letters. The first step to teaching a student to read is to teach the lowercase alphabet: (1) to recognize each lowercase letter (and know the letter name), (2) to know the letter sound(s) for each lowercase letter, and (3) to be able to write the lowercase letters correctly using manuscript style paper and letter formation.
Handwriting and reading are connected. If the brain cannot recognize the words that a student writes, the brain is not going to learn the words. Dr. Shaywitz (see Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia, 2003) explains that handwriting is one of the critical steps in “rewiring the brain.” Instead of “rewiring,” I call it retraining the brain. Therefore, improving a student’s handwriting is one of the first steps in helping a student learn to read. It is not enough to just be able to sing the alphabet song. The student must be able to identify and say the name of each alphabet letter. Then, the student must be able to write the letters correctly. As a research team from California explained, learning to write and shape letters correctly is essential:
“Recent neuroimaging studies have concluded that while free-form handwriting practice clearly supports reading acquisition, typing and even tracing do not. Impressively, James and Engelhardt (2012) showed that preliterate children recruit well established reading related brain regions, such as the fusiform gyrus, posterior parietal cortex, and the inferior frontal gyrus, during letter processing exclusively after handwriting practice compared to typing or tracing. The emerging consensus is that the motor experience of manually creating letterforms helps children discriminate the essential properties of each letter, which leads to more accurate representations bolstering both skilled letter recognition and later reading fluency.” (Gimenez et al. 2014, p. 155)
The way a student writes or shapes letters is very important for students learning to read (James & Engelhardt, 2012). I had a parent tell me once, “I know that her handwriting is terrible, but I brought her to you for you to teach her to read.” I explained how important handwriting is to the reading process. I use manuscript paper and manuscript style writing tools because, if the student’s brain cannot recognize the letter that the student has written, the student will not be able to read the alphabet letter. I use traditional “tracing with direction arrows” for practice. I give the students colored pencils (especially the erasable kind) and have them trace a letter over and over with different colors to see what colors they can make. Adding a little fun makes the task more enjoyable. I have the children use manuscript writing paper for all of their writing. As I tell students, “we’re training our brains to recognize these letters so that our brain can identify the letters when we see them in a story.” I use manuscript writing paper and block manuscript writing style. Since my emphasis is to teach students to read, I teach only block style handwriting, not cursive. So, the first step in learning to read is to learn to identify and write the alphabet letters correctly, both capital and lowercase letters. The next step is to learn the letter sounds.