Cindyg Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 Give me some practical uses. Ones I can think of: Filing and putting things in alphabetical order, playing bingo and Battleship (and even that doesn't require you to know the letters in order). What else can you think of? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 Knowing that most of the time "C" Street can be found between "B" and "D" Streets? To find a word in the dictionary? So you can find Bay Leaves on the grocery store shelf (between Basil and Cinnamon)? So you can find your car when you remember for sure that you parked in the "J" row? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 You mean saying tue alphabet in order? For most kids it is first step in reading....learn the alphabet song, connect letter names to letters, letters make words, words make stories. Then they learn sounds for the letters. Some kids learn to read before mastering the alphabet. For them, it would ne for using a dictionary, filing, alphabetizing.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatCyndiGirl Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 It's like deja vu all over again! ;) http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=320010&highlight=alphabetize Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindyg Posted October 31, 2011 Author Share Posted October 31, 2011 It's like deja vu all over again! ;) http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=320010&highlight=alphabetize Dadgum! We just talked about this!? I guess great minds think alike. I'm sorry. I usually do a quick search before posting a topic to see if we just covered it; but this time I forgot. Thanks CyndiGirl. I'll go read that thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 Ds didn't learn until he was ... well, lol, I remember teaching him to sing the alphabet song at the same age that he was reading the first couple of Harry Potter novels to himself. ;) He was one of those kids who learned to read easily and fluently at a very young age -- and you *don't* need to know letter names or the alphabet (in order) to do that. You need to know the sounds and how to blend them together into meaningful words. And he did all that. But by five or six we did start coming across times when knowing the alphabet (and he kind of knew it, of course, through various exposures, but not perfectly) would be helpful. Looking up words in the dictionary, finding things in an index, various alphabetizing exercises. It was also around that time when he finally picked up *all* of the names of the letters. He could read and write well, but if you spelled a word aloud (or if he needed to), he hesitated a bit on a few of them. He would say the sound instead of the letter name. But he figured it out eventually. ;) So, yes, one needs the alphabet. Just not necessarily in order to learn to read. ;) (My dd did know the alphabet as a toddler and preschooler -- she's an excellent reader today too, but it took her a lot longer to learn than it took him. I don't think that's causal, just interesting.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindyg Posted October 31, 2011 Author Share Posted October 31, 2011 OK, I just read the other thread, and it didn't totally answer my question. It did tell me what *we* adults put in alphabetical order (I roughly alphabetize my spices too); but . . . Why do we teach young children the alphabet? What practical application is there for young children? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatCyndiGirl Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 I wasn't 'correcting' you. I seriously thought, "didn't we just talk about this?" John Holt said basically the same thing you are getting at, which is "what is the importance of teaching the ORDER of the alphabet when we should instead focus on the sounds that each character makes?" Then he wrote something like, "Bonus question: What word begins with the sound of the name of the letter H? How about W?" It does seem odd that we focus on the order MORE THAN the sounds in the beginning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirch Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 OK, I just read the other thread, and it didn't totally answer my question. It did tell me what *we* adults put in alphabetical order (I roughly alphabetize my spices too); but . . . Why do we teach young children the alphabet? What practical application is there for young children? Even if there's no practical application to teaching it in order, if you're going to teach the sounds/symbols to lay the foundation for reading, it helps to have some sort of system to make sure you don't miss any of them. Young kids like order/predictability/routine, so having a set order to go back to is less confusing and more reassuring as they learn about the letters. Also, it may not have much of an immediate practical application, but it lays the foundation for future learning--which is a completely valid reason for learning something. Once a preschooler has his ABC's down cold, he's got it for life. He won't have to go back and organize the information later; he'll be ready for alphabetizing, using a dictionary or index, etc. with an automatic (or nearly so) recall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 There are definitely practical reasons for a young child to know the alphabet in order: *Finding library books on the shelf is a big one, and at the bookstore as well *Locating apps on itunes, etc *Finding a song on your ipod I'm sure we can come up with more; lots of things are sorted alphabetically, even in this computerized age. A less practical reason, but one that might hold sway with some children, is that people will think you are rather ignorant if you don't the alphabet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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