Why Use Sound/Symbol Books
Recognizing letters or combinations of letters and the
sounds they make is an early indicator of later reading
success. Sound/Symbol Books show the uppercase and
lowercase graphemes of the target letter in a label for a
simple illustration. Later pages show simple sentences
to also expose students to high-frequency words, basic
sentence structures, and concepts of print.
Letter, word, and picture shown all in one place helps
build automaticity for not only letter and sound
recognition, but also word recognition.
In Sound/Symbol Books, the target letter-sound
combination might be shown in the initial, medial, or
final position of words as appropriate, and sometimes
in more than one position for a particular letter-sound
relationship.
How to Use Sound/Symbol Books
Sound/Symbol Books can be used as a bridge between letter recognition and decoding. After introducing
students to a letter using Learning A-Z's Alphabet Books, you
can use Sound/Symbol Books, Decodable Books, and Read-Aloud Books in combination to make vital connections
between letters and sounds to support key early reading skills.
Students can use the last page in Sound/Symbol Books to draw an object and then label the object by
using a word containing the featured sound/symbol relationship.
