There are several exercises teachers can use to teach symbol imagery. This lecture presents information on how to teach syllable cards: basic process.

Syllable cards are an exercise found in Seeing Stars: Symbol Imagery for Phonemic Awareness, Sight Words and Spelling (Bell 2001, 88-89). I adapted the process for Waldorf schools in The Roadmap to Literacy (Langley and Militzer-Kopperl 2018) and added more information and additional options in The Roadmap to Literacy: Renewal of Literacy Edition (Militzer-Kopperl 2022, 226). This lesson presents the basic process for syllable cards. The variations developed for Waldorf education are taught in the full course, as are the extra steps to teach phonemic awareness and encoding.

Overview

This video demonstrates the basic process from "The Process for Syllable Cards" presented in the full Symbol Imagery course. Here are the steps.

Basic Process:

1.   Show the card (or word on the board) to the class or group (one second per letter). Take the card away or cover the word on the board.

2.   Using their imaginary ink pens (i.e., their index fingers), students write the word in lowercase letters on a white board with dotted midline, on their palm or forearm (gently), on desk, or in the air, saying each letter name as they write it.

3.   Call on one student to say all of the letters back and then read the word.

4.   Ask the rest of the class to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

Schedule 5-7 minutes to do this exercise with your class (or individual groups of students) daily. Use it as a way to practice phonics rules and sight words.