Assessing Children's Ability to Identify and Write the Alphabet

The following extract is taken from PETAA Book The Alphabetic Principle and Beyond...Surveying the Landscape, edited by Robyn Cox, Susan Feez and Lorraine Beveridge, published in 2019. This piece is from a chapter contributed by Noella M. Mackenzie.

In the first two or three years of school, teachers need to carefully monitor each child's progress with letter formation. There are a number of ways to do this. A simple letter identification text can be used to determine whether or not children can identify the letters of the alphabet (see for example the letter identification task in Clay, 2002). Likewise, analysing samples of writing may identify some problems with letter formation or use of space. 

Systematic observations of children as they write allow the teacher to see how a child is forming letters and note when letters are being formed incorrectly. For example, children might start writing letters like 'l', 't' and 'f' from the bottom, rather than the top. The letters may look correct; however, when you watch the child write, you pick up formation problems that may mean handwriting automaticity and efficiency will not develop. The following more formal assessment processes are suggested by Medwell & Wray (2007):

• At the start of Year 1, children should be able to form all the letters of the alphabet correctly and easily when copying and in response to letter names.
• At the end of Year 2, children should be able to write the whole alphabet from memory using correctly formed letters in alphabetical order in under one minute. This is a test of automaticity.

In order to meet these milestones, children need to form accurate mental images of the letters of the alphabet. They therefore need easy access to letters when reading and writing.