Our Beginnings
Share
In 2002, I used grapheme tiles in a kindergarten room in Utah. While I was using Abeka curriculum chosen by the parents who hired me, the tiles were not aligned with that program or any program. They just worked. They were created by me and printed on cardstock. I didn't have a lot of money and the colors I owned were pink and white. I chose pink for the vowels and white for the consonants. My mom generously donated her time and materials to create small 9 x 12 inch pocket charts for each kindergartener. There were three rows of acetate pockets. The top two pockets stored the tiles, the bottom pocket was where the magic happened. I learned through experimentation that encoding skills improve decoding. When a child can build words that match the sounds from his mouth, he is highly motivated to understand the print around him. A few years later, I joined a research project led by Dr. Louisa Moats. She gifted the 1st grade teachers sturdy grapheme tiles in a tackle box to use in small group teaching. Vowel Valley was created to provide low-cost, sturdy materials to K-3 teachers in Idaho who were involved in studying science-backed practices in teaching reading. No specific curriculum or program is required for these tools. We have seen that many customers come from states where LETRs training is provided. As teachers know better, they teach better. Providing teachers with knowledge about language and the knowledge of how students best learn is the key to changing the trajectory of a student's literacy journey. We are loyal to a practice, not to a particular program.