Ideas about teaching alphabetizing?

[ReadingMama]

My son is 10 and we haven't focused much yet on grammar and writing.  I'm thinking of doing Switched on Schoolhouse for language arts to get some of those skills in, but I don't know where to start in the program.  Grade 3 in SOS teaches alphabetizing/dictionary skills, etc..., but I think my son's beyond the other topics in that grade.  So I'm thinking we'll get 4th grade SOS for language arts, but I probably need to teach alphabetizing on my own to "catch up." 

Any ideas or websites to help me teach him how to alphabetize with multiple letters?

[Daffodil]

It's pretty simple to explain.  First you show him how it works when the first letter of each word is different.  Then you explain that when two words have the same first letter, you look at the second letter, and the one whose second letter comes first in the alphabet goes before the other one.  And if the first 2 letters are the same, you look at the third letter, and so on.  And with pairs like "bat" and "batch," when you get ready to compare the 4th letters and see that "bat" doesn't have one, that means "bat" comes before "batch."  I explained it like that last year to DD, who was a first grader, and she didn't have any trouble understanding it.

[mommathea]

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Edited by mommathea - 5/11/11 at 1:06pm

[moominmamma]

Pull all the kids' fiction books off your bookshelf and work with him alphabetize them by author. Do it as a family project. Teach as you go. "Hayworth and Hambly? Okay, start at the beginning of the two names. The first letter is the same, so that doesn't help. The second letter is the same too, so we need to look at the third letter. That's a Y and an M. So which one comes first?"

Way more fun and useful than putting words on a worksheet in order. 

Miranda

[elizawill]

yep.  if you go to the super teacher worksheets website ( http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/ ) & scroll down to "spelling" in the left column...youll see worksheets for alphabetizing here.  my daughter actually liked these when we used them (she uses R&S grammar now & it incorporates alphabetizing).  your son will cut up words and glue them on the paper in alphabetical order.  they use the spelling words for the week...but it will serve the purpose of what you're looking for.  hth.

[ReadingMama]

Thanks guys.  My son has dyslexia and says he needs to say the alphabet in his head every time to know the order of the letters.  He doesn't have a mental "alphabet line" in his head to automatically know the order of the letters. Any ideas for working on that?

[TEAK's Mom]

How about giving him a visual alphabet to look at while he works? 

[koru]

My daughter went on an alphabetizing craze with some "educational cards" I bought for a long road trip.  One set has insects, another has dinosaurs, etc, etc.  She painstakingly sat on the floor one evening & put them all in order.  She's had it ever since!  

Learning the alphabet to a song makes it difficult for everyone to know the order without reciting it.  Maybe have him say the letters....not sing them?  

[elizawill]

i agree with teak's mom! just give him an alphabet strip. my daughter is 9. she doesn't have dyslexia, and she still has an alphabet strip (the alphabet is on one line of a word doc & i folded it so that it can stand up for her to glance at as needed).  it's no biggie.

[macandcheese]

Originally Posted by ReadingMama 

Thanks guys.  My son has dyslexia and says he needs to say the alphabet in his head every time to know the order of the letters.  He doesn't have a mental "alphabet line" in his head to automatically know the order of the letters. Any ideas for working on that?

Forum crashing here—I don't have dyslexia and I still need to say the alphabet in my head when I alphabetize stuff! I also worked for eight years in a music store where I did a LOT of alphabetizing and I never got any more automatic with it. That's just not something my brain is willing to give extra space to ;o)  If he knows the concept and can make his own accommodations to figure it out (by silently singing the alphabet or whatever), then I'd say he's doing pretty good!