Letting go of the letter of the week...Wait, what?

The title of this week's reading by Bell and Jarvis was shocking to me! The letter of the week is something that has been used in every young child's classroom I have ever been or heard of, plus is popularly used on children's shows such as Sesame street. How can all these teachers, shows, educational researchers and so forth be wrong about this, I wondered as I began the article.

Bell and Jarvis made an undeniable case for not using the letter, though. First, they recognized, and made me, that it was boring for many children. Unless meaning is associated to these letters children are not going to remember them. I have been taught that this concept is true to learning spelling, and to get children to write, however, I have never considered this an idea to apply to learning the letters (despite it seeming pretty obvious).

This idea of linking children's names to the letters did leave one question lingering in my mind; what if there was a letter that none of the children had in their name such as "Q," how was the teacher suppose to teach that lesson?

I came up with some ideas for how a teacher might teach this nameless letter:
1. Find something that the children enjoyed that had the letter Q in it, and then use that item as Q was taught.
2. Discuss how Q was a letter that is unique in that it is not found alone, and instead is always followed by U when you teach the children U.
3. Q-Q-Question the children about what are some words they know that have Q in them, and let the children each come up with their own Q word.

Here is an idea that I found on pinterest that shows how a teacher relates children's names to the letter of the day:
Mrs. Bremer's Kindergarten: Letter of the Day

Learning the letters is essential for children to do, but this article raises some questions in my mind
about the way we have been teaching this concept.

Now I will leave you with some questions to consider: How do you think it is best to teach this concept? What did you think about the letter of the day when you were in school? How would you teach letters that are not in any of the children's names?