Embedded Mnemonics - Video Files

Embedded picture mnemonics are a research-based way to teach children about letters and the sounds they represent. They are letter cards with a picture of a key word embedded directly in a letter, such as the letter z made out of a zipper, or the letter r made out of a road. Research indicates that students learn letter-sound correspondences better when they are taught with embedded picture mnemonics (Ehri et al., 1984).

ONlit’s embedded mnemonics were carefully created to support explicit instruction of foundational reading and writing. When choosing key words, we considered many priorities, including:

• Is the target sound in the initial position?
• Can we avoid a consonant blend?
• Does the word represent the target sound?
• Are we considering dialect and linguistic variation?
• Is the key word a familiar vocabulary word to as many students as possible?
• Is the image specific, or could students mistake it for something else?
• Does the image look like the shape of the letter?

A variety of video files are available, including:

1. A YouTube playlist of animated videos showing the mnemonic, the letter, and the handwriting formation pattern. These videos are narrated with an explicit instructional routine, clearly teaching the relationship between the sound and the letter, and how to print the letter (using self-talk from Printing Like a Pro, a free printing program developed by Ivonne Montgomery and Dr. Jill Zwicker).
2. A Google slide deck with these instructional videos embedded on each slide.
3. A YouTube playlist of shorter animated videos to send to families.