Has anyone ever heard of ITA?

[alphamommy]

When I was in first grade, I learned to read in "ITA", which stands for "Initial Teaching Alphabet." It's a phonetic alphabet, with roughly 45 letters, representing various sounds and sound combinations. We learned and read in this for about half of first grade, then switched to "Mama's alphabet", which is what our teacher called the normal alphabet. This was supposed to make the transition easier.

I can't speak to whether it helped me or not. I already knew my alphabet, and it was confusing to learn different shaped letters for various letter combinations. I've only met one person from a different school who had ever even heard of it.

My sister reminded me of it today, so I thought I'd see if my little elementary school in Waterford was on some sort of cutting edge. Thanks!

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

I had never heard of this, but just spent the last few minutes googling it, and learning a lot ... sounds interesting, but I think it would have driven me crazy, trying to learn a "different" way to write things I had already learned at home.

[Jillirose]

I'm from MI too! I've been in early childhood education for over 20 years and have never seen or heard of ITA at state conferences, or through professional development or reading. When looking at their website itafoundation.org, I noticed they did not provide any links for research to support the strategy. I usually check out ed.gov (http://www.osepideasthatwork.org) for ideas that are research based, or begin researching with professional organizations, such as IRA (International Reading Association). I'm intrigued, and will be asking around....

[clausjo]

I've never heard of this either, but when my kids started kindergarten in south FL, they were taught to spell phonetically. Once they were in first grade, they started learning to spell properly. My son did just fine with this and made the transition easily. My daughter, however, is another story. She will pass a spelling test with 100%, but when she's writing a story, she reverts back to the phonetic spelling. Other parents I know say they have the same problem with their children. I'm not sure why they are taught this way. I'm assuming this is not the same thing, but it sounds similar.