Is the New Model of the ABC Tune Higher for Youngsters?

Did the alphabet get a significant glow-up? A latest TikTok from a first grade trainer suggests it did by bringing consideration to a brand new model.

Within the video, creator @teacherrachelsorsel signifies that there would possibly simply be a greater option to educate children A to Z by placing a small twist on the traditional alphabet tune everyone knows by coronary heart.

However, it comes at a value. Within the new model, our beloved “ellemenopee” sadly will get the axe.

The creator says when college students hear and sing the traditional tune, they usually don’t hear the person letters L-M-N-O-P, and a few of them even suppose “ellemenopee” is a single (if long-named) letter. Cute, sure, however not splendid while you’re a trainer making an attempt to get the lesson throughout.

She teaches the brand new model in her classroom, which as an alternative breaks up the letters like this, whereas nonetheless sung to the unique tune: ABCDEFG / HIJKLMN / OPQ / RST / UVW / XYZ

One different small however significant distinction: The ultimate three notes are “XYZ,” not “Y and Z”, which may confuse some children, as they could suppose the “and” is an “N” when singing.

Commenters on the TikTok video had loads of jokes. “First they got here for Pluto, and I mentioned nothing…” wrote one. “LMNOP bought me by means of so much. We’ll always remember you. RIP,” joked one other.

What Consultants Suppose In regards to the New ABC Model

Carly Tulloch, speech language pathologist and co-founder of Wee Talkers, loves the brand new and improved model of the traditional tune.

“That is so significantly better,” says Tulloch. “The brand new model differentiates every letter identify so youngsters can extra simply hear and perceive the identify of every letter. The previous model blends all of them collectively in a single laborious to know chunk.”

Jennifer Romanoff, Vice President of Curriculum at Lightbridge Academy, agrees and makes an amazing level: the added readability could possibly be an enormous deal to some children who battle with studying language, despite the fact that it looks like such a easy change.

“One other profit to altering tune lyrics [as in the viral video] is to deal with youngsters with particular wants or these for whom English will not be their first language,” she says.

Not everyone seems to be a fan, although—and I don’t simply imply commenters who could also be slightly too hooked up to the previous manner of doing issues.

Jennifer Schutza, an elementary college trainer and founding father of New Day Literacy, says mother and father and educators can obtain the identical impact by simply slowing the unique tune down a bit, singing the letters extra deliberately. “Higher but, have children have a look at the letters whereas singing so that they not solely study with their ears however their eyes,” she says.

I’ve bought my doubts concerning the “new and improved model,” and never simply because I’m a cantankerous elder millennial. It’s not as catchy as the unique as a result of it doesn’t rhyme as nicely, so I ponder if it should stick in children’ brains the identical manner—however I’m only a common dad, not a speech professional.

Nonetheless, for those who’re actually passionate concerning the model you grew up singing, there’s no must concern. This upgraded remix of the alphabet tune isn’t actually that new, and the Powers That Be aren’t changing the traditional anytime quickly. That is only a variation that works for some individuals, and it simply so occurs to go viral on social media each few years. 

In the end, it’s an excellent factor that children at present have totally different choices for the best way to study issues. Identical to Widespread Core math, a number of the strategies appear funky or uncomfortable to oldsters who didn’t study them rising up, however one of many keys to trendy curriculums is that they usually educate youngsters many various methods of fixing issues to allow them to discover the easiest way that works for them.

So, the query is as much as you: to ellemenopee or to not ellemenopee?