Teacher explains why the changes in traditional alphabet song helps young learners

Teaching little kids the English alphabet has been made easy through the decades with the help of a song. However, the familiar tune that has helped kids to memorize the 26 alphabet has seen some changes in recent times and for a very specific reason. A teacher named Rachel—who goes by @teacherrachelsorsel on TikTok—shared a brief video with the online community, explaining why the old alphabet song is not valid anymore.

Rachel, who teaches first-grade kids, shared a screenshot of a post in the background of her video from an X user, @mostly_cheese, that read, "My 5-year-old twins have informed me I sing the alphabet wrong. The tune is the same, but in the new rendition, their teacher prefers breaks down as follows: ABCDEFG / HIJKLMN / OPQ / RST / UVW/ XYZ. RIP LMNOP." Rachel made some comments on this post, admitting that it is indeed true and the new generation of teachers are choosing to teach the alphabet a tad bit differently to kids.

"I am a teacher and I don't teach the alphabet the way I grew up singing it," Rachel pointed at the X post screenshot in her video. She explains that while singing the old alphabet song, many kids used to think that LMNOP was a single letter. The teacher elaborates that the second reason behind the original alphabet song not being used anymore is that kids used to confuse Y and Z at the end of the song. They thought there were two N sounds in the alphabet and Y and Z are not separate alphabets. Rachel also sings to demonstrate what the new alphabet song sounds like.

In an interview with Good Morning America, she further explained why the necessary change to the traditional alphabet song happened. "I've been singing it that way for years with my class and with students I tutor because of some of the misconceptions that I mentioned in the video of kids saying, 'Lemon NOP' or 'Y and Z,' thinking there are two Ns in the alphabet or not understanding Y or Z separately," she shared, adding that the revised version of the traditional song will clear up the misconceptions between new English learners. Rachel also mentioned to the outlet that her approach to teaching kids is rooted in a curriculum called "Open Court" from McGraw Hill.

"I'm not exactly sure where the version originally came from. I know that in the curriculum that I use at the school I teach at, that's how it's written for us," she said. "I guess a lot of adults might not know why we're singing it this way or why this change should be made and is helpful for early learners for about four years, I've been sharing literacy tips on social media. And I don't get to pick what videos blow up, but I'm grateful that some do, just to spread the word about best practices in early literacy." Rachel's video gained over 6 million views so far and she is "excited to know that the video is performing well with educating her audience and has become a good conversation starter for parents."

The people in her TikTok video's comment section had a lot of diverse thoughts on the changes brought to the old song. @lalabribriboo wondered, "I agree with you, but didn't all of us turn out fine knowing how to read and such with the original way of singing the alphabet?" @bethsimmons38 wrote, "Enunciate when singing the alphabet song. Those two reasons are teachable moments." @mikes_automotive commented, "Do they not have the alphabet above the chalkboard anymore? We knew LMNOP were individual letters b because we could see them." @deadtajwar added, "I hate it when things change, but this is better, significantly than the old version. The old version worked and you get older and understand. But why not improve something if you can?"

You can follow Rachel (@teacherrachelsorsel) on TikTok for more videos on teaching and education.