Reading experts agree that CVC words—two consonants sandwiching a short or closed vowel—should be taught first to children who are just beginning to read. The reason has to do with logic. Almost all CVC words pronounce sounds in the expected way, that is, with a one-to-one correspondence between the sound and the letter representing the sound. The few words which are exceptions to the rules—words like “was” and “gym”—are not taught yet.
Experts also agree that one-syllable CVC words containing blends in which each letter is sounded should be taught next. Words with blends at the beginning, words like “spot” and “drum,” should be taught before words with blends at the end, words like “bend” and “lump,” because beginning sounds are easier to master than ending sounds.
Teaching reading in this order is important because most beginning readers are four to six years old, and their sense of logic does not allow for exceptions. All red lights mean stop, no exceptions. Every time Dad says “no,” that means no, no exceptions. One plus one equals two every time, no exceptions. Every “z” is pronounced “z,” no exceptions.
The problem for teachers is that after children learn CVC words, what kinds of words should they learn next?
- Two syllable words containing two CVC segments (CVCCVC) such as “rabbit” and “Justin”?
- CVCe one-syllable words containing a silent e at the end such as “make” and “kite”?
- CVVC one-syllable words containing double vowels such as “Jean” and “boat”?
There is no correct approach after teaching CVC words. Teaching two-syllable CVCCVC words maintains the logic of one sound per letter, but two syllables are harder to learn than one. All those letters can look intimidating to a tiny child.
CVCe words require that the last letter not be sounded, which breaks the rule of one sound per letter. If lots of silent letters were not pronounced, this would wreak havoc in a child’s mind. But since the same letter—“e”—is not sounded, this maintains a one-to-one logical relationship that is easy to remember.
The hard part of CVCe words is that the silent e changes the sound of the vowel to a long or open vowel sound. Previously children needed to know five vowel sounds; to learn CVCe words they need to know ten. (Actually, they need to know eleven if both sounds of u are taught. In “mule” the u sounds like “yu” and in “tune” the “u” sounds like “u.”)
One child I taught could not make the transition from CVC to CVCe words even after several months of work. She could remember how to pronounce either CVC or CVCe words, but when I mixed them, she could not go back and forth sounding the words correctly.
Learning CVVC words containing double vowels is readily grasped if the double vowels are identical, as they are when the vowels are “ee” as in “seen” and “deed.” Usually when the vowels are different, as in “mean” and “read,” the second vowel is silent but its presence means the first vowel is pronounced like a long or open vowel. The new reader needs to remember two ideas: that the second vowel is not pronounced, and that the first vowel is not pronounced like a CVC vowel. For some children this is difficult even if exceptions are not mentioned.
What to teach after CVC words? The choice is yours, but each option comes with its difficulties for children. I usually teach the silent e words next. I have tried printing words with a shadowy “e” which helps children to remember not to say the “e.” But when I take away the shadowy letter “e,” it is like starting over. What I thought would be a short cut way to learn turns out to be a dead end detour.
One thing I have learned: Integrating whatever you teach next with CVC words can take a long time.
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I suggest you give your child a pretest to see what reading skills your child has learned well, and what ones he has not yet grasped.
The words on this pretest are more or less divided into four kinds of words in this order:
1. Short (closed) vowel, one-syllable words. These include one- and two-letter words, words beginning or ending with blends and digraphs (black, church) words which end in twin consonants (fell, jazz), words which end in “ck,” and words to which an “s” can be added to make plural words or certain verbs (maps, runs).
2. Long (open) vowel, one-syllable words. These include words ending with silent “e,” words with double vowels which have only one vowel pronounced (goes, pear), and certain letter combinations (ild, old). They also include words with “oi,” “oy,” “ow” and “ou” letters.
3. Two– and three-syllable words which follow the above rules (catnip, deplete) and two- and three-syllable words which don’t follow the above rules but which follow a pattern (light, yield). These words include words with certain suffixes (le, ies) and words with a single consonant between two vowels (robin, motel).
4. Exceptions. These include words with silent letters (gnaw, lamb), words from other languages (debris, cello), and words which fit no pattern (business).
Ask your child to read the words in the pretest below. Each row across tests a particular phonics skill. If you child hesitates at all, that is the place to begin teaching him or her phonics. I will talk more about how to teach these four groups of phonics skills in my next blog.
Phonics assessment
bad, hem, fit, don, pug, am, if, lass, jazz
lock, Mick, bills, cliffs, mitts, catnip, Batman
grand, stent, frisk, stomp, stuck
chuck, shun, them, branch, brush, tenth
star, fern, birds, fork, purr, actor, doctor, victor
muffin, kitten, collect, pepper, gallon
complex, helmet, falcon, napkin, after
tantrum, muskrat, constant, fulcrum, ostrich
skate, bike, Jude, mole, dare, shore, tire, pure
need, cheer, aim, hair, bay, pie, boat, oar, Joe, low, soul
fruit, few, child, blind, fold, colt, roll, light, high
earn, worm, rook, pool
fault, claw, all, chalk, Walt
boil, so, pound, down
comet, dragon, liver, salad, denim
total, ever, student, basic, demon, vital
apron, elude, Ethan, Owen, ideal, usurp
inside, nearly, absent, unicorn, degrade, tripod
advance, offense, fence
gripped, planned, melted, batted, handed
sweeping, boiling, thinning, flopping, biking, dating
rapper, saddest, finer, bluest, funnier, silliest
easily, busily, massive, active, arrive, wives
keys, monkeys, armies, carried
action, section, musician, racial, crucial, nuptials
brittle, pickle, carbon, dormer
parcel, decent, gem, urge, badge
lose, sugar, nature, sure
graph, Phil, then, moth
bomb, thumb, gnat, gnome, high, sign
whip, whirl, echo, ghoul, knee, knob
could, calf, folk, hustle, listen, wrist
alone, bread, bear, chief, young, squaw, swan, waltz, word
decision, exposure, gigantic, polarize, occupant, quarantine
If you want to help your child learn to read, one of the best things you can do is not to let him guess. Most words can be deciphered if the student has a phonics background.
Also, don’t let your child depend on pictures for meaning once the child starts to read. Most adult reading material is not accompanied by graphics. Students must learn to gain meaning from the text alone.
If you have decided to help your child read this summer, good for you. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to help your child read better. Years of research show that the best way to teach reading is to start with letter sounds (phonemes) and then to combine those letter sounds into words (phonics). If you do this in a systematic way, such as following the four-part sequence I describe above, your child will learn to read.
When children learn to read using a phonics method, they start by learning that each sound has a one-to-one relationship with a letter. This makes reading seem logical to little children. See a B and say “b.” As teachers we don’t muddy beginning readers’ thinking by telling new readers that some letters mean more than one sound or that some letters, when paired with other letters, make totally different sounds or that some sounds can be represented by multiple groupings of letters. We save that for later, after children have “mastered” the concept of CVC words and blends.
comicphonics for early readers 