Category Archives: vowels

Teaching ĭ CVC words and ĕ CVC words

Posted on May 30, 2022 | Leave a comment

Ĭ and ĕ are the two hardest vowel sounds to distinguish. Here is how I suggest you work with children to differentiate these sounds. Mix the ĭ CVC words with the previously learned ă, ŏ, and ŭ CVC words. Then mix the ĕ CVC words with the previously learned words, not including the ĭ words. Lastly mix only the ĭ CVC words with the ĕ CVC words. Repeat these steps indefinitely until your child can read the majority of ĭ and ĕ CVC words correctly. Learning the ĭ and ĕ CVC words can take longer than the other three letter sounds combined.

Sample ĕ words

bed	fed	led	red	Ted
beg	egg	keg	leg	Peg
Ben	den	hen	men	pen
bet	get	jet	let	pet
bell	dell	fell	Nell	sell
Bess	less	mess	Tess	yes

Sample ĭ words

bid	did	hid	kid	lid
big	dig	fig	pig	rig
dim	him	Kim	rim	Tim
bin	din	fin	pin	tin
dip	hip	lip	quip	zip
bit	fit	it	pit	zit

Problem: Distinguishing between nearly identical sounds and words

Short ĕ and short ĭ are difficult sounds to distinguish for most beginning readers. When I teach these sounds, I rely on two game-like activities.

For one of the activities, I gather the pictures of words which start with ĕ and ĭ, or which use them in the CVC pattern. I put these Ee and Ii cards in front of the child and we practice saying those letter sounds. Then the child sorts the deck of cards I have created, putting cards under one of the two letter sounds. We say the word aloud to reinforce the letter sound.

For another activity, I have created BINGO-like cards of ĕ and ĭ words. I limit each BINGO card to nine words. More words can seem overwhelming. I say one of the words and the child finds and covers it, using a marker. To extend this activity, the child and I exchange places. The child says the words and I find the correct spelling.

big	beg	dig
set	sit	bet
lit	let	bit

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Posted in CVC words, letter sounds, letter tiles, methods of teaching reading, phonics, reading readiness., reading strategies, short vowels, teaching tips, vowels

Teach ŭ before teaching ĕ and ĭ

Posted on April 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

Suppose you have taught your child VC (vowel-consonant) and CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words using ă and ŏ and the 16 consonants that always sound the same at the onset of words. You have had your child read lists of words with ă and ŏ shuffled. Your child is able to pronounce those words correctly.

Now it is time to move on to ŭ. I recommend teaching ŭ before teaching ĕ and ĭ. In my teaching experience, children recognize the sound associated with ŭ quicker than the sounds of either ĕ and ĭ. Some children do have trouble pronouncing ŭ, but they don’t confuse the sound with either ĕ or ĭ. They can distinguish a difference between ŭ and ĕ / ĭ. Children have a harder time distinguishing between the sounds of ĕ and ĭ. So I recommend teaching ă, ŏ and ŭ in that order.

Some of the commercially available support materials you might use with your child do not sequence the short-vowel words in this order. In that case, I recommend you jump ahead to the ŭ word section and return to the ĕ and ĭ sections later.

Sample ŭ VC and CVC words include:

up	hub	pub	rub	tub
bud	dud	Judd	mud	Rudd
bug	dug	hug	jug	lug
dull	gull	hull	lull	null
but	cut	gut	nut	rut

Sample ŭ VC and CVC words with ă and ŏ in sentences include:

Judd cut a nut.
Rudd dug up a bug.
Tess can run in the mud but not Tom.
Tom dug a rut.
Jan can hug a mutt.

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Posted in phonics, reading strategies, reading tips, short vowels, sounds of English, teaching tips, vowels

How to teach words using ă and ŏ

Posted on April 11, 2022 | Leave a comment

Suppose you have taught your child the 16 consonant sounds which don’t vary at the beginning of words: b, d, f, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, qu, r, t, v, x, and z. Now you are ready to teach vowel sounds.

Explain what vowels are

Because you will be using the words vowel and consonant with your child as you teach, make sure you take time to explain what these words mean. Vowel refers to five letters all the time (a, e, i, o, and u) and two letters sometimes (y and w). Consonant refers to all the other letters and to y and w most of the time. For now you can leave out the y and w, but when you teach small words like by and now, mention that y and w act as vowels sometimes.

Should you say short / closed vowels? Or long / open vowels?

Today many support materials refer to vowels followed by a consonant in the same syllable (cat, hot) as closed vowels. Years ago these vowels were called short vowels, and they were pictured with a curve over the vowel as in ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ and ŭ. Similarly, vowels coming at the end of a syllable (go, hero) are today called open vowels by some reading support workbooks. Previously they were called long vowels and pictured with a horizontal line over them as in ā, ē, ī, ō, and ū. I will use the terms short and long since those are the terms most parents recognize. I will use markings over vowels such as ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ and ŭ when referring to a particular short vowel sound and ā, ē, ī, ō, and ū when referring to a particular long vowel sound.

Naming vowel sounds as short or long is important because we need a vocabulary to use with children when we refer to vowels pronounced like their letter names and vowels pronounced more softly. Whichever terms you use, make sure your child understands them.

Teaching words with a ă sound

While you are teaching the 16 consistent consonant-letter sounds, you can begin to teach one short vowel sound. I recommend starting with the letter ă because almost all phonics support materials start with the vowel ă, and because ă might be the easiest short vowel sound to master. The support materials I suggest for my students are the Explode the Code series. That series starts with ă words.

When I am teaching in person, I use flash cards with pictures of words beginning with ă such as alligator, astronaut, and apple. I recommend you teach your child to say “ă as in apple” to reinforce the letter connected to the sound.

Choose five or six consonant letter sounds your child has mastered. Using letter tiles, form two and three letter words such as am, an, at, bat, bam, tan, and mat, etc. Place the letter tiles for one word an inch or so apart and ask your child to say the sounds, keeping the picture of the apple on the table too, for reference. Repeat saying the sounds as you slowly move the letters closer and closer together until the child says the word. It might take many tries, but usually there is a Eureka! moment when the child realizes she is reading a word, not just letter sounds. Reading teachers call these tiny words CVC words, meaning consonant-vowel-consonant words.

Gradually add more consonant sounds and form more words with ă as the vowel sound. If the child loses interest, one way to extend the lesson is to use her name and write a goofy sentence such as Kim is a pan or Kim is a map. Another way is to use your name and have her end the sentence. Mom is a ____. Teach her that the vowel goes first or in the middle. Try mispronouncing a word she writes and ask her if you said it correctly.

You can buy magnetic cards which you can cut into small rectangles to attach to the back of letter tiles. Then you can work in a metal lasagna pan or pizza pan or on the refrigerator. If your child is four or five, a short lesson (ten minutes) teaching in one mode followed by another short lesson in another mode (writing words on an iPad or laptop, writing in a workbook) might be all she can handle for one session. I have given one-hour lessons to a four-year-old, but I needed to have six mini-lessons to sustain her interest.

Teaching words with a ŏ sound

When, after several days or weeks, you are sure your child can read ă words, move on to ŏ words. Create a reference card—an octopus, for example. Work on two and three letter ŏ words such as on, off, odd, Oz, nod, fob, and Bob, etc. After several days or weeks—whatever it takes—mix ŏ words with ă words.

To reinforce your work, read together picture books. When you come to a word she can pronounce, point to it and ask her to say the word. Two or three times are enough to show her that what she is learning applies to her real world.

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Posted in consonants, CVC words, Explode the Code, letter sounds, letter tiles, long vowels, phonics, reading strategies, reading tips, short vowels, sounds of English, teaching tips, vowels

Teach 16 consonant sound-letter associations first, not vowels

Posted on February 7, 2022 | Leave a comment

If you are teaching your child to read, and you wonder what letters to begin with, choose the 16 consonants that almost always make the same sound at the beginning of English words. Those letters are b, d, f, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, qu, r, t, v, x, and z.

Why these 16? These sound-letter pairings follow one-to-one logic. A d always sounds like a d when it begins a word. An r always sounds like an r when it begins a word. Later your child will learn that certain letters can represent more than one sound (all the vowels, for example) and that certain sounds can be represented by more than one letter (the z sound can be represented by z and s, for example). That can be confusing.

But for now, as your child learns to read, sticking to one-to-one relationships gives your child confidence. An m always sounds like an m. A k always sounds like a k.

Start with sounds that have meaning to children. If your child’s name is Marco, start by teaching the letter sound m, and tape Marco’s photo on an Mm card to hang on the refrigerator. If your dog’s name is Bandit, tape Bandit’s picture to a Bb card. However, don’t use pictures of words beginning with blended sounds (br as in Brian) or digraphs (sh as in Shelly).

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Posted in consonants, digraphs, letter sounds, phonemes, reading readiness., vowels

Defining basic terms used to discuss reading

Posted on December 17, 2021 | Leave a comment

When you are learning how to teach your child to read, you need to familiarize yourself with a few words. If you read widely about reading, you will encounter these words all the time. But even if you don’t, understanding them will make reading instruction easier to follow.

phonemes

One such word is “phonemes.” The smallest sounds we utter are called phonemes. About 48 such small sounds exist in standard American English. These sounds are not letters; they are sounds to which we pair letters in order to read and pronounce sounds. Some words such as eye have one phonemes (a long ī), but most words have two or more phonemes. Snow, for example, has three (s, n, ō). Putting together phonemes to form words is an important reading skill.

phonics

Another important word is “phonics.” Phonics means combining phonemes to form words. For example, the phonemes b, ă, and t combine to form the word bat. 250 letter patterns represent the 42 to 44 phonemes in American English. Most children cannot figure out phonics on their own. They need instruction to match a phoneme to a letter or to a pair of letters.

systematic phonics instruction

Systematic means that concepts are taught in a particular order. For example, phonemes which are always represented by a single letter such as b are taught before phonemes which are represented by more than one letter such as th. Short vowel words such as cat are taught before long vowel words such as bike.

For more details on the sequencing of learning sounds, go to http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200901/BTJPhonologicalAwareness.pdf. While you are there, check out 1) the list of read-aloud books that emphasize sounds, and 2) activities you can do with a child who is learning sounds.

vowels

A vowel is the primary speech phoneme in every syllable (one vowel phoneme for one syllable). Vowel phonemes are made by the mouth without any blockage by the tongue or lips. Short vowel phonemes are the vowel sounds in Pat, Ben, Jill, Tom, and Bud. They are sometimes represented by a curve over the vowel. Long vowel phonemes are the vowel sounds in Kate, Eve, Mike, Joe, and Lou. They are sometimes represented by a straight horizontal line over the vowel. Other vowel sounds are also represented by a, e, i, o, and u, and by combinations of these letters. W and y can also be vowel phonemes in combination with other vowels or alone as in cow and by.

short and long vowels

Short and long are a traditional way to describe certain vowel sounds. Short vowel sounds can be said quicker while long vowel sounds take a fraction of a second longer to pronounce. In recent years, the terms closed and open are used the same way to mean, respectively, short and long.

consonants

A consonant is a speech sound made by partially blocking the air as you breathe out. Most phonemes are consonants, but they cannot be pronounced without connecting them to vowels. American English includes the consonant phonemes b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, qu, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, and z.

syllables

Syllables are units of sound containing one vowel phoneme and usually one or more consonant phonemes. Mitten has two syllables: mit and ten. Robotics has three syllables: ro, bo, and tics.

Knowing these terms gives you a basic vocabulary enabling you to follow instruction about reading.

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Posted in consonants, long vowels, phonemes, phonics, short vowels, syllables, systematic phonics instruction, vowels

Which to teach after CVC words—double syllables, double vowels or silent e’s?

Posted on April 9, 2019 | 1 comment

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.

child with adult helping to read

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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Posted in blends, consonants, double vowel words, exceptions to phonics rules, letter sounds, methods of teaching reading, phonics, reading readiness., reading strategies, reading tips, silent "e" words, syllables, teaching tips, vowels

How to teach tiny, short-vowel (CVC) words to a beginning reader

Posted on January 31, 2019 | Leave a comment

So you are teaching your four-year-old to read. She can duplicate the 40+ sounds of the English language. She can recognize many of those sounds at the beginnings of some words.

Now it is time to pair letter sounds with a handful of letters and to form words. Your child might not be able to recognize all the sounds yet, but as long as she can recognize some of them, she can begin to learn words.

Most phonics programs start with three letter words using the vowel sound of “short a” and easily recognizable consonant sounds such as “b,” “h,” “m,” “t” and “s.” You could just as readily start with the vowel sound of “short o” and other consonant sounds. Choose one short vowel sound and four or five consonant sounds which you think the child knows.

I recommend you use letter tiles. If you can find lower case letter tiles, great, but if not, use capital letter tiles.

Show the child a letter tile and ask the child to name its sound. If the child is not sure of that letter sound, don’t use that letter tile yet. Choose a different one.

Lay out three letter tiles which form a word, such as “h,” “a,” and “t.” Separate the tiles by an inch or two. Say the sound represented by each letter as you point to the letter. Ask the child to do the same. Now, slowly move the letter tiles closer together while pointing and saying the letter sounds until you are saying “hat.”

Try to make this a game. Reward the child with a high-five when she is able to say the word as you are moving the letter tiles closer and closer. Then try another word. If you keep the vowel and ending consonant the same at first, all the child needs to concentrate on is the first letter. So after “hat,” you might try “bat,” “mat,” and “sat.” Review each word several times.

What your child is learning is called phonics, or the forming of words from letter sounds. Some children will pick it up quickly and others will take many lessons using just those same half dozen letters. Don’t rush the child. Keep the learning time as game-like as possible. Aim for short lessons of ten minutes here and there rather than a half hour at a time, especially if your child is a young four-year-old or is resistant.

When the child knows the handful of words ending with “t,” change the ending letter to one of the other consonants, such as “m.” Go through the process again, moving the letter tiles closer and closer until the child can hear the words “ham,” Sam,” and “bam.” When you are sure she knows how to recognize and pronounce the words ending in “m,” alternate words ending in “m” with the already learned words ending in “t.”

These three-letter words are sometimes referred to as CVC for consonant, vowel, consonant.

Resist the urge to move quickly. You want your child to build confidence about reading. To reinforce her confidence, you could start a phone or computer document listing all the words she knows. Or you could hang such a document on the refrigerator. As she sees the list growing, she will feel proud.

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Posted in ABC's, consonants, CVC words, how to make learning fun, learning, letter sounds, methods of teaching reading, phonics, reading readiness., sounds of English, vowels

Is it better to teach three-letter or two-letter words first

Posted on December 30, 2018 | Leave a comment

Most phonics systems begin with three letter words like “dad” and “pat.” You could just as easily begin with two letter words like “at” and “ab.” Don’t worry if the word isn’t real. A four- or five-year-old child won’t recognize that some words are not real. If the child seems perplexed, explain that “ak” is not a real word. But if the child doesn’t question a word, as long as he pronounces it correctly, skip the explanations.

I have found that skipping the two-letter short-vowel words is a mistake. If a child becomes used to always seeing a consonant at the beginning of a word, he might become confused if a word starts with a vowel. If a child knows his sounds and letter correspondence, then there is no reason why two-letter words should confuse him. To avoid this problem, I would not wait to teach two-letter words.

When the child has successfully combined most of the first handful of letters into words, add more consonants but keep the same vowel. “H,” “j” and “l” are good second choices. You might think that “h” has different sounds when combined with “c” and “s” (“ch” and “sh”). True. But as a first letter, “h” always sounds like an “h.” The sound of “h” has a one-to-one correspondence to the letter “h” at the beginnings of words; it is distinct. The child won’t be confused because no words end in only “h.”

How long does this take? Some kids pick up the “code” of reading almost intuitively but for others it’s a long struggle to learn. Don’t pressure a child to move on if the child isn’t ready.