How to Teach Syllables Phonics Rules for Teachers Episode 6

How should we teach the six syllable types? Let's take a look! In this video, we'll explore 5 strategies for teaching the 6 syllable types in your classroom: closed syllables, open syllables, silent e syllables, r controlled syllables, and consonant le syllables.

A classroom teacher with 10 years of experience, Martha Moore hosts the Phonics Rules for Teachers Podcast. Drawing from her personal journey, she shares insights on transitioning from traditional teaching methods to a phonics-centered approach and the impact it has on students' reading and writing.

Each week , Martha shares a simple phonics rule, strategy, or background information and how you can teach it in your classroom.

For resources to go along with this series, visit the Phonics Rules for Teachers landing page: https://www.myprimaryparadise.com/prft/

Download the free syllable chant here: https://www.myprimaryparadise.com/free-resources/

Transcript

If you're wondering how the heck do I actually teach syllable types in my classroom, then you are in the right place. Welcome to Episode Six of Phonics Rules for Teachers and How the Heck to Teach Them.

I've spent the last two episodes sharing about what syllables are and why it's important for you to teach them in your classroom, specifically diving into a little bit about each syllable type. And today, we have arrived at my favorite part, where I teach you how to teach syllable types in your classroom using activities and strategies that I've used in my own classroom, and I know that they work.

Today, I have for you five strategies to teach syllable types in your classroom. Let's get started right away.

Number one: Start by teaching your students to count the number of syllables in words. Students can't identify specific syllable types if they don't know how to hear how many syllables a word has in the first place. I like to start by doing this orally, and then we move to looking at words written down. In the beginning, I teach my students that syllables are a beat in a word, and I use a little chant to help us remember. They think it's super fun, and the two words at the end we will often switch up to make it a little bit more interesting. You can get this chant for free on my website under my free resources tab. Here's how the chant goes:
"Syllables, syllables, chunks of words,
Syllables make up every word I've ever heard.
You can clap it, you can tap it,
You can do your chin drops.
If you ask me to find syllables,
I'm never going to stop.
Cat has one, pizza has two.
Go on and ask us to find syllables,
'Cause we know what to do."

I personally like to show students a few different options of how they can hear or find syllables in the word, such as clapping, using chin drops, tapping, or even humming. If you'd like a more in-depth explanation, if you go back two videos in this series, I talk about how we can find syllables in words. The reason that I like to give students different options is that I find that some students find a method that works really well for them. However you teach them, just make sure that you don't teach them the same way that you teach them to count sounds, because then it can be a little bit confusing, and they might mix up the idea of sounds in words versus syllables in words. Orally, students very, very young can identify the number of syllables in a word. We often practice counting syllables from the very beginning of the school year in my first-grade classroom. We will find out how many syllables in our names, in our favorite animals, in our favorite foods. It's a great game when you're a few minutes early to your special class, or if you're waiting for lunch.

After your students can hear syllables in words and are able to confidently count them, then you're going to move on to number two, which is to teach the syllable types in a logical order along with the spelling patterns that you are teaching. The biggest thing you can do to benefit your students' reading and writing instruction is to embed syllable type instruction into your phonics instruction. As you're teaching about CVC words and short vowels, teach about closed syllables. From there, when you start talking about long vowel sounds, teach your students about open syllables. When you're learning about the CVCe spelling pattern, teach your students about the silent E syllable, and the same with our controlled spelling patterns and vowel teams as well. When you connect the spelling pattern to the syllable type, it will strengthen their understanding of the English language and how it all fits together.

Number three: Use hand motions for each syllable type. I'm a big believer in using hand motions to help students remember things. Here are the hand motions that I use for each of the syllable types:

1. Closed syllable: I put my hands to the side and I pull them towards my body so that way it looks like a closed door.
2. For an open syllable, I do the opposite. I have my palms facing me and I open them out so you can see my palms like an open door.
3. For a silent E syllable, I just put my finger on my lip.
4. For an R-controlled syllable, we pretend that we're driving because a motor kind of makes an R noise. So, R-controlled.
5. For a vowel team syllable, I take one finger and the other finger and I link them together like links to represent vowels working together to make a specific sound.
6. And for the consonant-le syllable, we put one arm up for the L and a finger on our lip for our silent E.

Using hand motions like this can be really helpful to students to just connect the idea and the concept of the syllable as you're reviewing them.

Number four: Word sorts. In order to understand syllable types, students need to look closely at the letters in the word and how they're being used. Word sorts are a great way to get students to look really closely at the words that they are looking at. When you're teaching open and closed syllables, for example, you can give students words like "no" and "not," "I" and "in," "she" and "shed," and have them sort them into the correct space. They can do this individually, you can do it at the small group table, or you can even do it whole class with pieces of paper. The more syllable types you learn, the more you can have students sort into different categories. This will get them looking closely at how the letters are being used in the word. Even if students put words in the wrong category, it's a great way for you to see what spelling patterns or what syllable types they are not fully understanding yet. And it's a great learning opportunity to take a look at the word together and figure out why it's in the wrong category and where it should actually go.

And number five: Continuously review syllables. As with anything, going back and reviewing the different syllable types that you've already learned constantly will help students solidify their knowledge. Using the syllable types frequently so that it's not even so much as a review, but something that you do when you're modeling decoding in front of your class. You can model looking at the letters in the word to determine what kind of syllable type, to figure out what sound the vowel is going to make in the word. When you are modeling writing in front of your class, if you're trying to spell a word, you can say the word slowly, think about what sounds you hear, think about what it would make, how it would make sense to spell it, have your students help you, and it will keep those syllable types in their mind. I also often use decodable fluency passages in my classroom, and it gives us an opportunity to review not only the spelling patterns we've learned, but also the syllable types as well.

So there you have it, five ways to teach syllable types in your classroom. As I said, in the future, I'm going to dive even deeper into things that you can do for each specific syllable type, but if you're just getting started, this is a great place to start. Thank you so much for joining me this week for Phonics Rules for Teachers and How the Heck to Teach Them. Don't forget to like and subscribe, and I'll be back next week with more phonic goodness.