Understanding and Teaching Open Syllables Phonics Rules for Teachers Episode 14

Open syllables: what is an open syllable and how do you teach the open syllable type to your students? In this video, learn what the characteristics of of an open syllable are, look at some examples, and learn 10 practical activities and strategies for teaching open syllables to your students.

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.

You can find the How the Heck to Teach 'Em supplementary resource to go along with this series here: https://www.myprimaryparadise.com/shop/phonics-rules-resources/

Transcript

If your students already know about closed syllables, now it's time to teach them about open syllables. But how do you do that? I'm going to show you today.

Welcome to Episode 14 of Phonics Rules for Teachers and How the Heck to Teach Them. I'm Martha, and today we're going to be talking all about open syllables. We're going to take a look at what an open syllable is and how to teach it to your students.

First, let’s start with the background knowledge that your students should have before you teach them about open syllables. It’s important that your students have a foundational understanding of some other phonics concepts before you introduce them to this syllable type. First, they should know the difference between consonants and vowels. They should also understand the concept of short vowels and already understand closed syllables. Finally, students should already have a brief introduction to long vowels. I shared about that in my last episode if you want to know how you can easily introduce long vowels to your students.

Once students have been introduced to all of these skills, you are ready to teach them about the open syllable. So, what is an open syllable? An open syllable ends with a single vowel letter and usually has a long vowel sound. We say “usually” because while most open syllables do have a long vowel sound, sometimes they produce another vowel sound, such as a diphthong sound, and sometimes they produce a schwa sound. For example, in my name, "Martha," the "a" represents a schwa sound.

Open and closed syllables are the first syllable types I like to teach my students because open and closed syllables account for 75% of the syllables in the English language. So, if students understand just these two syllable types, they are able to read a ton of words. This, plus the fact that both of these syllable types have a very clear, identifiable pattern, and many one-syllable words are open or closed syllable words, makes them the ideal first two syllables to teach your students. As students progress in their understanding, they will begin to read multisyllabic words, and many multisyllabic words are made up of open and closed syllables as well.

It’s important to note that words ending with a single "y" are also open syllables because in these words, the "y" is typically representing the long "i" or the long "e" sound. However, unless students have already learned about "y" as a vowel, I wouldn’t focus on these types of open syllable words just yet. Here are some examples of open syllable words: I, me, no, go, we, fly, she. We can also see open syllable words that have two or three syllables, for example: redo, baby, tiny, and potato.

Now that we understand what an open syllable is, let’s talk about how we can teach it to our students. Here are five strategies that you can use to teach open syllables to your students in your classroom.

1. Compare Open Syllables with Closed Syllables

One of the reasons that I love to teach open syllables directly after teaching closed syllables is that it allows you to easily compare the two different syllable types. Closed syllables also have a single vowel letter, but they end with a consonant, whereas open syllables end with a single vowel letter and there's no consonant after that letter. As I've previously shared in past episodes, most English words end with a closed mouth. Therefore, in closed syllable words, we use the consonant to help close our mouth after producing the short vowel sound. In contrast, open syllables end with a single vowel letter. This is because, with the exception of a schwa sound, long vowels and diphthong vowel sounds end with a closed mouth on their own.

You can begin by showing your students some closed syllable words that can easily be turned into open syllable words. Ask them to read the words and then write the same words without the final consonant. Ask students if they recognize any of the words. Read them together and have them focus on changing the vowel sound. For example, you can use "shed" to "she," or "not" to "no," or "him" to "hi." Explain to students that these new words are open syllable words.

Here’s the hand motion I like to use: for open syllables, we use this one; for closed syllables, we use this one. Open syllables end in a single vowel letter, and the vowel is usually long. Again, students should have already had a brief introduction to long vowel sounds, so they will know what you’re talking about when you say the vowel is long. The vowel usually says "A," "E," "I," "O," "U." Tell them that we call this an open syllable because the vowel is not closed by a consonant.

Another illustration is to write some words on a door jamb, and then when you close the door, you will see them as closed syllable words. When you open the door, you see them as open syllable words. Once you’ve introduced the idea of open syllables, you can move on to the next strategy.

2. Word Sorts with Open Syllable and Closed Syllable Words

Have your students complete word sorts with open syllable and closed syllable words. This is a great way to practice new phonics concepts because it encourages students to look closely at the letters in a word and to pay attention to the spelling patterns that they are seeing. First, practice sorting some words together as a whole class, and then you can have students either do this in small groups or independently. Be sure that students are looking at the spelling patterns and also practicing reading the words out loud.

3. Be Sure Not to Overgeneralize

While most open syllables do have a long vowel sound, as I previously mentioned, sometimes they have another vowel sound or a schwa sound at the end of the word. These words will come up as your students are looking for open syllable words, and you can explain this to them. Most open syllables have a long vowel sound. If the long vowel sound doesn’t make sense, it might be a diphthong sound or a schwa sound. This is why we use words like "usually" and "most of the time" when explaining phonics rules. Words like to and banana aren’t breaking the rules; they simply fall into the "sometimes" category of open syllables.

4. Practice Reading and Writing

Students learn best when they are applying their knowledge, so once they have some understanding of open syllables, it’s time to work on it in context. Here are five of my favorite ways to practice reading and writing new phonics skills. All of these phonics activities could work with any new spelling pattern or any new syllable type.

1. The Magic Word Change Game

This is very simple. Students use a whiteboard, and you display or write on the board. You start with a word and you change that word one letter at a time and have students practice writing and reading the new words. For example, you could start with no and change it to not, and then change it to hot, and change it to hop, and then top, and then to, and then do, and then dot. This helps students pay attention to the spelling pattern and get comfortable with looking at different syllable types.

2. Targeted Journal Entries

I do this every time I teach a new syllable type or a new spelling pattern to my students. You can have your students come up with a list of open syllable words and write them up on the board or on chart paper. Then, have them take out their journals, pick a word, and try to use it in a context in a sentence. As students are more and more comfortable with new spelling patterns, then you can ask them to write maybe two or three words or two or three sentences.

3. Snowball Fight

I’ve shared about a snowball fight previously, but it’s a really simple game that again would be a great way to practice open syllables. Students get three slips of paper, write down one word with an open syllable on each, crumple it up, stand on opposite sides of the room, and toss them. Then, they pick up three "snowballs" of their classmates and write them down on their recording sheet. After they write them down, they read the words. After the entire activity is complete, you can make a big chart of open syllable words together.

4. Musical Sentences

This is similar to musical chairs but with a phonics slant. Write sentences on strips of paper and put one at each student desk. Make sure the sentences contain some open syllable words. Have students walk around while the music is going. They have a whiteboard and a pen in their hand. When the music stops, they flip over their sentence, read the sentence out loud, and on their whiteboard, write down every open syllable word in that sentence. Again, at the end of the game, you can have students share the words they found and make a big chart together. If a student says a word that isn’t an open syllable, it’s a great learning opportunity to talk about why that word doesn’t fit the spelling pattern. When you do this activity, make sure the rest of the words in the sentences are decodable to your students. Be sure to only include the spelling patterns and the sounds that they have already learned.

5. Read Decodable Texts

Have students practice reading decodable texts that include open syllables. Once you’ve learned open syllables, the text should contain only the spelling patterns, syllable types, and sounds that they have already learned. Of course, sometimes it’s really tricky to find texts that are completely 100% decodable, but do your best because the more decodable a text is, the more successful a student will be. Research shows that as long as the text is about 80% decodable, students should be able to read it. However, students who know fewer spelling patterns will have a harder time and they need a more decodable text. As students learn more spelling patterns, if the text is a bit less decodable, they should still be okay.

5. Catch Open Syllables

After introducing open syllables, put a blank piece of chart paper somewhere in the classroom that your students can reach and access. If you want to get fancy, you could make a spider web and maybe even put a little spider on there and write "Catch Open Syllables," but just a plain piece of chart paper works just fine. As students are reading books or see things in the environmental text around them, when they find an open syllable word, they can run over, take a marker, and write it on your "Catch an Open Syllable" chart. You can leave this up for the entire time you’re specifically focusing on open syllables. You could even leave it up all year. You can even do this with every syllable type you learn. It will get your students to be specifically looking for this syllable type as they’re reading and going about their day.

Understanding open syllables is a great first step to understanding long vowel spelling patterns in the English language.

There you have it! That’s how you can introduce and teach open syllables to your students. Thank you so much for joining me. Don’t forget to like and subscribe so you never miss an episode of Phonics Rules for Teachers and How the Heck to Teach Them. See you next time! [Music]