As an identical twin, I think I look for doubles, similarities, or matches in almost everything I do. If you are a twin like me, you likely find other twins to be fascinating, and swarm toward them like moths to a flame. I had the absolute luck of getting to work in a classroom a couple of years ago in which the kindergarten teacher, the educational assistant, and I, the resource teacher, all had identical twin sisters! I experienced an immediate feeling of companionship whenever I entered the classroom.
Today I am going to introduce you to the six syllable types in English, and perhaps because of my personal way of seeing the world, I like to think of these syllable types as sextuplets. They are similar but unique in their own special way, just like sextuplets would be!
In structured literacy approaches, the six syllable types are explicitly taught to students, as they develop an in depth understanding of English spelling. Direct phonics instruction, that is carefully structured and sequenced, is key to structured literacy.
The National Reading Panel has identified five fundamental reading skills (Melekoglu, 2019, p. 412). These five skills are the basis for developing reading skills in students and “problems in any one of these skills can impact improvements in other crucial skills” (p. 413). The five skills are “phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and text comprehension” (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, as cited in Melekoglu, 2019, p. 413).
Structured literacy has to do with two of the five fundamental reading skills: the phonics and phonemic awareness skills, mainly. However the other components are not forgotten or left out. As you will see below, when a new letter or letter pattern is taught to students, they are given the opportunity to use that new knowledge in sentences and books. These skills are not taught in isolation, but rather, applied to reading real text, as soon as possible, and within the same lesson.
The important elements of structured literacy, according to Valdine Bjornson of the Manitoba Reading and Learning Clinic, (Orton Gillingham Academy, Classroom Instructor Course, June – July 2020) are:
- The reading instruction is highly sequenced, beginning at the most basic and working toward the complex. For example, short vowels are taught before vowel teams.
- It is cumulative, in that each lesson involves reviewing what was previously taught. This occurs when the teacher asks questions about concepts learned in earlier lessons, weaving the concepts into the current lesson. The teacher constantly spirals back to previously taught information, since the later tasks are built on them.
- Every lesson progresses logically, and builds sequentially. Tasks that are easier, come first in the lesson.
- Concepts practiced earlier on in the lesson are returned to towards the end of the lesson. The student applies the letters / patterns that were introduced early on in the lesson, to reading and writing words and sentences in the final steps of the lesson.
- Each lesson involves reading “connected text”; sentences or books that include the letters or patterns just taught. The teacher does not give students words or sentences to read that are beyond what they have been explicitly taught. Doing so would be considered unfair, and would not be emotionally sound. The teacher is careful to structure the lesson so that the student feels successful, and so they only give tasks to the student that they are confident the student will be able to do.
The Orton Gillingham approach is the premier model for structured literacy. Once students have learned the letter names and sounds, the teacher introduces the six syllable types in English. There are six syllable-spelling conventions used in English. It is useful to teach them because when students know the syllable types, it makes it easier for them to spell words correctly. It also helps them to know how to pronounce the vowels, in words that they do not yet know (Moats & Tolman, 2009). When students learn how to chunk longer words into syllables, and have been taught the syllable types, they are able to tackle longer words. They will be also be less likely to skip or guess at longer words (Moats & Tolman, 2009).
Here is a list of the six syllable types.
- Open
- Closed
- Silent – e
- Vowel Team
- Vowel R
- Consonant – le
Before teachers can introduce the syllable types, students must learn how to divide a word into syllables, and how to count the number of syllables in a word. This is an oral activity, in which the student is asked to repeat a word, and then clap or tap the number of syllables they hear. Hearing syllables in words is one of the earliest steps in developing phonological awareness. As mentioned above, phonological awareness is one of the five essential components of teaching reading, according to he National Reading Panel.
It is sometimes helpful to have students count how many times their jaw moves down, when they say a word aloud. Syllables can be counted this way, since every syllable has a vowel, and our jaws drop down each time we make a vowel sound (Moats & Tolman, 2009).
Try saying the following words aloud, and while you do, place your hand on your chin.
Count the syllables in each of these words:
Apple (2)
Potato (3)
Watermelon (4)
Box (1)
Open Syllable
Open syllables are syllables that end in vowels. When the syllable ends in a vowel, the vowel sound is long. An easy way to see this at work, is to look at short words that end in long vowels. Remember that the long sound is when the vowel says its name. The short sound is when the vowel makes its soft, short sound. Long “E” is like the sound at the end of “me”, and short “E” is the sound in the middle of the word “bed”.
Each of these words end in a vowel, and the vowel sound is long. These are examples of open syllable words.
Me
He
Hi
She
No
Go
So
Closed Syllable
Some smaller words that are examples of closed syllables, are words like “mat” and “set”. Note that after each vowel, there is a consonant. Words that follow this pattern can be shown as “CVC” or consonant, vowel, consonant. They can also look like this: “VC”, in multisyllabic words like the first syllable in “ap-ple” or like in the word “ask“. The consonant “closes the door” and makes the vowel quieter. One way to help students remember this, is to tell them that it is harder to hear someone who is talking behind a closed door, because the sound is softer. That remind us that the vowel is making its soft sound.
Another idea is to use a visual cue, in which you show students how the pronunciation of a word changes when a consonant is added to the end of the word. To do this, you could have an open syllable word written on a longer card, so that part of the card can be folder over. On the back of the flap, a consonant is written. When the consonant is added to the end of the word, the pronunciation of the vowel changes.
For example, the word “me” is written on a card, with a flap that has a letter “T” written on the back. The flap is the door. When the door is open, the word is read as “me”, pronounced /m/ /ee/, but when the door is closed (the flap with the letter “T” on it closes like a door), the word now reads “met”. Opening the door again hides the “T” behind it, so the word reads “me” again. This demonstrates the idea of open and closed syllables, and is helpful in illustrating the way that the vowel changes its sound in open and closed syllables.
In the training offered by the Orton Gillingham academy, picture cues are used to remind students about the different syllable types. A tiger is used to show open syllables, due to the long “I” in the first syllable of the word ti – ger. A camel is used to show closed syllables, due to the short “A” sound in the first syllable, and the fact that the letter “M” closes the door, and signals to us that the vowel uses its short, soft sound in this syllable.
The other four syllable types are very recognizable, especially when illustrated with a few examples. Usually these syllable types are taught in single syllable words first, and then are expanded to words with multiple syllables. Remember that the “C” stands for “consonant”, and “V” for “vowel”.
Vowel Consonant – e
(VCe)
Examples: rake, bike, hope, com-pete, des-pite
Vowel Team
(CVVC, CVV)
These are syllables with long or short vowel sounds, that use two or more letters to spell the vowel. This category includes diphthongs like ou / ow, and oi / oy. Examples of vowel teams are oo, ae, ai,
Words: rain, read, away, loud, boy
Vowel – r
(V-r)
Also called “R controlled vowels”, because the letter “R” changes the way that the vowel sounds.
Examples are: er, ir, or, ar, ur
Words: fur, hurt, cart, yurt, sir
Consonant – le
(C-le)
These words have a consonant before the letter “L”, followed by a silent “E”.
Examples: apple, candle, little
Once you know the syllable types, you can notice different combinations of these types in multi-syllabic words. The word candle, for example, contains a closed syllable: “can”. Then, the second syllable in the words is a consonant – le syllable: “dle”.
Teaching reading this way involves many components, including supporting students in developing phonological awareness, or the ability to hear the sounds within words, which is what they do when they break a word into syllables. It also involves teaching them some vocabulary unique to English language. In this structured literacy approach, children are taught the meaning of the words “vowel”, “consonant”, and “syllable”, for example. They are taught difference between a long and short vowel sound. Additional vocabulary is introduced as we teach about open and closed syllables, and it expands from there.
David Kilpatrick, a well known reading researcher, advocates for using phoneme awareness and phonics in teaching students to read (2016). He points out that one might wonder whether it is necessary to teach reading in such a structured and direct way, since it seems that most students learn to read and spell fine without this. In reality, many students do learn to read without the use of a structured literacy approach, he agrees. However, for about 30% of students, direct, systematic phonics and phonemic awareness instruction is vital in becoming a successful reader (Kilpatrick, 2016, p. 16). Without it, these students will remain struggling readers throughout school.
Teaching phonics and phonological awareness is necessary, in order to prevent many students from becoming struggling readers. This method supports stronger readers in becoming even better at reading: “Typical first and second graders can learn to read more quickly and efficiently when they are trained in phoneme awareness” (Kilpatrick, 2016, p. 17). Without a structured literacy approach, such as the Orton Gillingham method, early elementary school teachers will continue to struggle to meet the needs of the weakest readers in their classes. Being a poor reader will have an impact on a student’s self-esteem and academic success, limiting their potential to become an accomplished, literate adult.
I hope you enjoyed meeting the sextuplets! They might even feel close to your heart, it you are a twin or a triplet yourself. I am sure you can appreciate the similarities and the important unique qualities of each. As a twin, similarities and differences were very important, when I was growing up. At times the differences were of utmost importance, as I struggled to define myself as an individual. At other times, the sense of belonging that came from having someone with the same DNA as myself, the same voice, hair, eyes, nose, and body type was very soothing.
I hope you found this post helpful. If you are interested in learning more about structured literacy, I strongly recommend the Orton Gillingham Classroom Educator course, offered by the Manitoba Reading and Learning Clinic. This post just barely scratches the surface, but if you would like to learn more, you can really go into it deeply through the Orton Gillingham training. For more information, please contact me below or through a message on the home page.
You can also go to directly to Manitoba’s very own Orton Gillingham Academy training locale, at https://sites.google.com/view/thereadingandlearningclinicofm/home?authuser=0
References:
Bjornson, V. (2020) Orton Gillingham Academy, Classroom Instructor Course.
Kilpatrick, D. A. (2016). Equipped for reading success: A comprehensive, step by step program for developing phonemic awareness and fluent word recognition. Syracuse: Casey & Kirsch Publishers.
Melkoglu, M. A. (2019). Evidence based fluency interventions for elementary students with learning disabilities. European Journal of Education Studies, 6 (5), 411-423.
Moats, L, & Tolman, C (2009). Excerpted from Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS): Spellography for Teachers: How English Spelling Works (Module 3). Boston: Sopris West. Retreived on August 31, 2020 from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/six-syllable-types.
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