3. How to Teach Closed Syllables

In this section we are going to walk you through the steps for teaching closed syllables to your students.

• 3.1 Prepare for Instruction — Get to know the content and teaching strategies you’ll use.
• 3.2 Explicitly Teach the Skill — See how to introduce the new information to students and how to integrate it into future lessons.

At Reading Universe we use an evidence-based approach popularly known as structured literacy. Structured literacy is a way of organizing and delivering reading instruction to ensure students get all the skills they need in an efficient timeframe — and without any gaps. With this approach, teachers use explicit or direct instruction. Read more about structured literacy here.

We recommend a daily phonics lesson routine that looks something like this:

The lesson starts with a quick phonemic awareness activity, or listening game. The warm-up continues as you review the sounds and patterns students need using flash cards. New/review is where you introduce the new sound or pattern – in this case closed syllables – or review something students learned within the last few days. During dictation, students practice spelling words with the new sound or pattern. All of this leads up to the last portion of the lesson in which students put all the skills together and practice reading with fluency.