5. Videos: See Closed-Syllable Instruction in the Classroom

DeAngela Huggins: Okay, guys. So we're going to get ready to start our lesson today.

Narrator: Reading Specialist DeAngela Huggins is about to teach a phonics lesson about multi-syllable words. So, for the warmup, she's using flashcards with closed syllables.

DeAngela Huggins: So we're going to be working with words that have more than one syllable today. So I thought it'd be really cool that if we start with our warmup with some syllables. We're going to read that syllable. So, remember, these aren't actually words ... these are just what?

Students: Syllables ...

DeAngela Huggins: So we know a syllable is a part of a word that has a vowel sound. So you ready? Alright, is it open or closed?

Students: Closed ...

DeAngela Huggins: How do you know that it's closed?

Student: Because the 't' is blocking the 'e'. The 'e' is just saying, "Hey, let me out."

DeAngela Huggins: It's saying "Let me out." It's closed. So what type of sound would it have? Long or short sound?

Students: Short ...

DeAngela Huggins: Short sound. So let's read our syllable together. It is ...

Students: /c/, /ă/, /t/. Cat.

DeAngela Huggins: What is it?

Students: Cat.

DeAngela Huggins: Very good. Nice. Alright, here we go. Open or closed syllable? What is it?

Students: Closed ...

DeAngela Huggins: It's a closed syllable. What consonant is closing in our vowel?

Students: 's' ...

DeAngela Huggins: What's going to be the sound of our 'u'?

Students: /ŭ/ ...

DeAngela Huggins: Let's read our syllable.

Students: /tus/ ...

DeAngela Huggins: Very good.

Narrator: If the students can easily identify closed syllables, then they can quickly determine that the vowel sound is short. Putting them well on their way to reading multi-syllable words.

DeAngela Huggins: Why is it important to know that if it's open or if it's closed? Why do we need to know that? Why don't we even care, Leona?

Leona: If we know if it's open or closed, then we know if it makes its long sound or its short sound.

DeAngela Huggins: And that helps us to do what?

Student: Read and write.

DeAngela Huggins: Very good. It helps us to read and write the words. So what was our syllable? Let's go...

Students: /las/ ...

DeAngela Huggins: Very good.

Students: Enjoy this video? Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel @RUTeaching. For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to Burgess-Peterson Academy and Atlanta Public Schools. Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim & Donna Barksdale, the American Federation of Teachers, The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and three anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington, D.C., The Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.

DeAngela Huggins: This is Reading Universe.

Carla Stanford: Are you ready for a story?

Students: Yes.

Narrator: Reading coach Carla Stanford is introducing these second graders to the concept of closed syllables, and she's using an engaging and interactive story called "The Alphabet Queen" to do it.

Carla Stanford: A long, long time ago, in a land far, far away, there was an Alphabet Queen and the Alphabet Queen, she was in charge of all of the letters and sounds. Just like a dog's name is dog. And the sound that it makes is ...

Students: /d/ ...

Carla Stanford: What sound does a dog make when it communicates? It says ...

Students: Woof, woof ...

Carla Stanford: Exactly. And just like a cow, the name of the animal is cow, but what sound does the cow make?

Students: Mooooo ....

Carla Stanford: Well, the Alphabet Queen said, "Oh my goodness, in my land, I want all of my letters to have names and I want them to have sounds." So she said, "This is the letter ..."

Students: 'g' ...

Carla Stanford: And the sound is ...

Students: /g/ ...

Carla Stanford: This is the letter ...

Students: 't' ...

Carla Stanford: And the sound is ...

Students: /t/ ...

Carla Stanford: Good. Clip that sound. I love it. So, the Alphabet Queen went around and she named all the consonants. Can you say consonants?

Students: Consonants.

Carla Stanford: She named all the consonants. And she said, "Here's your name, here's your sound, here's your name, here's your sound." Well, then the Alphabet Queen said, "Oh my goodness. I have some letters that are precious." Can you say precious?

Students: Precious.

Carla Stanford: "These letters are so precious, and they are called vowels." Say vowels.

Students: Vowels.

Carla Stanford: "And the vowels are so precious, I need to keep them inside of a fence to keep them safe." So she put 'a' ... What's another vowel?

Students: 'e' ...

Carla Stanford: What else?

Students: 'i' ...

Carla Stanford: Another vowel?

Students: 'o' ...

Carla Stanford: 'o' ...

Assistant Teacher: One more ...

Students: 'u' ...

Carla Stanford: 'u' ... You're right, 'y' is a vowel, but today we're only going to focus on the always vowels. Are y'all okay with that? Another day we'll talk about that other sneaky vowel. So, the Alphabet Queen said, "Oh my goodness, these are my most precious vowels. I have to keep them in here to keep them safe. But my goodness, I have to keep the gate closed so they'll be safe." So the Alphabet Queen said, "Consonants, you stand guard. I want you to come guard the gate." Let me close my gate a little bit more. "I want you to guard the gate and keep the gate closed." So everyone say "the gate is closed!"

Students: The gate is closed.

Carla Stanford: Well, when the gate is closed, friends, the vowels could not get out and they would throw their arms up in the air. Let me see your arms up in the air.

Throw their arms up in the air and they would say their short sound. So 'a' would say ...

Ms. Stanford and Students: /ă/ ...

Carla Stanford: They would run up and try to get out, and they couldn't. 'e' would say ...

Ms. Stanford and Students: /ĕ/ ...

Carla Stanford: 'i' would say ...

Ms. Stanford and Students: /ĭ/ ...

Carla Stanford: 'o' would say ...

Ms. Stanford and Students: /ŏ/ ...

Carla Stanford: And 'u' would say ...

Ms. Stanford and Students: /ŭ/ ...

Carla Stanford: So, anytime that the gate is closed, the vowel always says its short sound. So let's just look at that for a minute. I want you to think about this. What is the vowel in this word? Everyone tell me.

Ms. Stanford and Students: 'e' ...

Carla Stanford: This is the vowel. When I look next door, the gate is closed. What is the gate?

Students: Closed.

Carla Stanford: And when the gate, the gate is closed, the vowel throws its arms up in the air and says ...

Ms. Stanford and Students: /ĕ/ ...

Carla Stanford: So, let's tap this ...

Ms. Stanford and Students: /w/, /ĕ/, /b/. Web.

Carla Stanford: And this little guy right here, like the little smiley face, it's called a breve, and it's just like the same thing. Throw your arms up. That's like the symbol for the short vowel. So when the vowel is closed in, it says a short sound. Have you ever heard about the Alphabet Queen? Now you know, she's in charge of all the letters and sounds. We're going to learn some more tomorrow.

Narrator: Enjoyed this video? Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel @RUTeaching. For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to the Toledo Federation of Teachers, Riverside Elementary School, and Toledo Public Schools in Toledo, Ohio. Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim & Donna Barksdale, the American Federation of Teachers, The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and three anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington, D.C., The Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.

Carla Miller: Okay, friends. So today what we're going to do is we're going to start by drilling our deck. So what you need to do is take out your tracers. Okay. So we're going to go ahead and drill the card. Ready?

Ms. Miller and students: 's', snakes, /s/

Narrator: Today instructional coach Carla Miller will be working on blending sounds with her kindergartners. She begins the phonics lesson with a warm-up, running through flashcards with keyword pictures. This daily practice helps ensure children master the sound of each letter.

Ms. Miller and students: 'i', itch, /ĭ/

Ms. Miller: Who can raise their hand and tell me why is this a different color? Why is this a different color, Hadley?

Hadley: Because it's a vowel.

Ms. Miller: Tell me about a vowel. What's a vowel?

Hadley: It's something that has to be in a word.

Ms. Miller: Very good, very good. Let's keep going.

Ms. Miller and students: 'o', octopus, /ŏ/ 

Ms. Miller: I love those octopus arms.

Ms. Miller and students: 'm', man, /m/

Ms. Miller: Okay, you guys did that so well that we are going to try it with my itty-bitty baby deck. Okay? And this time there are no pictures. So we're just going to say the name of the letter and the sound. Are you ready?

Students: Yes.

Ms. Miller and students: 'z', /z/

Narrator: Next, she uses flashcards with no pictures to ensure the children can read the sound automatically in isolation.

Ms. Miller: Good.

Students: 'a', /ă/, 't', /t/, 'c', /k/

Narrator: Ms. Miller provides quick, direct, explicit instruction to correct errors.

Students: 'b' ...

Ms. Miller: Oh, let's look again. It says straight back, big belly, 'b'. Let's do it together.

Ms. Miller and students: 'b', /b/ 

Ms. Miller: Very good.

Ms. Miller and students: 'm', /m/

Ms. Miller: So what we're going to do today is we're going to have some fun making words. Are you ready to make words?

Students: Yes.

Ms. Miller: Okay, here we go. Some of the words are going to be real words, and some might be nonsense words. Who knows what a nonsense word is? Tell me, Ilia.

Iia: They're words that are not real.

Ms. Miller: Words that are not real. They do not make any sense. Avery already told us that our blue letters are different. What's different about the blue letters, Shane?

Shane: The vowels.

Ms. Miller: They're vowels. Very good. Okay, we're going to start by just reading a word. Okay. We're going to say each sound in the word, and then I'm going to move them a little bit closer together, and then we're going to say the sounds and then I'm going to move 'em a little closer together, but we're not going to read it until they are touching and I say "catch it." Are you ready?

Students: Yes.

Ms. Miller: Okay. So I want to hear everybody's voice. Let's do it.

Students: /s/, /ă/, /t/

Students: /s/, /ă/, /t/

Ms. Miller: [whispering] Listen for the word. Are you guys ready? We're going to catch it this time. They're touching.

Students: /s/, /ă/, /t/ ... sat.

Ms. Miller: Good. Okay. What word was that?

Students: Sat.

Ms. Miller: Sat. Okay. I want everybody to pay attention. I might ask you to read this same word. Okay. Ready? So what word was this one more time, Avery.

Avery: Sat.

Ms. Miller: Sat. What did I just do?

Ilia: Cat.

Ms. Miller: Good. What word did she read?

Hadley: Cat.

Ms. Miller: Good. What did I just do?

Narrator: Ms. Miller models and practices the step-by-step process for blending sounds into words. All the words she chooses for blending contain the sounds the children just practiced with their flashcards. Each child has an opportunity to do the work of blending sounds.

Ilia: /n/, /ĭ/, nip.

Ms. Miller: I love how you tapped that word out. Excellent. What word did she just read?

Students: nip ... nap ...

Ms. Miller: Well, let's tap it together.

Ms. Miller and students: /n/, /ĭ/, nip.

Ms. Miller: Excellent. What did I just do?

Avery: /d/, /ĭ/, /p/ ... dip.

Ms. Miller: Excellent. I'm moving over here to you. What word did he read?

Hadley: Dip.

Ms. Miller: What word do we have now?

Hadley: Hip.

Ms. Miller: Excellent. What word is this?

Shane: Hip.

Ms. Miller: Hip. Good. I'm going to change my vowel in the middle again. Are you ready?

Shane: Hop.

Ms. Miller: Hop. Excellent. We're going ...

Narrator: Children work at their own pace. Some do the work of tapping and blending aloud. Some do it in their heads.

Ms. Miller: Ilia, what word?

Ilia: Bop.

Ms. Miller: Okay. What's this word?

Ilia: /m/, /ŏp/ ... /m/, /ŏp/, ... /m/, mop.

Ms. Miller: Excellent. I love how you pulled it together at the end. Let's go ahead as a group. Can everybody see my words?

Students: Yeah.

Ms. Miller: Okay. We might run into some crazy nonsense words. Okay? Silly words that don't make sense while I do this, but let's do it. We're going to tap and read.

Ms. Miller and students: /m/, / ĭ/, /p/ ... mip ...

Narrator: The lesson ends with more practice with everyone tapping and reading words together.

Ms. Miller: Let's look at this one more time. This is a straight back, big belly. What letter is this?

Students: 'b'

Ms. Miller: What sound does 'b' make?

Students: /b/

Ms. Miller: Let's try that again.

Ms. Miller and students: /b/, /ĭ/, /p/ ... bip

Ms. Miller: Good. Is that a real word or a nonsense word?

Students: Nonsense.

Ms. Miller: All day long. Let's go to the next one.

Ms. Miller and students: /h/, / ĭ/, /p/ ... hip

Ms. Miller: Hip. Good. Real or nonsense?

Students: Real.

Ms. Miller: Real. Put your hands on your hips. Excellent. You guys did an amazing job blending our words. You're such great readers. I love it. Give yourself a little shine. Shine. I'll give you shine ...

Narrator: Enjoy this video? Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel @RUTeaching. For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to Burgess-Peterson Academy and Atlanta Public Schools. Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim & Donna Barksdale, the American Federation of Teachers, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and three anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington, D.C., the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.

Ms. Miller: This is Reading Universe.