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All About Teaching Reading & Writing
Taxonomy
Skill Explainer

5. Lesson Plans for Open Syllables

Open Syllables Skill Explainer

The Simple View of Reading

Word Recognition x Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension

Assessment

The process of measuring students' progress and providing information to help guide instruction

(active)
Word Recognition

The ability to see a word and know how to pronounce it without consciously thinking about it

Phonological Awareness

A group of skills that enable you to recognize and manipulate parts of spoken words

Articulation

Syllables

Onset-Rime

Phonemic Awareness

(active)
Phonics

A method for teaching children the relationship between spoken sounds and written letters so they can learn to decode and encode

Sound-Letter Correspondence

(active)Phonics Patterns

Common letter combinations found in words.

Short Vowels Skill Explainer
Closed Syllables Skill Explainer
Glued Sounds Skill Explainer
Open Syllables Skill Explainer
Spelling with 'c' vs. 'k' Skill Explainer
Consonant Digraphs Skill Explainer
Blends Skill Explainer
‘-ck’ Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
FLoSS(Z) Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
‘y’ as a Vowel Skill Explainer

Coming soon.

    Magic 'e' Skill Explainer
    Soft 'c' and Soft 'g' Skill Explainer

    Coming soon.

      R-Controlled Vowels Skill Explainer

      Coming soon.

        Vowel Teams and Dipthongs Skill Explainer

        Coming soon.

          '-tch' Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
          '-dge' Spelling Rule Skill Explainer

          Coming soon.

            Consonant '-le' Skill Explainer

            Coming soon.

              Schwa Skill Explainer

              Coming soon.

                Irregularly Spelled High-Frequency Words

                High-frequency words that have a part of their spelling that has to be memorized

                Irregularly Spelled High-Frequency Words

                Multisyllable Words

                Words that have more than one word part

                Prefixes

                How to add meaningful beginnings to words

                Suffixes

                How to add meaningful endings to words

                Language Comprehension

                The ability to understand the meaning of spoken words

                Reading Comprehension

                The ability to understand the meaning of printed text

                Text Considerations

                Characteristics of a text that impact the ease or difficulty of comprehension.

                Strategies and Activities

                How a reader approaches a specific text, depending on their purpose for reading

                Reader’s Skill and Knowledge

                The skills and knowledge a reader brings to the reading task that are necessary for comprehension

                Sociocultural Context

                Elements in a classroom that affect how well a child learns to read

                Fluency

                The ability to read accurately with automaticity and expression

                Fluency: Accuracy, then Automaticity

                Reading or decoding words correctly (accuracy) and reading at an appropriate rate (automaticity)

                Accuracy, then Automaticity Skill Explainer

                Coming soon.

                  Fluency: Expressive Text Reading

                  Reading characterized by accuracy with automaticity and expression

                  Expressive Text Reading Skill Explainer

                  Coming soon.

                    Writing

                    The act of putting thoughts into print using transcription and composition skills

                    Features of Structured Literacy

                    A systematic and explicit approach to teaching reading based on research

                    In this section, you’ll find:

                    • A lesson plan for introducing open syllables
                    • A lesson plan for reinforcing short vs. long syllables
                    • Materials for teaching the lessons, including those needed for "The Alphabet Queen"
                    • Support for adding syllable work into your phonics routine
                    • A word list to support lessons and student practice  

                    The Reading Universe lesson plans are free to download and use in your classroom.

                    Open Syllables Lesson Plan

                    Use this lesson plan when introducing open syllables.

                    Lesson Plan for Short vs. Long Vowels

                    Use this lesson plan to provide additional support for students who need help distinguishing between the short and long vowel sounds.

                    Materials for Lesson

                    Adding Syllable Work to Your Routine

                    Now that students know about closed and open syllables, you can add syllable work into your daily phonics routine. This will become even more important as students learn more syllable types and begin practicing with multisyllable words.

                    During syllable work, you spell syllables aloud and then have children practice using the steps for identifying and labeling them.

                    Lesson Plan Checklist: How to Teach a Syllable Type

                    Here is a checklist you can use each time you introduce a new syllable type.

                    You can also incorporate syllable work into the other parts of your lesson. For example, during your listening game, say a word and have students identify the vowel sound as short or long by making the motion of a breve symbol (arms in the air above their heads in the shape of a smile) or macron symbol (arms straight out like a ‘T’) while saying the short or long vowel sound. You can also add syllables to your flash cards (opens in new window) as part of your warm-up. Ask students to identify the vowel, then guide them to look immediately after the vowel and ask if the vowel is closed in. Then have them identify the vowel sound and read the word.

                    Ultimately, syllable work is all about decoding words. Doing syllable work in small groups that focus on reading is a great way to provide guided practice in this skill. Remember students should stop using scaffolds such as coding and labeling as soon as they’re beginning to read closed and open syllable words with automaticity.

                    Word Lists for Your Lessons

                    When choosing words to use as examples in your lessons, start with simple and build toward more complex.

                    For example, when we begin with open syllables, we want to use simple consonant-vowel words, like be. We do not want to initially use words that have digraphs, like she, or blends, like pre

                    Using nonsense syllables alongside real syllables is an excellent way for students to practice the steps of identifying open syllables in unfamiliar and familiar ways. 

                    We’ve made it easy for you to select words for your lessons! The lesson plans and activities in our resource hub include words, phrases, and sentences for practicing open syllables.

                    Open Syllables Word List for Lesson Planning

                    This list of real and nonsense words can help you teach open syllables. 

                    Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim & Donna Barksdale; the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (opens in new window); the AFT (opens in new window); the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation (opens in new window); and three anonymous donors.