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All About Teaching Reading & Writing
Taxonomy
Skill Explainer

3.2 Explicitly Teaching Short Vowels

Short Vowels 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 Diphthongs Skill Explainer

        Coming soon.

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

          Coming soon.

            Schwa Skill Explainer

            Coming soon.

              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

                  When you're ready to teach, we hope you'll consider using our lesson plans for short vowels. Our research-based plans combine instruction of letter names, letter sounds, articulation, and letter formation.

                  Lesson Plan for Focusing on Short ‘a’

                  Here's a sample lesson plan for focusing on short vowel sounds.

                  Lesson Checklist for Focusing on a Specific Short Vowel

                  Here is a checklist for instruction for a specific vowel sound.

                  And here's a brief look at the components of the lesson:

                  • Warm up with a phonological awareness activity to get students hearing sounds. 
                  • Remind students that there are five vowels and ask them to name them.
                  • Remind students that all words must have a vowel. 
                  • Explain that we are working on short vowel sounds because they are very common.
                  • Use pictures and motions to help students remember the short vowel sounds. 
                    'a', apple, /ă/
                    'e', edge, /ĕ/
                    'i', itch, /ĭ/
                    'o', octopus, /ŏ/
                    'u', umbrella, /ŭ/
                  • Explain that vowels make their short sounds when they are “closed in by” (followed by) at least one consonant. (If using our scope and sequence, students will learn more about closed syllables next.)
                  • Choose one vowel to focus on at a time. Eventually move on to mixing all the vowels.
                  • Offer students numerous opportunities to hear and say the short vowel sounds both in isolation and in words. 
                  • Have students practice reading and spelling words with all of the short vowel sounds.

                  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.