2. When to Teach Vowel Teams and Diphthongs

Once students can read and spell closed, open, magic 'e', and r-controlled syllables, they are ready to learn about vowel teams and diphthongs. We teach the syllable types first because they open up many single and multisyllabic words for your students. 

Most vowel teams are found in single syllable words. Vowel teams can be confusing because there are many letter combinations that can represent the same sound, so explicit instruction in vowel teams is essential.

Here's a reminder of where you are on our phonics continuum — what you have taught and what's coming up. This is not the only way to do things, and many programs will teach skills in a different order. That's okay, as long as students learn all the skills.

We begin teaching the most common vowel teams and diphthongs in first grade and continue to teach more in second grade. We do not teach all vowel teams and diphthongs at one time. We explicitly teach them throughout the continuum at points where students will encounter words with specific patterns.

Before teaching vowel teams and diphthongs, students need to:

• Accurately and automatically identify short and long vowel sounds
• Read and spell words with closed, open, magic 'e', and r-controlled syllables

The structured literacy approach is systematic and cumulative. That means each time we teach a new phonics skill, we need to consider how it interacts with skills that students have already learned. We should explicitly make these connections for students. 

Once students have learned how to read and spell multisyllabic words with closed, open, magic 'e', and r-controlled syllables, we can build upon that understanding to help students decode multisyllabic words with vowel teams, like the words below and routine. Vowel teams are most often found in one-syllable words; so once we have taught these sound-symbol correspondences, students can apply this knowledge when they do encounter these graphemes in multisyllabic words. Each time students learn a new syllable type, it is important to review previous syllable types. 

After initially teaching a vowel team or diphthong, you can include these words in your dictation by adding prefixes and suffixes you have previously taught. For example, you can dictate words like renew, grooming, unchain, and pouches and add them to your phrase and sentence dictation.

We don't need students to memorize high-frequency words that have vowel teams and diphthongs, like right and out. Once you have explicitly taught students to identify and decode vowel teams and diphthongs, they can sound out the words for reading and spelling. Below are some high-frequency words containing vowel teams and diphthongs that you can easily incorporate into your phonics lessons.

See the full list of Dolch words separated by phonics patterns (opens in new window).