Help your child avoid the Summer Reading Slump
The summer slump is a real. Some kids loose as much as 2-3 reading levels during the summer. If you want to assure that your child avoids the summer reading slump, have your children devote 20 minutes daily (more is better) during the summer reading connected text.
There are other key moves to make for summer reading. Focus another 10 minutes on breaking words into syllables.. When readers learn to break words into chunks, fluency and comprehension improve. Most English language words can be broken down into smaller parts, making these words easier to read. Vocabulary development is another key move. Many young readers actually know the words and their meanings but are unable to read the word in print.
Without a strategy for chunking longer words into manageable parts, students may look at a longer word and simply resort to guessing— or, worst, skipping it altogether. Familiarity with syllable-spelling strategy helps readers know whether a vowel is long or short. Familiarity with syllable patterns helps students read longer words accurately and fluently. Spelling problems should also be addressed because if children can spell a word they can read it.
There are six syllable types that make this possible: closed, open, silent e, vowel pair, r-controlled, and final stable syllable. Every word has at least one vowel and syllables can be counted by putting your hand under your chin and feeling the number of times the jaw drops for a vowel sound. This helpful hack works well
Closed syllables
The closed syllable is the most common spelling unit in English; it accounts for just under 50 percent of the syllables in running text. When the vowel of a syllable is short (doesn’t say its name) the syllable will be closed off by one or more consonants. Two or more consonant letters often follow short vowels in closed syllables (dodge, stretch, back, stuff, doll, mess, jazz).
Vowel-Consonant-e (VCe) syllables
Also known as “magic e” syllable patterns, VCe syllables contain long vowels spelled with a single letter, followed by a single consonant, and a silent e. Examples of VCe syllables are found in wake, whale, while, yoke, yore, rude, and hare. Every long vowel can be spelled with a VCe pattern, although spelling “long e” with VCe is unusual.
Open syllables
If a syllable is open, it will end with a long vowel sound spelled with one vowel letter; there will be no consonant to close it and protect the vowel (to-tal, ri-val, bi-ble, mo-tor). A few single-syllable words in English are also open syllables. They include me, she, he and no, so, go. In Romance languages — especially Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian — open syllables predominate.
Vowel team syllables
A vowel team may be two, three, or four letters; thus, the term vowel digraph is not used. A vowel team can represent a long, short, or diphthong vowel sound. Vowel teams occur most often in old Anglo-Saxon words whose pronunciations have changed over hundreds of years. They must be learned gradually through word sorting and systematic practice. Examples of vowel teams are found in thief, boil, hay, suit, boat, and straw.
Sometimes, consonant letters are used in vowel teams. The letter y is found in ey, ay, oy, and uy, and the letter w is found in ew, aw, and ow. It is not accurate to say that “w can be a vowel,” because the letter is working as part of a vowel team to represent a single vowel sound. Other vowel teams that use consonant letters are -augh, -ough, -igh, and the silent -al spelling for /aw/, as in walk.
Vowel-r syllables
Common “r-controlled” examples include (er, ir, ur, ar, or). Vowel-r syllables are numerous, variable, and difficult for students to master; they require continuous review. The /r/ phoneme is elusive for students whose phonological awareness is underdeveloped. Other examples for vowel-r syllables are found in perform, ardor, mirror, further, worth, and wart.
Consonant-le (C-le) syllables
Also known as the stable final syllable, C-le combinations are found only at the ends of words. If a C-le syllable is combined with an open syllable — as in cable, bugle, or title — there is no doubled consonant. If one is combined with a closed syllable — as in dabble, topple, or little — a double consonant results.
Some words cannot be sounded out. These words, often known as sight words, are not decodable because the sounds do not predictably correspond with the letters in the word. Sight words, such as said, who, come, does, need to be memorized because they cannot be sounded out. However, Single-letter words, such as I and a, are vowel only words.
Every syllable has one vowel sound. Single-syllable words, like clump, she, and fine, each have one vowel sound. Therefore, words with multiple syllables will have one vowel sound for each syllable. A closed vowel has a short vowel sound. There is a consonant after the vowel. Students can learn the following author-created chant: “A consonant after a vowel make the vowel short.”