Teaching Reading Step 5 – Open Syllables | Reading on Strawberry Lane

There are 6 syllable types in reading. The basic overall purpose of learning syllable type reading is to give students 6 reading strategies to aid them in chunking longer words into short, readable parts. These strategies teach students to look at a word and identify the number of syllables that word has based upon the position of the vowel(s) in conjunction to the consonants before and after it. Also, the sound of a vowel or a vowel team in the syllable(s) of the word can be determined to be short, long, r-controlled, final stable, or a vowel creating its own sound, and all of these various sounds can be specifically determined based upon the consonants around the vowel. Syllable facts to remember:

All spoken words break down into a syllable or syllables.
All syllable sounds are organized around vowels.
Every syllable has to have a vowel in it, or it is not a syllable.

The Open Syllable includes one vowel letter as does any syllable, but what makes the Open Syllable an Open Syllable is that the vowel will be at the end of the syllable, and the vowel for the most part says its long name. For example, look at the word able below. -a is the Open Syllable in the word able. The syllable must include one vowel, and it does, and the syllable has to end with the vowel, and of course it does since -a is the only letter in the syllable, and the -a says its long sound. Let’s look at the word hello. The syllable -lo is the open syllable. This syllable does include one vowel, and the syllable ends in the vowel -o. The vowel says the long vowel sound [the long sound may be the long sound of another vowel, like in the word, ratio, the vowel -i says the long sound of -e in the syllable -ti] or schwa sound. Every vowel says the schwa sound in various words. The schwa sound always says the short sound /uh/. The phonetic symbol for the schwa sound is /ə/. Here are some examples of each vowel saying the schwa sound: about, the, Mexico, cotton, album. One thing to note about Open Syllables is that the vowel can be the only letter in a syllable in a word. Therefore, if a syllable only has one letter that letter has to be a vowel. Another fact to note is that a syllable cannot be a syllable without a vowel in it. For example -br is not a syllable. It is a consonant digraph that has two separate sounds -b and -r.

Examples of Open Syllables:

a/ble [-a is the open syllable]
hel/lo [-lo is the open syllable]
ra/ti/o [-ra, -ti, and -o are all open syllables, i says the long e sound]
Mex/i/co [-i and -co are open syllables]

My packet, Reading Open Syllables, give a plethora of Open Syllable word lists. This way students are immersed in these kinds of words. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reading-Open-Vowel-Syllables-Unit-5-925491.

Then my packet, 15 Activities and Games Teaching Open Syllables give students a chance to have fun while learning this syllable type. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/15-Open-Vowel-Syllable-Activities-Games-1312232.

Both packets are available: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Open-Syllable-Bundle-Packet-1313008.

Here are a two FREE Open Syllable word sorts to give you an example of a couple of Open Syllable activities that are in the activities packet.