Teaching Reading Step 6

Teaching reading Step 6 is teaching the Final Stable syllable when teaching reading by syllable types. So obviously that means there are 6 steps to reading, and step 6 is taught at the end of the school year. Whether your school year calendar is traditional or year round, just save approximately three weeks to teach this step.

Reading Timeline

My school-year reading timeline looks something like this for my second graders. I teach Closed Syllables the first three months of school and then Vowel-Consonant-e over the next two months. Then after Christmas break, I jump into teaching r-Controlled Syllables, which takes about six weeks. After that, I am off to teaching Vowel Teams, which takes me through Spring break. April arrives, and it is time to teach Open Syllables. Then the last couple weeks of school are given to teaching Final Stable Syllable

What is a Final Stable Syllable?

A Final Stable syllable is a combination of letters found only at the end of words. These letters are always constant in their sounds when they are seen in reading. Some of these endings are easy to learn for students while others are more difficult.

Easy Final Stable Ending -le

Final Stable syllables are easy for students to pocket, and students catch onto them rather fast because they are stable in that their sounds never change. While teaching the other syllable pattern types, I casually point out to the students a Final Stable ending. Then by the time we get to this syllable pattern, students are already familiar with the -le final stable sound. Therefore, less time can be dedicated to teaching this syllable.

Difficult Final Stable Endings

Here are some examples of Final Stable ending: -tion in nation, -sion in mission, -ture in creature, -tian in mountain, -cious in delicious. The most common Final Stable endings are –ble, -cle, -dle, -fle, -gle, -kle, -ple, -sle, -tle, -zle.