Syllabication
Reading First
In-Class Intervention
December 2006
Lynda Smith & Shelby Skaanes
Objectives
• Participants will learn the scope and sequence
of syllabication
• Participants will learn how to provide data-
driven instruction based on students’ needs
• Participants will understand how to effectively
teach syllabication to struggling students
Big Ideas for Grade 2
• Students will read 53 wcpm in
connected text at the beginning of
grade 2.
• Students will read 94 wcpm in
connected text by the end of grade 2.
Hasbrouck & Tindal, (1992)
Big Ideas for Grade 3
• Students will read 79 wcpm in
connected text at the beginning of
grade 3
• Students will read 114 wcpm in
connected text by the end of grade 3
Hasbrouck & Tindal, (1992)
Sample sentences from typical
3rd grade text
1. Even lunch, leftovers Mrs. Quimby had wanted to clear out of the
refrigerator, had been dreary, with her parents, who seemed tired or
discouraged or both, having little to say and Beezus mysteriously
moody.
2. She thought vaguely of all the exciting things she would do – learn to
twirl a lariat, play a musical saw, flip around and over bars in a
gymnastic competition while crowds cheered.
Five Focus Areas in
Reading First
• Phonological awareness
• Phonics/Decoding
• Fluency
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension
Definitions
• Syllable
• Syllabication
• Schwa
• Blends
• Digraphs
• Diphthongs
• Morpheme
• Morphemic Analysis
Syllable – A unit of pronunciation containing a single vowel sound
Syllabication – The process of analyzing the patterns of vowels and consonants in a word to
determine where the word breaks into syllables. This enables the reader to identify syllable types
and their vowel sounds, and arrive at an approximate pronunciation of the word.
Schwa – The vowel sound sometimes heard in an unstressed syllable.
Blends – Consonant blends are 2 or 3 single consonants that work together to create specific
sounds. Each consonant within the blend can be heard.
Digraphs – A pair of letters representing a single speech sound, such as ph in pheasant or ea in
beat.
Diphthongs – A complex speech sound or glide that begins with one vowel and gradually
changes to another vowel within the same syllable, as oi in boil.
Morpheme – The smallest meaningful spoken units of language. There are two types of
morphemes: free and bound. A free morpheme has meaning all on its own and does not need to
be attached to another morpheme to make a word (i.e., base or root words like happy). Bound
morphemes must be attached to another morpheme to make a word (i.e., word roots and affixes
like vis, un, ly). They have meaning but are not words unless attached to one or more
morphemes.
Morphemic Analysis (Structural Analysis) – Isolating and identifying word parts such as base
words, affixes, and roots in words and analyzing the way these morphemes combine to contribute
to the meaning of words.
Words in the English
Language
• 50% are wholly decodable
• 37% are only off by one sound
• 50% of the words we read are made
up of the first 107 high-frequency
words.
Syllable Types
closed him, mit/ten
open go, lo/cate, jel/lo
r-controlled large, en/ter, mar/ket
vowel team green, con/tain
vowel-silent e home, con/cave
consonant-le bot/tle, ta/ble
Your Turn…
Syllable Types
Syllable Division Patterns
VC/CV bas/ket
V/CV fu/ture
VC/V sev/en
VC/CCV en/try
VC/CCCV con/struct
V/V li/on
Syllable Division Challenges
• powder pow/der
• jungle jun/gle
• further fur/ther
Your Turn…
Syllable Divisions
Important Points
Regarding Syllabication
1. First teach students to look for prefixes and suffixes they
recognize and then only apply syllabication to the base or root
word.
2. Point out how common it is for the VC/CV pattern to appear in
English words.
3. Many students will be able to recognize and read r-controlled
and vowel team syllables. Explain the importance of teaching
and understanding open and closed syllables to help students
with the vowel sound.
4. Once students are able to see the first syllable break in a three
syllable word, they can often read the word. It isn’t always
necessary for a student to divide the word into all of its syllables.
Word Attack Procedure
Successful and Proficient
Readers
• Rely primarily on the letters in the word rather than
context or pictures to identify familiar and unfamiliar
words.
• Process virtually every letter of a word.
• Use letter-sound correspondences to identify words.
• Have a reliable strategy for decoding words.
• Read words for a sufficient number of times for words
to become automatic.
Hasbrouck 1998
In order to read most multisyllabic words
with ease, students must be able to:
•quickly recognize as “chunks” the phonics patterns they have learned in
single-syllable words
•understand the concept of a syllable and how to identify vowels and
consonants
•recognize the various syllable types and their pronunciations
•know where the syllables divide – syllable patterns
•recognize common prefixes, suffixes, and base words
•possess the necessary “mental flexibility” to break a word and arrive at an
approximate pronunciation, then use context to resolve ambiguity and
confirm the word
Template 10
Template for Word Reading-
Spelling Focused
Strategies for multisyllabic and
potentially confusing single
syllable words
Example 1:
Two syllable words (with no affixes)
char/coal
1. Cover the second syllable coal.
2. Use the signaling procedure to focus students on the potentially difficult spelling in the
first syllable ar and say, “Sound?”.
3. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under char.
4. Uncover the second syllable and cover the first syllable char.
5. Use the signaling procedure to focus students on the potentially difficult spelling oa
and say, “Sound?”.
6. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under coal.
7. Uncover the first syllable to reveal the whole word.
8. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under each syllable.
9. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Word?”. Slide hand under entire word.
10. If students have a difficult time pronouncing the word, place the word in context for
them and ask them if it sounds like a word they know. Try to get them to adjust the
pronunciation based on context and the structure of the sentence. If they still can’t get
the pronunciation, tell them.
Example 2:
Two syllable words
(that contain an inflectional ending)
paint/ed
1. Cover the second syllable ed (inflectional ending).
2. Use the signaling procedure to focus students on the potentially difficult spelling in
the first syllable ai and say, “Sound?”.
3. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under paint.
4. Uncover the second syllable and cover the first syllable paint.
5. Use the signaling procedure to focus students on the inflectional ending ed and say,
“Say /ed/”.
6. Uncover the first syllable to reveal the whole word.
7. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under each syllable.
8. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Word?”. Slide hand under entire word.
9. If students have a difficult time pronouncing the word, place the word in context for
them and ask them if it sounds like a word they know. Try to get them to adjust the
pronunciation based on context and the structure of the sentence. If they still can’t get
the pronunciation, tell them.
Example 3:
Two syllable words
(that contain a prefix)
dis/like
1. Cover the second syllable like.
2. Option # 1- If you have taught dis as a prefix:
Use the signaling procedure to focus students on dis and say, “Prefix?”. Slide finger
under dis.
Option # 2 – If students have not learned the prefix dis:
Use the signaling procedure to focus students on the potentially difficult spelling i and
say, “Sound?”.
Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under dis.
3. Uncover the second syllable and cover the first syllable dis.
4. Use the signaling procedure to focus students on the potentially difficult spelling i_e
and say, “Sound?”.
5. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under like.
6. Uncover the first syllable to reveal the whole word.
7. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under each syllable.
8. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Word?”. Slide hand under entire word.
9. If students have a difficult time pronouncing the word, place the word in context for
them and ask them if it sounds like a word they know. Try to get them to adjust the
pronunciation based on context and the structure of the sentence. If they still can’t get
the pronunciation, tell them.
Example 4:
Two syllable words
(that contain a suffix)
weak/ness
1. Cover the second syllable ness.
2. Use the signaling procedure to focus students on the potentially difficult spelling ea
and say, “Sound?”.
3. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under weak.
4. Uncover the second syllable and cover the first syllable weak.
5. Option # 1- If you have taught ness as a suffix:
Use the signaling procedure to focus students on ness and say, “Suffix?”. Slide
finger under ness.
Option # 2 – If students have not learned the suffix ness:
Use the signaling procedure to focus students on the potentially difficult spelling e
and say, “Sound?”.
Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under ness.
6. Uncover the first syllable to reveal the whole word.
7. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under each syllable.
8. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Word?”. Slide hand under entire word.
9. If students have a difficult time pronouncing the word, place the word in context for
them and ask them if it sounds like a word they know. Try to get them to adjust the
pronunciation based on context and the structure of the sentence. If they still can’t get
the pronunciation, tell them.
Example 5:
One syllable words
(that contain an inflectional ending)
hugged
1. Cover the inflectional ending ed and the double consonant (if there is one) to show
just the base word.
2. Use the signaling procedure to focus students on the potentially difficult spelling in
the base word u and say, “Sound?”.
3. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under hug.
4. Uncover the inflectional ending and cover the base word hug and the double
consonant (if there is one).
5. Use the signaling procedure to focus students on the inflectional ending ed and say,
“Say /d/”.
6. Uncover the base word to reveal the whole word.
7. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under the whole word.
8. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Word?”. Slide hand under entire word.
9. If students have a difficult time pronouncing the word, place the word in context for
them and ask them if it sounds like a word they know. Try to get them to adjust the
pronunciation based on context and the structure of the sentence. If they still can’t get
the pronunciation, tell them.
Example 6:
Two syllable words
(that contain two suffixes)
play/ers
1. Cover the second syllable ers.
2. Use the signaling procedure to focus students on the potentially difficult spelling ay
and say, “Sound?”.
3. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under play.
4. Cover the first syllable play and cover the last inflectional ending s.
5. Use the signaling procedure to focus students on er and say, “Suffix?”. Slide finger
under er.
6. Keep the first syllable play covered and cover the first inflectional ending er.
7. Use the signaling procedure to focus students on s and say, “Suffix?.” Slide finger
under s.
8. Uncover the first syllable and the first inflectional ending to reveal the whole word.
9. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Blend.” Sweep finger under each syllable.
10. Use the signaling procedure and say, “Word?”. Slide hand under entire word.
11. If students have a difficult time pronouncing the word, place the word in context for
them and ask them if it sounds like a word they know. Try to get them to adjust the
pronunciation based on context and the structure of the sentence. If they still can’t get
the pronunciation, tell them.
Contact Information
Lynda Smith
lsmith@tacoma.k12.wa.us
253-209-9959
Shelby Skaanes
sskaanes@psesd.org
253-219-0740
Thank you for coming to this session!