Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts

Grades K – 3Module #2

Goals for Module 2

Teachers will:• Understand that students pass through phases of

word learning, as described in scientific research.

• Understand the importance of phonics and phonemic awareness instruction.

• Learn the 6 syllable types.

Ehri’s Continuum of Word Recognition

Prealphabetic• Prior to alphabetic understanding.• Not phonemically aware.• Makes associations between the most salient

visual features.

camel

• May learn by meaning cues in context.

“It says walk!”

Prealphabetic

(Jack, age 3.5)

Early Alphabetic• Has partial phonemic awareness.• Has some sound-letter, letter-sound

correspondences.• May look at first letter and guess at word.• Easily confuses similarly spelled words.

works words world• Representation of first and last letters of a word

is common in spelling.

fan

pet

dig

mob

rope

wait

chunk

sled

stick

shine

dream

blade

coach

fright

snowing

Early Alphabetic

Later Alphabetic • Recognizes words by matching all phonemes and graphemes

within the word.• Blends from left to right when encountering an unknown word

(doesn’t guess).• Rapidly recognizes many whole words and learns new words

easily.• Spelling is phonetically accurate; beginning to apply

conventional letter patterns; sight word knowledge increasing.

Later Alphabetic

Consolidated Alphabetic • Adding many more sight words to memory.• Larger units of words recognized in print; rimes, syllables,

and morphemes are becoming more automatic.• Reads by analogy to known words.• Spelling improves with understanding of word knowledge

and origin; morphemes, syntax, and ending rules are applied in the process.

CONSOLIDATED ALPHABETIC

Application—Discuss• How can you use knowledge of the

skills continuum to determine students’ needs?

• Would students in your class be in more than one phase at one time?

• How does the continuum inform our instruction?

• Do you see this continuum reflected in the Common Core State Standards?

Phonological Awareness Is the Link to Phonics

When students understand the sound to letters (phoneme to grapheme) relationships that create written language – they learn to read and spell more quickly and accurately.

/p/ /l/ /ā/ /n/

p l ai n

Who Needs Phonics, and How Do We Know?

Students who:• Are stymied or guess wildly when they approach unfamiliar words.• Cannot associate phonemes and graphemes with accuracy and

fluency.• Have trouble blending sounds into words.• Spell poorly.• Score low on a test of reading nonsense syllables.• Score low on a test of reading real words.Do you recognize any of these characteristics in your students?

What is a consonant?• It is a speech sound that is produced by a

partial or complete obstruction of the air stream; the obstruction ‘closes’ the sound.

• It can be voiced or unvoiced and is distinguished by other features.

Exploring the Consonant Phonemes of English

Features of Phonemes• Stop—Continuous (e.g., /k/ vs. /m/ and /ū/)• Voiced—Voiceless (e.g., /g/ vs. /k/)• Oral—Nasal (e.g., /k/ vs. /ng/)

• Vowels are open, voiced sounds with no obstruction of the air flow by the teeth, lips, tongue, or jaw.

• Spoken syllables must have one vowel.• Written syllables almost always have a vowel

(exception –m in rhythm).• We teach 19 vowels, including three vowel-r

combinations.

What Are Vowels?

English Vowel PhonemesSound Guide Word/ē/ eagle/ĭ/ itch/ā/ apron/ĕ/ etch/ă/ apple/ī/ idol/ŏ/ octopus/ŭ/ up/aw/ audio/ō/ over

Sound Guide Word/oo/ book/ū/ ooze, rude/y+ū/ use, music/oi/ oil, noise/ou/ ouch, house/er/ earth, her/ar/ art, far/or/ orbit, for/ə/ about

)

Phoneme blending is the process of taking the segmented sounds in words and blending them back together to make a word.Examples:• /sh/ /oo/—What’s the word? (shoe)• /b/ /ŭ/ /s/—What’s the word? (bus)The ability to blend speech sounds is necessary for reading.

Phoneme Blending K-1

Phoneme segmenting is the process of taking a word and separating it into its sounds.

Example: bus (stretch your fingers to segment) /b/ /ŭ/ /s/

The ability to segment speech sounds is necessary for spelling.

Phoneme Segmenting K-1

Let’s practice recognizing syllables orally first. • Feel syllables with duck lips.• Use foam rectangles or index cards as the multi-sensory

manipulative.• Pull a slinky apart as you say a word syllable by syllable.

Syllables are all about the vowels!!

Techniques for Blending and Segmenting Syllables 1-3

1. Closed SyllablesA closed syllable is a syllable with a single vowel letter that ends in one or more consonants. The consonant closes off the vowel sound, making it short.It does not matter what comes before the vowel; it is only important to be aware of what comes after the vowel. If there is a consonant after the vowel in the same syllable and the consonant is not followed by “e,” then the vowel will be short.  

sad jobif mess

rip maskplum up

p. 123

2. Open Syllables

me go so hino she

An open syllable is a syllable that ends in a long vowel sound spelled with a single vowel letter. Open syllables can be single-syllable words or syllables that combine with other syllables to make longer words.

me – ter so – lo no – ble

p. 123

size rode

woke fine

late cube

pole blaze

Vowel-Consonant-e Syllables

A vowel-consonant-e syllable includes a vowel immediately followed by one consonant and the silent letter “e” (VCe). The vowel sound is long.

p. 124

4. Vowel-r Syllables

her serveskirt birth

nurse turnpark farmhorn short

A vowel-r syllable includes a vowel or vowels immediately followed by the letter “r” in the same syllable.

p. 126

5. Vowel Team Syllables

hay boilboat suittail straw

though nightploy poutlook healthcow few

A vowel team syllable includes vowel sounds spelled with more than one letter. Sometimes, consonant letters are used in vowel teams.

p. 126-127

6. Consonant -le Syllables (C-le)

A consonant-le syllable has a consonant immediately followed by -le. It is always at the end of a word.

bundlepurpleablesparkle

giggleuncletitlepuzzle

A Sequence for Syllable Instruction• Closed syllables—simple and complex• Vowel-consonant-e (VCe, “magic” e, or silent e)

syllables• Open syllables• Vowel team/diphthong syllables• Consonant -le (C-le final) syllables• Vowel-r controlled syllables

SummaryBy teaching students systematically in phonics concepts, we can ensure they are prepared for reading more advanced text fluently and with comprehension.

“There is no comprehension strategy powerful enough to compensate for the inability to read the words.” —Dr. Joseph Torgesen