Introduction

Phonics (Decoding): Single Syllable Words

And Beyond

Phonics is a complicated and tedious process. Few students will use phonics as long as there is another method for determining a new word. Most students will first ask another student, a teacher, or a parent to pronounce a word for them before they ever attempt to decode the word for themselves. Fewer still will ever go to a dictionary to find the pronunciation of a word. Before we move forward, it would help if we can determine just what phonics will and will not do.

First, we need to examine why phonics is important. Phonics is normally used during students’ reading or writing. It is used because a student has encountered an unknown word in reading or is unable to spell a word in writing. At this point students need a system for sounding out a word. For this reason many teachers always work with whole words rather than parts of a word. It is critical that students understand from the beginning that phonics (or sight words) is a part of reading and writing and has real application. Many students, when working with individual sounds and not in the context of a word, are unable to connect these sounds to reading or writing, and thus, cannot see the relevance or need for the practice.

Second, phonics is believed by many to be a cure-all for students with reading problems. This is not true. A phonics system will help students read to the level of their listening vocabulary. If the word is not in the students’ listening vocabulary, phonics will not help. This is one reason why reading to preschool children (and beyond) is so important. The language development process, through preschool reading, greatly enlarges children’s listening vocabulary.

Third, many people believe that phonics is basically a reading tool. This is also not true. Phonics is much easier to teach when writing words that are in the student’s speaking vocabulary and are needed in writing. When teaching phonics, students should have practice in listening to and writing words that are in their listening or speaking vocabularies. This practice ties phonics to reading and writing and enables support for both areas. This is another reason that phonics should always be taught as a part of reading or writing and not taught in isolation.

The next myth relates to phonics being consistent in our language. Again, this is simply not true. There is a rule that, “when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” Experience shows this rule works just slightly over 50% of the time. An example where the rule works is the word “each.” With the two vowels together the first does the talking and has the sound of long “e” or it says it name. This rule works for “each,” but not for “you” or “could.” In fact the vowel unit “ou” has been found by one researcher to have sixteen different sounds. This causes students great confusion and makes many “ou” words become solely sight words.

Last, phonics works well for slower students. Not true. Phonics does not work as well for slower students because they do not have the ability to generalize information. Slower students tend to learn in very discrete units. Most of us have seen this in relation to spelling lists. A slower student will spell the words correctly on the weekly test, but will misspell the same words when writing a paragraph. (It should be noted this practice is not limited to slower students entirely.) Slower students have a special need for the teacher to continuously make the connection between reading and writing whether the lesson is for sight words or phonics.

No system is perfect as we do not have a perfect language and it is a living language. However, this approach will work about 80% of the time, which seems pretty good to me. With practice, the system will get you close enough to pronounce the word if it is in the children’s listening vocabulary.

Play around with the system for a few weeks before you begin to use it with students. Vowels are the units that give us the best chance at sounding out a word and the study will begin with vowel and consonants that link together to create the sounds in words. Most teachers presently work with consonants first and this causes problems later in learning phonics.

Again, phonics is a complicated and tedious process, but with some work and a lot of humor, it can also become a mystery process or a game process. By and large students will come to like to use the system as it gives them at least a chance of decoding almost any word. Many students will find they can unlock multisyllable words while reading and this is a great ego builder. Try it and see.

You will need to print the next four sheets to have while working with the lesson found on pages 7-10.
Phonics Single Syllable Words and Beyond

Decoding: Beyond Single Syllable Words

Simplified Self‑help Phonics

Step 1: Underline each vowel unit.

The following are common vowel units.

a	e	i	o	u	y
ai	ea		oo
ar	er	ir	or	ur
eigh	eighei	igh	ou
ay	ey		oy
aw	ew		ow

a e i o u y

ai ea oo

ar er ir or ur

eigh igh ou

ay ey oy

aw ew ow

EXAMPLES:

each sleigh they throw note

Step 2: Separate common prefixes and suffixes by a slash line (/ )/).

Common prefixes Common suffixes

ex	un	tion	cious	ant
pre	re	ly	ous	est
pro	non	able	less	ness
dis		ful

Common prefixes Common suffixes

ex‑ un‑ ‑tion ‑cious ‑ant

pre‑ re‑ ‑ -ly ‑ous ‑est

pro‑ non‑ ‑ -able ‑less ‑ness

dis‑ -ful

EXAMPLES: re / fine na / tion

Step 3: Divide the rest of the word into sounds using the following rules.

V = Vowel C = Consonant

V/CV VC/CV VC/CCV

Divide the word using these patterns. If you have a vowel/consonant/vowel patterns divide before the consonant. For vowel/consonant/consonant/vowel you would divide between the consonants. Don’t worry if you find this is not totally accurate for the adult reader.

The following letters should not be divided. and would become a single consonant unit.

ch, sh, th, wh, ph, qu

EXAMPLE: re / fine (a final e is usually silent and makes the vowel before it long).

na / tion (-tion on the end of a word is almost always “shŭn.”)

Step 4: Mark single vowel units as long (‑) or short (˘) using the open or closed rule.

A. Open Rule: A single vowel unit is marked long if the sound ends with a vowel.

B. Closed Rule: A single vowel unit is marked short if the sound ends with a consonant

.

C. Vowel units of more than one letter are circled and the sound of

these units must be learned individually.

EXAMPLES: r ē / f ī n e (Pput a slash / through final e to show it is silent. A final e is usually silent and makes the vowel just before it a long vowel.)

Step 5: Pronounce the word..... Apply what you hear to the printed text.the word to the printed page. THINK!

Phonics Key Words for Learning Vowel Units

Common Errors in Using This Approach

Some think that a phonetic approach will solve all problems. Not true. A phonetic approach will help students read to the level of their listening vocabulary. If the word is not in the student’s listening vocabulary, phonics will not help. The teacher must then provide developmentally appropriate vocabulary lessons .

Phonics is basically a reading approach. Not true. Phonics is more easily taught as a part of written composition as the students will have an immediate practical application for all that is learned. However, it does transfer to reading from writing.

Phonics works well for slower students. Not true. Phonics does not work as well for slower students because they do not have the ability to generalize information. Slower students tend to learn in very discrete units. Most of us have seen this in relation to spelling lists. A slower student will spell the words correctly on the weekly test, but will misspell the same words when writing a paragraph.

Phonics rules are consistent across the language. Not true. Most of the rules that we use in phonics work slightly more than 50% of the time. For example, the ou combination has been found to have sixteen different pronunciations in the English language. Some researcher spent a lot of time finding these 16 sounds. How many can you find?

I love this one. When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking. My experience is that this saying works something less than 50% of the time.

No system is perfect as we do not have a perfect language and it is a living language. However, this approach will work about 80% of the time, which seems pretty good to me. Play around with it for a few weeks before you begin to use it with students.

Sounds like the vowel in the key word.

Short Vowel Sounds ( ˘ ) Long Vowel Sounds ( - )

Key words Key Words

ă t	āt (Ending e is silent)
p ĕ t	P ē t e (Ending e silent)
b ĭ t	b ī t e (Ending e silent)
n ŏ t	n ō t e (Ending e is silent)
c ŭ t	c ū t e (Ending e is silent)

The letter “y” may be a vowel in the middle or end of a word. In the middle of a word it sounds like a short vowel i, as in “gym.” At the end of a word the y usually has a long e sound as in “busy,” but may have a long i sound as in “why” or “by.”

Here are other common sounds for vowel units.

Common Unit	Sound in Words	Common Unit	Sound in words
ai	air or rain	ay	say or way
ea	great or each	ey	They
oo	look, good, too	oy or oi	boy oil
ar	far	or	For
ir, er, ur	her, stir, fur	aw	Claw
ew	dew	eigh	sleigh,
igh	high, light

ou ou has 16 different sounds. Most of these are listed below.country, courage, enough, fought, four, out, soup, shoulder, though, thought, would, your. The sounds that appear most often are the “ou” in “out” and the “ou” sound in “enough” or “dangerous.”

Using the Five Steps and Key Words

Prior to using this sheet, please print:

A. Five Steps to Using Phonics (Five Steps)

B. Key Words to Learning Vowel Units. (Key Words)

IMPORTANT: There are a few shortcomings to using a computer to demonstrate this system. There seems to be no way to draw a slash through a letter or circle a group of letters for vowel units. Thus, these will be given as written instruction and not demonstrated.

. The following three words will be used for practice.

1. bit – He bit into his pizza.

2. after – The boy ran after the ball.

3. father – His father took him to the ice cream store.

In this lesson we are assuming that a child is reading a story and has found these words and they are not a part of the child’s sight word vocabulary. Apply the system to the first word.

Word 1. bit

Step 1: Underline each vowel units.

b i t

Step 2: Separate common prefixes and suffixes by a slash line.

There are none to separate.

Step 3: Divide the rest of the word into sound using the following rules.

There is a single vowel unit, so there is nothing else to divide.

Step 4: Mark single vowel units as long ( - ) or short ( ˘ ) Using the open or closed rule.

Since there is one syllable in this word and the last letter is a consonant, the vowel is short.

b ĭ t

This is one of the key words and should become a sight word to use with other words that have a short “i” sound.

Step 5: Pronounce the word.

Place the word in the context of our original sentence, “He bit into the pizza.” Think of the word as part of the sentence.

This is also a word that can be used to introduce many other words by changing the “b” to a different letter and producing a different word. (i.e., fit, hit, kit, lit, pit, sit, wit) When you have an opportunity to use key words to teach how the beginning consonant changes the word, it makes for good practice and sometimes a fun assignment.

It is equally as much fun to change the last letter to have a new word. ( i.e., bid, big)

Word 2. after

Step 1: Underline each vowel unit.

a f t e r

In the word “after” there are two vowel units, the “a” and the “er.” Refer to vowel units as a part of the Five Steps.

Step 2: Separate common prefixes and suffixes.

Note that while “er” is a suffix, it is not one that is common to this list, and it seldom changes a word from the system. There would be no prefixes or suffixes to separate.

Step 3: Divide the rest of the word into sounds using the following rules.

a f / ter. Note that the number of vowel units tells us how many syllables there is generally in a word. In this case there are two.

Step 4: Mark single vowel units as long or short using the open or closed syllable rule.

ă f / t e r

In this case the vowel unit “er” would be circled. Circled sounds can be found on the Key Word sheet and the “er” would be the same as the sound in “her.” For children, this is why it is important to teach the Key Words as sight word. Children need words to use as models.

Step 5 Pronounce the word. Apply to the printed page.

The boy ran after the ball.

The short “a” would be the same as the “a” in “at,” and the “er” would be the same as in “her.” This type of word will also give you practice on using a final consonant in the middle of a word such as the “f” and at the beginning of a syllable such as “t.”

Word 3: father

Step 1: Underline each vowel unit.

f a t h e r

Step 2: Separate common prefixes and suffixes.

There are none in the word “father.”

Step 3: Divide the rest of the word into sounds.

f a / t h e r

Notice that “th” are letters that cannot be divided in Step 3 on the Five Steps sheet.

Step 4: Mark single vow units as long or short using the open and closed rule.

f ā / t h e r The “er” on the end would be circled.

Step 5: Pronounce the word. Apply the word to the printed page. Think.

His father took him to the ice cream store.

This is an interesting word because under the system the “a” would be a long “a” as in “ate.” Actually the “a” is an umlaut “ä” which is not part of the system. The “er” would be the same as the Key Word “her.” While the system is not totally accurate for the word “father” it is still very close and most children would get the word in the sentence. I used this word as an example to show that you should never tell children to look for little words in big words. If we had we would have had a far different result. (fat – her)

When we reach the Lesson Plans for working with Language Acquisition and Use we will have many more exercises on this system. At this point please do not change the system as it is outlined as it takes many trials to make a change. As you become more familiar with the system the fewer changes you will want to make. As adults you will find quickly that the process is slow and that you will be able to separate out the vowel sound with just your eyes and you will not need to underline each vowel unit. The same is true for assigning short and long vowel sounds or suffixes and prefixes. With about six months practice children will be able to do the same. However, I would suggest that you use the system as is for about 25 words before you take the easy way. Then use the system as is for difficult words. As you practice the system, you will find that the vowel units of more than a single letter are very consistent in the language. An example of this would be the “igh” sound. It is almost always a long( ī ) sound.

Try the system, enjoy working with unknown words, and see how close you can come with the word in the context of reading or writing.