How to Teach Students to Divide Words into Syllables
Did you understand that dividing phrases into syllables is one of the maximum effective deciphering techniques out there?
If your college students are prepared to study phrases with multiple syllable, then it’s time to begin coaching syllable department rules! When readers understand the syllable department rules
If your college students are prepared to study phrases with multiple syllable, then it’s time to begin coaching syllable department rules! When readers understand the syllable department rules
A) facilitates them effectively decode multisyllabic phrases and
B) affords them with clues approximately the vowel sounds in multisyllabic phrases!
Knowing the way to divide phrases into syllables offers your children POWER to assault the ones longer phrases! In today’s post, I’ll give an explanation for the way to train college students to divide phrases into syllables And count there lines on syllable counter per line
The 6 Syllable Types
1.Closed
2.Open
3.Vowel-Consonant-E (also known as Magic E or Silent E)
4.Vowel Team
5.R-Controlled
6.Consonant-L-E
If you haven’t read my post that goes in-depth on these syllable types, you may want to read that first, and then come back to this post. My 6 syllable types post can be found HERE!
(And yes – there are a lot of terms and rules to remember when you’re teaching phonics. If you’d like a free PDF that has many different terms and rules in one place, grab this freebie!)
Finding the Number of Syllables in a Word
An important first step in dividing up a word into its syllables is knowing how many syllables the word has.
You may already know that 1 vowel sound = 1 syllable. If a word has 3 vowel sounds, for example, then it has 3 syllables.
(Notice that I’m saying vowel sounds, not actual vowels. The word “cupcake,” for example, technically has 3 vowels. But the e is silent. It only has two syllables because the vowel sounds we hear are the short u and the long a, 2 total vowel sounds.)
Syllable Division Patterns
There are only 6 syllable types, and there are even fewer syllable division patterns!
The syllable division patterns are as follows (V = vowel; C = consonant):
VC/CV
If you have two consonant sounds between two vowel sounds, divide the word between the consonant sounds.
In the word “sunset,” the vowel sounds are the short u and the short e. The two consonants in the middle, n and s, get divided up.
In the word “bathtub,” the vowel sounds are the short a and the short u. The two consonant SOUNDS in the middle are /th/ and /t/. The word gets divided up between the h and the second t.
If there are 3 consonants between the vowels, rather than 2, there’s going to be a blend in there. The sounds that get blended together stay together in one syllable.
For example, in the word “complex,” we divide between the m and the p.
V/CV
Moving on…sometimes there’s just one consonant sound between the vowels, rather than 2.
If this is the case, the first syllable division rule that we try is V/CV (dividing up the word BEFORE the consonant).
For example, in the word “robot,” we divide up the word before the b. This creates an open syllable, “ro,” that ends in a vowel. As a result, the o in that syllable is a long o.
VC/V
However, sometimes the V/CV division rule doesn’t work. This is where it gets a little tricky.
If we try the V/CV rule but discover that it creates an open first syllable that should NOT be open (aka it should not have a long vowel sound), then we have to revert to the VC/V pattern.
For example, let’s think about the word “comet.” It’s pronounced with a short o at the beginning, right? It’s not CO-met. But if we were to apply the V/CV division pattern, that would make the o sound long. Instead, we have to revert to VC/V in order to reflect the fact that the o has the short o sound.
V/V
Last but not least, we have the V/V syllable division rule! When there are two vowels next to each other that do NOT work as a team, then we divide the word between those two separate vowel sounds.
For example, we divide the word “diet” between the i and the e:
Conclusions
This was a lot of info, right?! And it’s a lot to figure out and teach on your own – if you don’t have lesson plans and materials for it. Because unfortunately, many phonics and reading programs don’t cover this stuff!
If you’d like to make teaching this EASY and FUN for you and your students, check out my step-by-step guide to teaching all the syllable division rules and syllable types.
