Sequence of Phonics Instruction – Part III

Sequence of Phonics Instruction – Part III

Phonics relies on letter-sound relationships to teach children to identify words. When teaching phonics a methodical and explicit approach is recommended, begin with the easier relationships and then gradually progress to the more complex letter-sound relationships.

For more information about phonics, please see these two previous post: Sequence of Phonics Instruction – Part I, addressed consonants, short vowels and word families, e.g. VC and CVC (“C” represents consonants while “V” represents vowels), and Sequence of Phonics Instruction – Part II, addressed digraphs, blends and more word families, e.g., CVCC, CCVC and CCVCC. This post will focuses on a few of the relationships that exist among vowels. The English language contains over fifteen vowel sounds. Every word (actually every syllable) needs a vowel – they are a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y.

1. Long Vowel (Final “e” rule)

   Introduce one syllable words with the final or silent e (CVCe). Typically when you find the letter “e” at the end of a word, it is silent and the preceding vowel represents its long sound (as opposed to short sound).
   

   Short Vowel Sound	Long Vowel Sound
   tap	tape
   Tim	time
   hop	hope
   cut	cute

   We like to refer to this as the magical “e” rule which states: if the “e” sits at the end of a word, it tells the preceding vowel to say its name.

Letters	Examples
a_e	ate , age , ape , cake, made, face, came, name, late, gave, base, tale, game, space, plane
i_e	bike, five, ride, time, fire, life, side, nine, bite, like, line, mile, size, mine, wife, drive, write
o_e	home, hope, note, rode, nose, joke, bone, tone, pole, vote, phone, whole, drove, stove, rose
u_e	mule, cure, pure, sure, fuse, muse, cute

The magic “e” rule applies to CVCe structured words. However, like most things in life there are exceptions, e.g. come, one, there, eye & done. In addition, words with the following endings do not follow the above rule:

• Words ending in -le, e.g., apple, bubble & circle (note: these words are NOT one syllable words),
• Words ending in -ce, e.g., chance, voice & force,
• Words ending in -se, e.g., coarse, horse & mouse,
• Words ending in -re, e.g., pure & more, and
• Words ending in -ve, e.g., live, dove, curve & have.

2. Long Vowel Digraphs (Vowel Teams)

   The vowel team rule states, when two vowels go walking, the first does the talking – the first vowel says it name (long vowel sound) and the second vowel is silent.
   

   Letters	Examples	Letters	Examples
   ai	maid, rain	ay	day, stay
   ee	see, tree, deep	ea	eat, leaf, team
   ie	pie , tie	oa	boat, road, soap
   oe	toe, doe	ue	glue, blue, Sue
   ey	key, monkey

   Similarly, combining the letters “o” and “w” also make the long o sound, e.g. tow and blow. In addition, the letters “e” and “w” make the long u sound, e.g. new and grew.

3. Irregular Vowel Teams

   The following vowel teams are exceptions to the above rule.

   Letters	Sound	Examples
   ea	Short e	head, bread
   ei	Long a	sleigh, neighbor
   ie	Long e	brief, shield

   It is important to point out that the combination of the letters “e” and “a” produce both a long and short e sound as noted below:

   • Short e – e.g., dead, head, lead, spread & thread
   • Long e – e.g., bead, lead, knead & plead.

   Of course, I also must highlight that the word “read”, like work word “lead” above, produces both the short and long e sounds depending on how the word is used.

Now it truly makes sense why it takes a child a few years to obtain a solid foundation of letter-sound relationships when learning to read. Please be on the lookout for our next post which will discuss the remaining relationships that exist among vowels.