ELA K-3
Common Core State Standards Module 2
Facilitator’s Notes
MATERIALS:
 Copies of instruction sheet to access participant manuals.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED:
 Projector and laptop
 Module 2 PowerPoint
 PowerPoint notes
PREPARATION FOR FACILITATION:
 Review Module 2 PowerPoint and notes
MATERIALS TO BE COPIED FOR PARTICIPANTS:
 Instruction sheet for how to access participant manual pages on syllable instruction for each grade
level.
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OVERVIEW OF THE MODULE:
 Teachers will learn about Ehri’s phases of word development.
 Teachers will learn the importance of teaching phonics and phonemic awareness.
 Teachers will learn about the six syllable types.
TOTAL TIMING OF THE MODULE IS
 54 minutes
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Goals for Module 2
Directions: Read through the goals.
Ehri’s Continuum of Word Recognition
Key Ideas: Students pass through a continuum of skills when developing word
recognition.
Talking Points:
• The following slides will go into more detail about each phase.
• Reading development occurs in predictable phases or stages. Ehri and
Snowling (2004) have characterized these as prealphabetic, early or partial
alphabetic, later alphabetic, and consolidated or mature alphabetic. Labels
have changed over years of research, but now these experts emphasize
mastery of the alphabetic code for reading and spelling in their depiction of
reading development.
• A note about “phases” and the choice of the word—students are not usually
solidly in one phase or the other. They often demonstrate characteristics that
are between two phases.
References
Ehri, L. C., & Snowling, M. J. (2004). Developmental variation in word recognition. In
C. A. Stone, E. R. Silliman, B. J. Ehren, & K. Apel (Eds.), Handbook of language and
literacy: Development and disorders (pp. 433–460). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
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Prealphabetic
Key Ideas: Some of the characteristics of the prealphabetic phase are listed with
examples on this slide.
Directions: Ask participants to discuss instructional implications for dealing with
students in this phase.
Talking Points:
• This phase occurs prior to knowledge of the alphabet.
• Child does not rely on understanding of the sound-symbol relationship, instead
focusing on the meaning of the word. It would not be unusual to have a child
respond to the question “what sounds do you hear in dog?” with “bow-wow.”
The child does not understand that words are made up of sounds, but focuses
instead on the meaning behind the word and the sound a dog makes.
• Children may recognize a few words as whole words by their configuration or
the context in which they are found, such as on labels, logos and signs
(McDonald’s, a stop sign), and common words seen in the environment.
Prealphabetic (writing sample)
Key Ideas: Review an example of prealphabetic writing.
Directions: When discussing this phase, stay general as there is not time to get into
too many details.
Talking Points:
• The day he came home, he told his mommy it said, “I love you, mommy.” The
next day his mother asked him what it said and he told her he had no idea—“I
can’t read!”
• This is typical of the prealphabetic phase of reading. Students do not
understand that print represents sound. This is a very abstract concept.
• This phase has the beginning stages of phonological awareness, letter
recognition with a small number of letters. We should include read alouds with
lots of discussion and word play.
Early Alphabetic
Key Ideas: The early alphabetic phase is a critical step in beginning reading. This
where the understanding of the alphabetic principle comes into play.
Talking Points:
• The alphabetic principle is the concept that alphabet letters represent speech
sounds; it’s the organizing principle of the English writing system. This is a
prerequisite for learning and applying phonics.
• Students are only ready to understand the alphabetic principle after they have
gained rudimentary phonemic awareness and know most of the alphabet
letters. Understanding the alphabetic principle is the conceptual bridge that
links phonemic awareness with phonics.
• It is during this phase that students frequently look at the first letter of a word
and then begin guessing what the word is based on a picture clue or context.
A student may recognize the initial sounds in words they know but may have
difficulty recognizing sounds in an unknown word.
• Words that look familiar are easily confused. For example, works, words, and
world all begin with the same two letters. Children need to learn to process all
of the letters or they will continue to make errors.
• It is critical to know how to move students through this stage in order to keep
them from using guessing as their “default” strategy for reading.
Early Alphabetic (writing sample)
Key Ideas: We can look carefully at student writing to help us determine what to
teach!
Talking Points:
• What indicators can you find that this student does not have complete phonemic
awareness?
– Moving from first and last sound to isolation of middle sound:
fan compared with rope.
Still very dependent on how sounds are articulated: chunk /ch/
sounds and feels like the letter name “g.” Same with dream.
With stick, the /k/ and /g/ phonemes are made in the same
place in the mouth.
• Instruction during the Early Alphabetic phase should include:
– Phonemic awareness! Blending and segmenting words (not
letters!) deserve systematic instruction at this point. This may
take a few weeks with some children, and it may take a few
months with others.
– How each sound is typically spelled. The most common
spelling patterns taught following a phonics skills sequence.
– They need to learn how to read new words sound-by-sound to
avoid guessing. This is very purposeful instruction that
requires modeling and a great deal of practice.
• As students master matching phonemes and graphemes while reading words
they become more automatic and rapid. Students begin to see “chunks” of
words and patterns. Through continuous practice students begin to recognize
whole words as units.
• Sight word recognition is developing and students are able to store more words
as complete images in memory.
Later Alphabetic
Key Ideas: Discuss the characteristics of students at the Later Alphabetic phase.
Talking Points:
• Complete and reasonable spellings show up in writing at this phase. Students
are showing an understanding of phoneme-grapheme correspondences and
use the most common spelling patterns to represent the sounds. They
understand how to sound out words from left to right and apply the phonics
principles they have learned.
• Sight word vocabulary continues to grow at this stage as they begin to hold on
to information about letter sequences and syllable patterns. More and more
sight words are used accurately in their writing also.
• Instruction at this stage:
– Building accuracy in word recognition and spelling.
– Building fluency at the sentence level and with passages.
– Sounding out words to build the foundation for differentiating,
remembering, and quickly recognizing words in print.
Later Alphabetic (writing sample)
Key Ideas: Review an example of Later Alphabetic writing.
Directions: Read the sample to the group.
I am a penguin.
I live in the snow.
I eat fish.
I am a mammal.
I’m covered with fur.
I have a baby penguin.
Talking Points:
• What elements do you see from the Later Alphabetic phase?
• All phonemes are represented with a reasonable spelling.
–
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Consolidated Alphabetic
Key Ideas: Moving into a more advanced phase of reading that occurs as late as 2nd
or 3rd grade.
Talking Points:
• Students at the Consolidated Alphabetic phase transition to accurate and fluent
reading and writing.
• Longer words are recognized.
• Words with unusual spellings, analysis of base words, endings, prefixes,
compounds, contractions, and other constructions are part of the learning
experience. Teachers must be explicit when introducing these advanced
concepts of phonics and word study.
• Students who have grasped this easily will begin to make many connections on
their own.
• Students who struggle to compare words and figure out sound-symbol
correspondences will need continuous instruction in phonics and phonemic
awareness.
• Most children benefit from systematic teaching of the code.
Consolidated Alphabetic (writing sample)
Key Ideas: This student is at the Consolidated Alphabetic phase of reading and
writing.
Talking Points:
• This is a science report written by a third grade student who has received
explicit and systematic instruction since kindergarten.
• This student is ready for instruction in multisyllabic words with prefixes, suffixes,
and roots.
• For example, she could be taught that the word actually is related to act, action,
active, react, and actual.
Application—Discuss
Key Ideas: Take the learning to discussion about application. Have teachers turn and
talk about their answers to the questions on the slide. Then have a few share with the
whole group.
Talking Points:
• Overlap of phases means we need to be informed of various levels of need our
students have in the classroom.
• We never have all of our students on the same level. It is critical to understand
and be able to identify the various phases of development in order to
differentiate instruction.
Phonological Awareness is the Link to Phonics
Key Ideas: Sounds make up our words in speech.
Directions: Point out the sounds in the word plain. Segment the word. Point out the
graphemes that we use to spell that word.
Talking Points:
• Phonemic awareness is the ability to reflect on and manipulate the phonemes
(single speech sounds) in spoken language.
• Emergent readers must understand:
How to produce and manipulate the speech sounds.
How these sounds relate to print.
• Phonemic awareness is the anchor to phonics and later reading success. It is
imperative we teach it well.
Who Needs Phonics, and How Do We Know?
**This slide is animated
Key Idea: The more “at risk” or “disabled” a student, the more important it is that
systematic word recognition be a strong component of the daily lesson.
Directions: Let participants discuss what they see in their own students. Ask what
they have done to help students who struggle with these issues.
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Talking Points:
• The sure sign of a student with a phonics weakness is his or her over-reliance
on context and guessing to figure out new words, or the absence of a
sounding out strategy.
• Nonsense word reading is a good indicator of how well students can read real
words out of context. Both kinds of measures should be used in screening
students for extra help.
• What characteristics have you seen in your own students?
Exploring the Consonant Phonemes of English
Key Ideas: Each consonant sound of English has specific features or characteristics.
Talking Points:
• What is a consonant?
– It is not a vowel.
– It represents speech sounds that are produced by a partial or complete
obstruction of the air stream; the obstruction “closes” the sound.
– Consonants are spoken with an obstruction of the airstream (air flow constricted
by the articulators, the tongue, teeth, lips, and jaw); vowels are open with no
obstruction.
– Consonants can be voiced or unvoiced; vowels are always voiced.
References
Henry, M. C. (2003). Unlocking literacy: Effective decoding & spelling instruction.
Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.
Features of Phonemes
Key Ideas: Phonemes are distinguished by place and manner of articulation, or the
way we produce them with the voice, lips, teeth, and tongue.
Talking Points:
• The main contrasts between phonemes that we will practice are:
Stop (/k/)—Continuant (/m/, /ū/)
Voiced (/g/)—Unvoiced (/k/) (you can feel it in your throat)
Oral (/k/)—Nasal (/ng/) (nasal sounds cannot be made if you plug your nose).
References
Glaser, D., & Moats, L. C. (2008). LETRS foundations: An introduction to language
and literacy. Longmont, CO: Sopris West Educational Services.
What Are Vowels?
1 min
Key Ideas: Vowels are distinguished by the height and placement of the tongue and
the position of the mouth. We are not talking about vowel letters! We are discussing
vowel phonemes!
Talking Points:
• What is a vowel?
A vowel is an open sound.
A vowel has resonance; it’s always voiced.
Every syllable must have a vowel.
The next slide lists the vowels and a guide word for each.
Consonants can be voiced or unvoiced; vowels are always voiced.
English Vowel Phonemes
Key Ideas: Point out that 19 vowel sounds are on this list, including the combination
/y+ū/ and schwa.
Directions: Assist the group in identifying each vowel sound as “short,” “long,”
“diphthong” (two mouth positions /ow/, /oi/, etc.), “vowel-r,” and “other” Say the vowels
and the guide words. (Do not go into detail about position of articulation.).
Talking Points:
• Vowel sounds in English should be taught separately from the letters that
represent them.
• The vowel letters a, e, i, o, u, y are insufficient for spelling all these vowel
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sounds unless we combine them into vowel teams.
References
Glaser, D., & Moats, L. C. (2008). LETRS foundations: An introduction to language
and literacy. Longmont, CO: Sopris West Educational Services.
Phoneme Blending K-1
Key Ideas: Teachers learn what phoneme blending is and that it is a necessary skill
for reading.
Directions: Discuss the points on the slide to define what phoneme blending is.
References
Moats, L. C. (2000). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore,
MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.
O’Connor, R. E. (2011). Phoneme awareness and the alphabetic principle. In R. E.
O’Connor & P. F. Vadasy (Eds.), Handbook of reading interventions (pp. 9–26). New
York, NY: Guilford Press.
Phoneme Segmenting K-1
Key Ideas: Define and discuss phoneme segmentation.
Directions: Discuss the points on the slide.
Talking Points:
 Blending is giving the sounds first, then the word. Segmenting is giving the word
first, then breaking it into sounds.
References
Moats, L. C. (2000). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore,
MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.
O’Connor, R. E. (2011). Phoneme awareness and the alphabetic principle. In R. E.
O’Connor & P. F. Vadasy (Eds.), Handbook of reading interventions (pp. 9–26). New
York, NY: Guilford Press.
Techniques for blending and segmenting Syllables
3 min
Key Ideas: Students need to be able to blend and segment syllables easily by third
grade. Understanding spoken syllables builds the foundation for reading and spelling
multisyllabic words later.
Talking Points:
 Teaching students to clap syllables is not the best way to teach students that
words are made up of syllables. Clapping syllables is too easy to fake!
Struggling readers need a different multisensory approach when they learn to
identify and count syllables.
• The most basic technique for teaching syllable is duck lips. Have students close
their mouths and hold their lips together like duck lips. Then they try to yell a
word. They will feel a push of breath for each syllable. Have the audience
close their mouths and hold their lips closed and yell the word hamburger.
They will feel three pushes of breath.
• Another multisensory idea is to have the children manipulate felt rectangles to
show the number of syllables in a word. Each rectangle represents one
syllable.
• You can also pull a spring toy apart as you say each syllable of a word.
• You will start with one and two syllable words with children and work the
children’s skills up to four- and five-syllable words. Even kindergarten students
can find the syllables in four- and five-syllable words with practice.
• A child’s verbal vocabulary is larger than their written vocabulary. We don’t want
to limit the words we use to their reading vocabulary.
1. Closed Syllables
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**This slide is animated
Key Ideas: A closed syllable consists of a short vowel followed by one or more
consonants.
Directions: Review the definition of a closed syllable.
Talking Points:
 For a closed syllable, it does not matter what comes before the vowel. If there is
a consonant after the vowel in the same syllable, then the vowel will be short.
2. Open Syllables
**This slide is animated
Key Idea: An open syllable ends with a single vowel, and the vowel sound is long.
Directions: Review the definition of an open syllable.
Talking Points:
• The open syllables on this slide can be single-syllable words or can be syllables
within longer words.
3. Vowel-Consonant e Syllables
Key Ideas: The vowel-consonant-e syllable type has a long vowel sound.
Directions: Review the definition of a vowel-consonant-e syllable.
Talking Points:
• This letter combination can be called Magic “e,” Sneaky “e,” or another name to
help students remember the pattern.
• When introducing students to this pattern, hold one finger under the vowel and
another finger under the silent “e.” Your fingers will look similar to a peace
sign. Emphasize that when we see an “e” on the end of a word like this, the
vowel in the word says its name (its long sound).
4. Vowel-r Syllables
**This slide is animated
Key Idea: When “r” combines with a vowel, the vowel sound changes. The various
sounds of vowel + “r” are listed under Talking Points.
Directions: Discuss the definition of a vowel-r syllable. Have participants underline
the vowel + “r” in the syllables in their manuals before using the animation on the slide
to show the answers.
Talking Points:
• “er,” “ir,” and “ur” are pronounced /er/.
• “ar” is pronounced /ar/ in an accented syllable and /er/ in an unaccented
syllable.
• “or” is pronounced /or/ in an accented syllable and /er/ in an unaccented
syllable.
5. Vowel Team Syllables
Key Idea: Vowel teams are made up of two or more letters that represent a vowel
sound.
Directions: Discuss the definition of a vowel team syllable.
Talking Points:
• The vowel sounds vary in vowel teams. The vowel sound can be long as in
eagle, short as in head, or have a diphthong as in joy.
• The letters “y” and “w” represent consonants but they can also join with vowel
letters in vowel teams. At the beginning of a word before a vowel sound, “y”
and “w” represent consonant glide sounds, /y/ and /w/. Combined with a vowel
letter, “y” (e.g., “oy,” “ay,” “ey,” “uy”) and “w” (e.g., “aw,” “ew,” “ow”) are part of
a vowel team. To complicate matters, the letter “y” alone can also represent
three vowel sounds: /ī/ as in cry, /ĭ/ as in myth, and /ē/ as in baby. The
following graphemes are vowel teams:
“ay” as in tray (long “a”).
“aw” as in lawn or saw (considered a short sound).
“ew” as in few (considered a long sound).
“oy” as in oyster or boy (diphthong).
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“ow” as in brown (diphthong) or snow (long “o”).
6. Consonant-le Syllables
Key Idea: Learn the consonant -le syllable type.
Directions: Ask participants what looks the same in all of these words. If participants
say -le, point out that there is always a consonant before the -le helping it to
determine the sound of the syllable.
Talking Points:
• All of the words have a consonant, an l, and an e at the end. C-le combinations
are found only at the ends of words.
• The pronunciation of each of these combinations is reliable. These are syllables
because they make up part of the words.
• Other syllables found at the end of words:
-tion = /shun/ (e.g., motion, nation, rotation, ignition)
-sion = /zhun/ or /shun/ (e.g., version, erosion, emulsion, compulsion)
A Sequence for Syllable Instruction
Key Idea: Review this sequence of instruction for these syllables.
Talking Points:
• By third grade, students should recognize all of these syllables.
• Have your students mastered these? How will you teach them?
References
Moats, L. C. (2005). LETRS module 10, Reading big words: Syllabication and
advanced decoding. Longmont, CO: Sopris West Educational Services.
Summary
Directions: Read what is on the slide.
Talking Point:
• What does the quote mean to you?
References
Torgesen, J. K. (2008, November). Using multiple tiers of instruction to prevent
reading difficulties in young students. In 59th Annual Conference. Symposium
conducted at the meeting of the International Dyslexia Association, Seattle, WA.