Considerations for Instruction of Consonant Blends

Before we decide to take up valuable instruction time to teach a skill or concept, it is critical to gauge its value. WHY am I teaching this and HOW will my students benefit from this? Today I’m discussing whether or not there is value in teaching consonant blends.

Is teaching blends necessary?

One school of thought is NO, it’s not. If you are teaching explicit phonics, and your students can segment and blend the phonemes in a word with automaticity when they look at the graphemes, they are already blending regardless of how those graphemes are classified. They do not need to know that, for example, the letters s + l are a blend in order to successfully sound out the words slime or slow. Makes sense, right?

And I agree.

HOWEVER, there are two reasons why explicit instruction of consonant blends (initial and final) do carry value. 

The first consideration:

The first benefit of teaching blends is for those struggling spellers who may spell a word like stand as sdand. In other words, students who write what they hear themselves sound out, even when our language never spells those letters next to each other. Other examples of similar spelling mistakes are:

jraw for draw

chrain for train

In this case, explicit instruction of blends can help prevent these types of spelling errors when students learn that certain letter combinations simply never go together.

The second consideration:

Another time to consider explicit instruction of blends is to support knowledge of accurate syllable division. For example, VCCCV (vowel-consonant-consonant-consonant-vowel) words like monster, conflict, and pumpkin all require division somewhere among the consonants. Having knowledge of blends that stay together helps immensely in understanding where the division will occur. 

So, is teaching blends absolutely necessary?

When it comes down to it, what’s the verdict? If students have the fluent ability to blend the phonemes represented by the graphemes in front of them to read words, have no spelling deficits, and can effortless divide VCCCV words properly, they will not require much instructional time spent on blends, and may just benefit from a quick reinforcement. Conversely, if students are struggling with spelling and syllable division, time spend on blends will be warranted. As always, explicit instruction is crucial.

Types of Consonant Blends

L-blends: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl

R-blends: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr,

S-blends: sc, sk, (sl), sm, sn, sp, st, sw

Final blends: ct, ft, ld, lf, lk, lp, lt, mp, nd, nk, nt, pt, rd, rk, sk, sp, st, xt

3-letter blends: scr, shr, spl, spr, squ, str, thr, nch

Other blends: dw, tw

I hope this information helps to drive meaningful instruction and sorts out any questions you may have had about the shoulds or ifs of consonant blends instruction.

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Long O Spelling Patterns

We know that the long o sound says its name. But how many ways are there to spell this long vowel sound? There are FIVE common ways to spell the long o sound. (I include 6 examples in the chart below because of the two different spelling rules — or generalizations — about the o spelling pattern.)

It is worth acknowledging that the long o sound can also be spelled as oo (as in door and floor); ou (as is soul); and ough (as in though and dough). However, these spelling patterns are so far and few between for the long o sound that they are not included in this chart as a main go-to for spelling patterns of this sound.

Knowing these different spelling patterns for this one sound is vital in developing phonemic awareness that will support students on their journey of becoming strong, confident, and fluent independent readers. As students move from picture-heavy readers to more text-heavy books, they need to be equipped to confidently tackle words without guessing or using pictures. Targeted phonics instruction will not only help students decode more fluently, but students who have strong decoding and fluency skills also comprehend what they read more efficiently. In this post, I list each of the five spelling patterns as well as when each spelling pattern is most likely to be used.

O

Can spell the long o sound at the end of a syllable or when followed by two consonants. Ex: robot; gold

O_E

Can spell the long o sound when the silent final e makes the o say its name. Ex: cone

OA

Can spell the long o sound at the beginning or in the middle of a base word. Ex: oat; coat

OE

Can spell the long o sound at the end of a word. Ex: toe

OW

Can spell the long o sound at the end of a base word. Ex: snow

Note: The placement of the ow will sometimes shift to the middle of a single syllable word when that word changes form (such as to past participle), and almost exclusively when it ends in n. Examples: grown, known, flown. The word bowl is also an exception.

For targeted practice with the different spelling patterns of the long o sound, check out this decodable reading resource in my shop.

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Making Sense of the Silent Final E

The silent final E may sometimes cause quite the conundrum. WHY is that E there? English makes no sense! Right? Well, that final silent E wears quite a few hats, and I’m going to use this post to explain those hats in a way that makes sense. 

  1.  It makes the vowel say its name.

    This is the most commonly known reason as to why the silent final E exists. It makes the vowel immediately preceding the consonant(s) before the E say its long vowel sound. When you add an E to the end of the word tap, you get tape.

    More examples: cap + E = cape; kit + E + kite; & past + E + paste

  2. Every syllable must have a written vowel — even if it cannot be heard.

    Would you write the word puzzl ? No way! It would be puzzle, with a silent final E. That’s because the word puzzle is two syllables: puz-zle, and if that silent final E were missing, there would be no written vowel in the second syllable.

    More examples: little (lit-tle); pickle (pick-le); & giggle (gig-gle)

  3. C and G can soften to /s/ and /j/ when followed by an E (I or Y, too).

    Have you ever noticed that when you add a silent final E to the word hug to make huge, the short U transforms to a long U, but the sound of the G changes from a /g/ to a /j/? This is because when a G (or C) comes before an E, I, or Y, the sound can soften.

    More examples: practice & garage

    (In these examples, see how the same letter can appear twice in the same word, but because of the silent final E, the second time the same letter appears, it is pronounced differently.)

  4. English language words do not end in I, J, U, or V.

    If you’re like me, you are trying very hard right about now to think of any and all exceptions that you can. “What about hi, flu, sushi, and ski ?” you may ask. Hi and flu are abbreviations for hello and influenza. Sushi is a Japanese word and ski is Norwegian. The true exceptions are the pronouns I and you.

More examples: olive, tie, & blue.

I hope that these examples of the many hats that silent final E wears make at least one part of the English language seem a bit less illogical. When these general rules of thumb are better understood, the English language will seem just a bit less confusing!

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