Syllable Division

I had posted this on my old blog, but thought I would re-share.

Why Syllable Division?
It helps students be able to segment a word so that they can accurately read or spell the word. Being able to analyze one syllable at a time makes it easier to do. Patterns to teach and look for:

VCCV

When introducing this syllable division patter, you can begin after you have taught closed syllables and combining closed syllables.  You would guide your student to look for a vowel, followed by a consonant, consonant, vowel.  The student could then divide between the two consonants which would leave them with two syllables that they can analyze more easily.  The first syllable is a closed syllable (short vowel sound) and in this case the second syllable is a closed syllable.  You can revisit this same pattern after teaching silent e syllables.  The student would look for the same pattern VCCV, except this time the first syllable is closed and the second syllable is silent e.  

V*CV or VC*V

Once students know closed, open, and silent e syllable types, they can learn the pattern V*CV or VC*V.  You would guide the student to look for a vowel consonant vowel in a word.  They could divide after the first vowel, leaving them with an open syllable (long vowel sound).  If when reading this word they do not find a real word then they could try dividing after the vowel consonant, which will leave them with a closed syllable first.  

For example:

If in the word robot the student labeled and divided after the first vowel (open  syllable) they would read the word ro- bot.  Which would be correct!  But if they tried this with the word robin, they would read the word ro- bin.  Which would not be correct.  So you could guide them to try a different way of dividing the word: rob-in (VC*V) which would be correct!

Happy Dividing!

Pick Up Sticks/Drop Sticks Game

I did a presentation on classroom strategies recently, and this is one of my most popular activities from that session. The idea is to use it as a tool for review and reinforcement.

On your sticks write a concept (s) that you would like to review.  I did morphemes with my tutoring students.  Here is how it works.

1.  The teacher or students drop the sticks on the table.
2.  The students take turns picking up a stick
3.  If the student moves any other sticks as they are going for their stick of choice, they lose a turn.  In
     other words, it's a test of fine motor skills grabbing those sticks without moving another one.
4.  The student names the concept (read the word, name the math fact, says the letter sound- or like in
      Jeffie's class reads the word that represents a sound that she gave to the student).
5.  The student with the most sticks wins. Or it can just be r/r and not a competition.
6.  After (or before even) you can lay all of the sticks out and have the students take turns tracking
     underneath and reading the words, phrases, etc.

Here are a few of the pictures:

Teaching Syllables With Hand Motions

I think that the kinesthetic modality is so important when teaching students, especially those with a learning difference.  When teaching the structure of language, specifically syllables, I use the following hand motions.  Hope this will be helpful in your classroom!

Closed Syllable:
When a vowel is closed in by a consonant the vowel is short.
Silent E Syllable:
When a vowel is followed by a consonant and silent e the vowel is long.

A Fresh Start

Hi Everyone!
I am trying to get back on blogger.  I had another blog memosfromamultisenoryteacher.blogspot.com , but decided that I needed a fresh start.  I still have the other one up, so that the freebies and such that I loaded are still there for all of my teacher, parent, tutor friends!

The title may lead you to think this blog is only for a teacher.  However, you have to broaden your definition of teacher.  This isn't just for a teacher in a school setting, but also for the homeschool community, those training to be teachers, parents, tutors, and other friends of the blog who may find it useful.  I think we all are teachers in one way or another.

I hope that the ideas I share along the way will be helpful to you.  I also can't wait to learn from you as well.

Let's get started!

Candi