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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Getting to Know the Voiced and Unvoiced Phonemes

In English, we have voiced and unvoiced sounds. A voiced sound elicits vibration of the vocal cords. Unvoiced sounds do not. Instead, there is only air.

WHY IT MATTERS

Understanding the difference between voiced and unvoiced sounds can be especially helpful in identifying and differentiating between phoneme pairs that share the same mouth position but have different sounds when the voice is either turned on or turned off. For example, the sounds /b/ and /p/ are pairs; however, while /b/ is voiced, /p/ is not.

WHICH PHONEMES ARE VOICED, AND WHICH ARE UNVOICED?

All vowel sounds are voiced.

The consonant phonemes, on the other hand, fall into different categories: stops, affricates, nasals, fricatives, liquids, and glides. Many phonemes are pairs that have the same mouth position but differ in that one is unvoiced while the other is voiced.

The STOPS include these unvoiced/ voiced pairs:

  • /p/ and /b/ as in pig and bus

  • /t/ and /d/ as in top and dog

  • /k/ and /g/ as in cat and gate

The AFFRICATES include this unvoiced/ voiced pair:

  • /ch/ and /j/ as in chair and jam

The FRICATIVES include these unvoiced/ voiced pairs:

  • /f/ and /v/ as in fan and van

  • /th/ and /TH/ as in thumb and feather

  • /sh/ and /zh/ as in share and treasure

  • /s/ and /z/ as in sun and zip

  • /h/ (this phoneme has no pair, and is unvoiced) as in hat

The NASALS include all voiced phonemes:

  • /m/ as in map

  • /n/ as in net

  • /ng/ as in ring

The LIQUIDS include two voiced phonemes:

  • /r/ as in rain

  • /l/ as in lock

The GLIDES include this unvoiced/ voiced pair:

  • /wh/ and /w/ as in whale and /wind/ AND

  • /y/ (an unpaired voiced phoneme) as in yarn

HOW TO TEACH STUDENTS TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE

One of the best ways to teach the differences between unvoiced and voiced phonemes is by doing the “voice box check” trick. Take the phonemes /s/ and /z/ phonemes. /s/ is unvoiced. If you put your hand gently on your throat where the voice box is, and say the voiceless /s/ sound, there will be no vibration, just air. Try this again but with the voiced /z/ sound. There will be a noticeable vibration from the vocal cords. Give it a try and watch the kids get really into discovering the voiced and unvoiced phonemes!

Long U / OO Spelling Patterns

We know that the long u sound says its name. It can also say long oo. But how many ways are there to spell these long vowel sounds? Here I’ve divided up the spelling patterns by long u and long oo sounds. There are FOUR common spelling patterns that can make BOTH long u and long oo sounds, and THREE common spelling patterns for just the long oo sound.

It is worth acknowledging that in a limited number of words, the long oo sound can also be spelled as o (as in do, lose, move, prove, and to); oe (as is canoe and shoe); and ough (as in through). However, these spelling patterns are so far and few between for the long oo 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 these sounds 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 spelling patterns as well as when each spelling pattern is most likely to be used.

U

Can spell the long u and long oo sounds most often at the end of a syllable. Ex: music; tulip

An exception is the single-syllable word truth.

U_E

Can spell the long u and long oo sounds when the silent final e makes the u say its name or long oo. Ex: huge; flute

EW

Can spell the long u and long oo sounds most often at the end of a base word. Ex: few; threw

UE

Can spell the long u and long oo sounds most often at the end of a base word. Ex: argue; glue

OO

Can spell the long oo sound in the middle or end of a word. Ex: pool; igloo

OU

Can spell the long oo sound in the middle of a word. Ex: soup

The exception is the word you.

UI

Can spell the long oo sound in the middle of a word. Ex: fruit

For targeted practice with the different spelling patterns of the long u and oo sounds, check out this decodable reading resource in my shop.

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Long I Spelling Patterns

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

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I

Can spell the long i sound at the end of a syllable or when followed by two consonants. Ex: lion; child

I_E

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

IE

Native English words cannot end in i, and so requires a silent final e to be added. The word pie ends in an ie and makes the long i sound because a silent final e must be added after the i. ie also spells the long i sound when the tense or form of the word is changed. Ex: fry to fries; cry to cried

IGH

Can spell the long i sound in the middle or at the end of a base word. Ex: light; sigh

Y

Can spell the long i sound at the end of mostly  single syllable words. Ex: cry.

* y can also spell the long i sound in the middle or at the end of a few multisyllabic words (ex: cycle; supply; apply), or when the verb suffix fy is added to a word (ex: solidify). This is not to be confused with the adjective suffix fy (ex: goofy; stuffy), which then makes a long e sound. 

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

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