Teaching Strategies

Teaching Strategy: Segmenting Syllables

The most common, popular way of teaching students to "hear" the syllables in words is to have them clap for each syllable. However, in his text Sound it Out! Phonics in a Balanced Reading Program (2004), John F. Savage describes some alternatives to the traditional say and clap method. One such strategy is the "Touch Your Chin" method (p.30). All syllables have vowel sounds, and in order to make those sounds when we speak the words, we must move our mouths for each vowel sound, or syllable. By placing your fingertips on your chin as you speak a word, you can count the number of times that your chin moves to determine the number of syllables in the word.

Patricia Rieman found that the book, The Cat Who Wore a Pot On Her Head (original title: Bendemolena) by Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler, illustrated by Richard E. Martin, is an outstanding authentic work of literature to use when teaching the concept of counting syllables with chin movement. Rieman's lesson plan follows:

Lesson Plan for The Cat Who Wore a Pot On Her Head

(original title: Bendemolena) by Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler, illustrated by Richard E. Martin

Subject: phonics, word parts, syllables

Grade level: 2^nd grade

Objectives:

• Students will be able to express the meaning of the term "syllable."
• Students will be able to count the number of syllables in a character's name.

National Council of Teachers of English and International Reading Association Standards for English Language Arts

#3: Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g. sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

Materials needed: book, five pieces of construction paper, markers, notebook paper, pencils.

Time needed: approx. one 45-minute class period

Anticipatory Set: Tell the class I'm going to read The Cat Who Wore a Pot On Her Head to them, and I want them to pay special attention to the main character's name. They should say the name with me when they want to.

State purpose of lesson: "Today I'm going to talk to you about a part of words called syllables. When we are trying to read new words, sometimes it helps to break the words into syllables. Who knows or has heard this word, "syllable," before? We can hear syllables in words, and we can see syllables, too. Syllables are the parts of sound that a word is divided into."

Modeling: "For example, listen to the word 'television.' In 'television,' we hear four sounds. Say it with me. (television) We hear four sounds (te-le-vi-sion). Each syllable has a vowel sound inside it. Let's say television slowly again, and clap your hands each time you think we say a new syllable."

Guided practice:
"In the story I just read, there's a very special name--Bendemolena. Pair and share with your neighbor and try to figure out how many syllables you hear in Bendemolena." (a minute later...) "Who thinks there are two syllables? three? four? five? six? Let's find out! Clap with me as we say it! "BENDEMOLENA!" How many did we hear? Right--five!"

"Now I need five volunteers. Each of you will hold one of the syllables in Bendemolena's name. First, figure out in what order you need to stand to spell her name. Next, practice holding up your syllable and saying your syllable quickly. Finally, you'll do your job whenever we hear Bendemolena's mother call her name, "Bendemolena, Bendemolena" in the story. After you've done your job twice, pass your syllable on to someone who has not had a turn."

Activity: Have students take turns being the syllables as I read the story again.

Independent practice:
"You are ready for the next challenge! I want you to work with two other people to choose another book or cartoon character that you know of who has a fun, long name, and work together to divide the name into syllables. Let me know if you have trouble spelling the name."

Closure: Groups share their characters' names and number of syllables. I will ask the students to write in their dialogue journals what they have learned about syllables.

Evaluation: I will circulate and informally evaluate whether students are mastering the concepts by listening and observing to see if they are counting syllables correctly and are discussing the presence of, and number of, syllables with their partners.