Teaching · Reading Intervention

Every sound still counts.
Stop is four taps.

A blend is two or three consonants side by side, each keeping its own sound: the st in stop, the mp in jump. Deal short-vowel words by blend family and count, with the sounds tapped out on each card, a phrase to read and made-up words.

Make a set of wordsWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Reading Intervention toolkit, $49 for 51 items.

Make a set of blend words

The worked example is made up: a first grader on s- and l-blends and a second grader on two-blend words. Saved on this device only.

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What you get

Teaching · Reading Intervention$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
A set of 6, 10 or 16 short-vowel words chosen by blend family (s, l, r, final) and count (one blend, two blends, made-up words), each with its sounds tapped out and a phrase, plus notes on errors.
Who it is for
Reading interventionists, special education teachers, classroom teachers teaching phonics and tutors working with a structured literacy sequence.
Format
Browser card maker with saved sets. Prints the words as cut-out cards or as a list for a lesson plan or home reading; presents one word at a time for a screen at the table; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Reading Intervention toolkit ($49) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Reading Intervention space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Start with one family of starting blends; s-blends are a common first.
  2. Tap one finger per sound, then sweep to read the word.
  3. Add final blends, then two-blend words.
  4. Mix in made-up words and read the phrase on each card.
  5. Note errors (dropped or added sounds) and print the set for the next lesson.

Make a set of words

What a consonant blend is

Blend or digraph?A blends t o pTwo letters, two soundsFour tapsA digraphs h o pTwo letters, one soundThree tapsTwo blendss t a m pst and mp, every letterheardFive tapsBlend or digraph?A blends t o pTwo letters, two soundsFour tapsA digraphs h o pTwo letters, one soundThree tapsTwo blendss t a m pst and mp, every letter heardFive taps
Drawn for this page. Tapping sounds shows the difference: a blend keeps every sound.

Not a digraph

In a blend every consonant is heard: stop has four sounds. In a digraph two letters make one new sound: shop has three. Tapping sounds makes the difference concrete.

The common errors

Students drop one sound of the blend (sip for slip, jup for jump) or add a vowel between (suh-top). Slowing down and tapping every sound fixes both.

Why it matters for speech too

Some students who reduce clusters in speech also drop a letter when reading blends. Hearing and saying both sounds supports reading them.

Sources

  1. Moats, L. C. (1994). The missing foundation in teacher education: Knowledge of the structure of spoken and written language. Annals of Dyslexia, 44, 81 to 102. PMID 24234047.
  2. Moats, L. C. (2020). Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers (3rd ed.). Brookes. Syllable types and spelling conventions.
  3. Ehri, L. C. (2014). Orthographic mapping in the acquisition of sight word reading, spelling memory, and vocabulary learning. Scientific Studies of Reading, 18(1), 5 to 21.
  4. International Dyslexia Association. Structured literacy: phonology, sound-symbol association, syllables, morphology (dyslexiaida.org).

Words and phrases were written for this page; the example sets and students are made up. Syllable divisions follow the common structured literacy conventions, and dictionaries sometimes divide a word differently. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.