Teaching · Reading Intervention

Ends in a vowel,
says its name.

An open syllable ends with its vowel, and that vowel says its name: go, me, ro | bot. Deal words by vowel and shape, from one-syllable words to open-then-closed words split before a single consonant, with made-up words and a phrase on each card.

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 open-syllable words

The worked example is made up: a fourth grader on open-then-closed words and a second grader on one-syllable 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 open-syllable words chosen by vowel and shape (one syllable, open then closed, two open syllables, made-up words), each with its syllable break, why it is open 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-syllable words: me, go, she.
  2. Contrast with closed words the student knows: go and got, me and met.
  3. Move to two-syllable words: find the vowels, split before the single consonant, read.
  4. If the split does not make a word, flip it (cab | in).
  5. Note errors and print the set for the next lesson.

Make a set of words

What an open syllable is

Splitting at one consonant1Find the vowelsr o b o t: two vowels, oneconsonant between2Split before itro | bot: the first syllableends in o3Read it openro says /roh/, its long sound4Read the restbot is closed: short o5Check the wordrobot: a real word, so thesplit is right6If not, flip itcab | in, not ca | bin: splitafter the consonantSplitting at one consonant1Find the vowelsr o b o t: two vowels, one consonantbetween2Split before itro | bot: the first syllable ends in o3Read it openro says /roh/, its long sound4Read the restbot is closed: short o5Check the wordrobot: a real word, so the split isright6If not, flip itcab | in, not ca | bin: split after theconsonant
Drawn for this page. The second vowel in a word like bacon often relaxes to a schwa in speech.

The rule

A syllable that ends in its vowel is open: nothing closes the vowel in, so it says its long sound, its name. Go, me and the first syllables of robot and tulip are open.

Open or closed first?

With one consonant between two vowels, the open split (V | CV) is more common, so try it first. When it does not make a word, as in cabin, split after the consonant.

The relaxed second vowel

In many two-syllable words the unstressed vowel relaxes to a schwa: bacon sounds like “bay-kun”. Students decode it closed, then adjust to the word they know.

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.