Teaching · Reading Intervention

Cap becomes cape.
The e you do not say.

In a vowel-consonant-e syllable the e at the end is silent and makes the vowel before it say its name. Deal words by vowel pattern and shape, with short-vowel partners to flip (kit, kite), two-syllable words and made-up words, each with a phrase to read.

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

Make a set of vowel-consonant-e words

The worked example is made up: a second grader on a_e and i_e partner words, and a fourth-grade group on two-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 vowel-consonant-e words chosen by vowel pattern and shape (partner words, other one-syllable words, two syllables, made-up words), each with its syllable break, how the e works 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. Choose the patterns taught so far; a_e and i_e are common first.
  2. Start with partner words: cover the e, read, uncover, read again.
  3. Then read other one-syllable words and the phrase on each card.
  4. Add two-syllable words: find the syllable with the silent e first.
  5. Note errors and print the set for the next lesson or home reading.

Make a set of words

What a vowel-consonant-e syllable is

Flip the e on and offPatternShort vowelAdd an eThe vowel saysa_ecapcape/ay/, its namei_ekitkite/eye/, its nameo_ehophope/oh/, its nameu_ecubcube/yoo/, its namee_epetPete/ee/, its nameFlip the e on and offa_eShort vowel: capAdd an e: capeThe vowel says: /ay/, its namei_eShort vowel: kitAdd an e: kiteThe vowel says: /eye/, its nameo_eShort vowel: hopAdd an e: hopeThe vowel says: /oh/, its nameu_eShort vowel: cubAdd an e: cubeThe vowel says: /yoo/, its namee_eShort vowel: petAdd an e: PeteThe vowel says: /ee/, its name
Drawn for this page. The silent e reaches back over one consonant; with two consonants between, as in “ankle”, it does not.

The pattern

One vowel, one consonant, then a final e: the e is silent and the first vowel is long, saying its name. Cape, kite, hope, cube and these all follow it.

In longer words

The pattern shows up as one syllable of a longer word: cup | cake, rep | tile, com | plete. Split the word first, then read the syllable with the e as a unit.

Exceptions to know

Some common words break the pattern: have, give, love, come, done. Teach them separately so they do not confuse the rule.

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.