The Importance of Short Vowels
Short vowels are the foundation of fluent reading. Our students begin by learning letter names and sounds, and when we teach the vowels we begin with the short sounds. This is because the first words students will decode will be short vowel words in simple patterns (such as CVC words). Today, I am sharing two different ways to teach with short vowels in your classroom. These two strategies will keep your students growing, reading, and having fun!
Sorting Short Vowels
A great way to get students reading and writing short vowel words is through sorts! Sorts require students to read words in isolation. This helps them practice decoding, blending, and fluency! In my CVC Winter Sorts activity pack, students have four different short vowel sorts to complete. Within one sort, students will choose a card, decode and read the word, and write the word based on the vowel sound or word family they hear and see. This targets several reading skills at once, and helps strengthen that CVC foundation! You can grab my CVC Sorts in my TPT store!
Reading Short Vowels in Context
When students have mastered reading words in isolation, they may begin to read different vowel sounds together in simple texts! This is a great way to build on a student’s fluency skills, but also introduces the importance of comprehension! A task like this is perfect for more advanced primary students. Any students who decode and read words with ease may be ready to read words in the context of a story. This will continue to strengthen their short vowel decoding skills, while also promoting reading comprehension overall! Plus, my CVC Phonics Passages include questions for students to answer. This helps students practice citing text evidence, and recalling information from a text!
Using these two ideas in your primary classroom, your students will master short vowel reading in no time! Happy teaching, everyone!
