Counting syllables in words helps make read-alouds enjoyable.
When students read in class, do they struggle with pronouncing words correctly? I don’t mean articulation errors. I mean when they read words, do you know what word they mean, but they are putting too much or too little emphasis on certain pieces of the words? This can really mess with the fluidity of reading, and make a good story or piece of text terrible to listen to.
The first few months of hearing my older son read were such a mixture of pride and wanting to stick earplugs in while he read. Yes, seriously. There is a fluidity with the way that we pronounce words and sentences. Without the fluidity, listening to someone reading is so ugh!
Good syllabication skills enhance the listening experience for everyone….including the person reading…which directly impacts their comprehension.
Continuing on with our journey through phonological awareness…this week we are talking about how being able to identify or count syllables can impact future learning.
Just like with all of the other skills that we’ve talk about with phonological awareness or phonemic awareness for that matter, without these foundational skills, all other learning is shaky at best.
When it comes to counting syllables in words, my younger grades teachers know that we do have this in our standards, so it is hit. Though maybe not as much as it should. There are just so many more advanced skills that teachers feel pressured to get to. Counting syllables can be an easy one to gloss over.
Glossing over counting syllables is a mistake. It makes future reading skills more shaky than they need to be.
Being able to hear the natural breaks in words, and where to place the emphasis in spoken words helps to build fluidity in our speaking and eventually in our reading. Most kids naturally learn to speak fluidly, which means keeping an appropriate rhythm and rate when speaking. Teaching them to break down the syllables in words helps to improve this skill, even in students who are pretty good at it already.
When students get to the reading phase, having strong phonological syllabication skills helps students to read more fluently, emphasize words correctly, and improves their comprehension of texts they read.
More importantly, being able to read with a good rate and hear the flow of the words helps to make reading more enjoyable. The more kids enjoy reading, the more they will read and improve their reading skills. It is a beautiful cycle when it works that way. Counting syllables enhances the reading experience and increases reading rates.
Even if students know their phonics rules, if they struggle to read with a nice comfortable flow, it can impact their enjoyment of the text as well as their comprehension.
So, what’s a teacher to do about teaching counting syllables to students? What about grades where syllabication isn’t emphasized?
Much like when teaching counting words in sentences, getting kids moving really helps them to hear the breaks (or syllables) in the words. I think most of us learned to count syllables by clapping. Another option is jumping, hopping, stepping, or moving physical items like counters. The more we can get kids moving or using items to help them, the more easily they will internalize the skill we are teaching.
Personally, I like to use those red and yellow circle counters for teaching kids to count syllables. Yes, I know that I’ve mentioned using the little mini cars and things like that in the past.
Here’s my secret with all of this. I try to use different manipulatives for the different skills I want the students to practice. Maybe it is just the way that my brain works. I do think that it is easier for students to more quickly jump into the skill when they know that they use cars to blend or segment phonemes, but they use the red and yellow counters to count syllables. Seeing something different helps the student to grasp the different skill sets they are mastering. Plus, changing up the manipulatives helps to make the activities a little more interesting. This is true especially when they never know what Mrs. Curtis will be pulling out for them to use!
All the practice in the world for a skill doesn’t mean that we know that a student is mastering the concept….for that…we need to progress monitor the skill set.
Progress monitoring really is the key to supporting true academic gains for students. By tracking how the students are doing on an area of deficit, we know without any doubt whether we need to reteach or move on. Or maybe you can really really move on because the student is ready for the next skill set. Plus, it just is such a feel good moment when you get to show a student a graph of how much they have improved over time in a particular area.
Kids, especially those who are struggling, work so hard and see so little gain from it in grades. But when we can show them how their hard word is paying off, it really boosts their confidence. It helps them to keep working toward their goals.
To get started progress monitoring, click here to grab the free 5 Steps to Getting Started with Progress Monitoring Guide
If you are wanting to progress monitor counting syllables, make sure that you group your words by number of syllables. For example, you might work on words with 1 to 3 syllables to progress monitor.
Once students start getting more confident in their skills, open it up to 1 to 5 syllables. I’ve never really bothered having students count syllables above 5. This is because those are some big, complicated words. But also because once they can get 5 syllables, students seem to be able to generalize to bigger words pretty easily. That is a call that you’ll need to make to determine if the skill is mastered.
My students, by that time, were able to generalize the skill to really really big words. Your student may need more explicit practice beyond 5.
So, once your students master counting syllables. What else is there in phonological awareness? Well, next week we are going to talk about rhyming and alliteration…and how we can help even more students lay a strong phonological foundation for those reading skills.