In any elementary educational setting the term “cvc words” is thrown around a lot. We know our students need to be reading cvc words and spelling cvc words, but do we really know what they are? And do we know how to teach them?
What is a CVC word?
Cvc is a very simple way to identify words that start with one consonant (any letter besides a, e, i, o, and u), contains one vowel right after the consonant (a, e, i, o, or u), and ends with a single consonant. Examples of cvc words are: cat, dog, big, dad, rug, get… the list could seriously go on forever.
Cvc words are where we start putting student’s knowledge of letters and letter sounds to use and teaching them to read (with a few mix ins of vc words like in, at, up, on, and it). We start with cvc words because it is the most natural progression of introducing students to reading as they are learning their letters and sounds. With just the knowledge of two letters students can begin single word decoding. If a student is taught the letters a and t they can then read the word “at”. Add in the letter c and they can now read the word “cat”. Add in one more letter, like the letter n, and the student has added “can”, “tan”, and “an” to their list of decodable words.
What are we Missing?
When we strictly focuses on cvc word lessons we tend to leave out key vocabulary terms during our instruction. We know that in every cvc word the vowel represents a short vowel sound. When we introduce the sounds of each vowel to students and when we expect them read, we oftentimes leave out the term “short vowel”. We just teach students that a say /a/ like in apple without out naming that vowel sound.
Why does this matter?
It matters because the only reason the vowels in our cvc words are able to represent their short sound is because they are also closed syllable words. The letter a will represent it’s short sound most of the time. In fact, close to 50% of the words/syllables students will encounter while reading are closed syllable; however, simply teaching students that the letter a says /a/ as in apple is leaving out a huge piece of the puzzle.
Closed what?
A closed syllable is a syllable that has one vowel directly followed by a consonant. All of our cvc words have a single vowel followed by a consonant and when we teach students to read and write cvc words, were indirectly teaching them to read and spell closed syllable words, but we need to be explicit in the language we use during our lessons.
Students need a deeper understanding of the letter sounds. They need to know why the letter represents the sound it does. Later on the letter a is going to make more than one sound and if we don’t explicitly teach the reason behind the /a/ as in apple sound we will have to backtrack later on.
Do we need to scrap the term “cvc word”? Absolutely not! We are working with cvc words and we can explain that to students and continue to categories words in this way. It will also be important in later syllable lessons to be able to identify the consonants and vowels within a word.
Do students also need to understand that each of the words they’re reading and spelling are closed syllable words, therefore explaining why the vowels make their short sounds? Absolutely yes.
So What is Next?
When we decided our students are ready to begin the decoding process and start reading vc or cvc words, we also need to begin teaching them about closed syllable words. We do not have to wait until all the letters and sounds have been taught to begin fostering an understanding of syllable types. It can start the same time word reading begins.
A cvc word lesson should always relate back to closed syllables, making sure to label the vowel sounds we hear and produce as short vowel sounds.
A very simple yet effective way to teach students to identify closed syllable words is by underlining the vowel and drawing an arrow “next door” or to the right. If the arrow points to a consonant, the syllable is closed! This tells us the vowel will make it’s short sound. Should a student arrow next door and not find a consonant the syllable would be open and the vowel sound would change.
This is a scaffold to aid in student understanding of letter positioning and sounds. The order letters are in within words is crucial to their sound representation, so practicing these skills early with simple word patterns can set students up for success when the patterns and representations become more complex.
Additional Tips and Tricks
Along with teaching about closed syllable and short vowels when introducing cvc words, we also want to give students plenty of opportunities to practice skills such as connecting words to meaning and spelling practice. Here are five additional practices to add into your cvc lessons to make sure students are mastering these skills.
1. Always spiral review.
Make sure to continually add in previously taught letters and sounds when exposing students to words.
2. Practice Phonological Awareness Daily.
Phonological awareness is the ability to orally understand and manipulate the parts of words and sentences. This is one of the biggest predictors of future reading success and we want to foster these skills. Identifying rhyming words, identifying syllables, identifying beginning sounds, and changing beginning sounds are all examples of phonological awareness.
3. Connect single words to meaning.
We don’t want to simply read the word, we want to understand it as well. A very simple yet effective way to bring this into practice is a word to picture match. Have students read a word and find the picture that matches their word.
4. Practice dictation frequently.
Dictation is simply when a teacher gives a sound, word, or phrase that students need to write. Dictation involves both the student and the teacher. In order to master a sound-symbol relationship students must be able to read it and spell it- dictation helps us with spelling mastery.
5. Teach students to decode cvc high frequency words.
Many “sight words” (or better labeled “high frequency words”) are decodable, especially when students are reading cvc words. A short list of high frequency words students can read once they know how to decode cvc words are at, in, on, am, it, if, get, let, can, but, him, did, ran, and yes. There is no need for students to memorize these words if they have the skills to decode them. Giving students opportunities to read and spell high frequency words often will help develop automaticity in recognizing and using these words.
Anything you forget?
It can seem like a lot, having to remember what terms to use and how to explain them to students.
Once they are explained, it can be time consuming finding resources that help you teach these words in an explicit and systematic way, making sure you’re covering all the bases.
I get it. It can be a lot of work making sure students get all the information they need.
That’s why I did the hard work for you. I created a resource that contains all the materials you need to teach cvc words to your students.
I walk you through phonological awareness and letter fluency drills, single word blending + connecting those single words to meaning, decodable reading for controlled sentence and paragraph comprehension, spelling practice, and so much more.
Find my Teaching CVC Words resource here.
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