Bossy R Controlled Syllables - How to Teach Them, What to do if students aren’t getting it

As we’ve mentioned previously, one of the most effective practices used in evidence-based reading instruction is the process of teaching each of the syllable types and syllable division patterns.

If you have never heard of the six syllable types, don't worry - you are not alone. Check out our blog: What’s This About the Six Syllable Types.

We’re going to run through a quick review again, just to make sure we all have the same background knowledge before jumping in!

Why teach the six syllable types?

Understanding the syllable types helps students anticipate the vowel sounds within a word. It also helps students learn to break or chunk words effectively to sound out longer words.

The Science of Reading has provided a great deal of information on the most effective, evidence-based practices in teaching reading. Teaching the six syllable types aligns with the explicit teaching of concepts. So specifically, we teach:

What is a Syllable?

A syllable is a word or part of a word with one vowel sound. Understanding this definition can help us to read and spell effectively.

As we work with students we also want to follow a systematic progression of concepts. Systematic phonics-based instruction is well-researched and has been proven to help children learn to read better than all forms of control group instruction including whole language based on quantitative meta-analyses (Ehri, L. C., Nunes, S. R., Stahl, S. A., & Willows, D. M. 2001).

A systematic progression means working from the most basic concepts and progressing to more complex concepts while continuing to systematically review the concepts taught earlier in the progression. Now, it’s important to note that our systematic progression of concepts is not necessarily the same as others - this is okay. It’s all about using a hierarchy and order of teaching that generally provides students with access to the tools they need as quickly as possible to be able to read as many words as possible.

We progress our syllable type instruction with R-controlled syllables. You can find more information on the other syllable types here:

What is an R-Controlled Syllable?

Anytime the letter R follows a vowel, we get an R-Controlled syllable. We often refer to this as The Bossy R for our younger students.

In an R-controlled syllable, the vowel is neither long nor short; it is controlled by the letter R and the /r/ sound.

The vowel before the R does not make its regular long or short sound, so we say it is being bossed or controlled by the R. Some of these R-controlled vowels can make the same sound. For example, the sound of /r/ can also be represented as “er, ir, ur.” Unfortunately, there isn’t a concrete rule for how to know which spelling to use and this is where teaching students what is most common and least common is important.

The most common spelling for /r/ is er.
The second most common spelling for /r/ is ur.
The least common spelling for /r/ is ir.

Knowing which spelling is the most or least common helps students when they are experimenting with spelling or encoding new words.

Now the tricky part with some R-Controlled vowels is that some may have a schwa sound. Words with “or” like in doctor can have the \er\ sound. Words with “ar” can have a long sound like marry or schwa like dollar.

We want students to recognize the R-Controlled syllable when they read and with so many variations with this bossy letter, we provide a lot of systematic practice.

How do I teach R-Controlled Syllables?

As with all our work, we guide students to rely on syllable marking to help them recognize patterns and bring their attention to letters, sounds, and syllable types. Repeated practice with this helps cement the strategy and this becomes a useful safety net for students when they approach an unknown word in a text or if they want to spell an unfamiliar word in their own writing. Marking syllables becomes such a habit that students will begin to see words in this way which will give them the ability to break down multi-syllabic words that would have otherwise been very difficult for them to read.

We mark the R-controlled syllable words by boxing in the vowel and the R. You can also highlight or underline - just make sure that you are consistent with which strategy you are introducing. Below is an image of how we mark R-controlled syllables with our students

Marking R-Controlled Bossy-R words for help with reading

What do I do if my students aren’t getting R-Controlled Syllables?

You want to make sure that your progress through the R-controlled syllable type is systematic and responsive to students’ needs. We look for evidence of mastery before moving on to the next phonogram within the Bossy R syllable type. As with all of our syllable types, we practice the R-controlled syllable type in a variety of multi-sensory ways that moves students from the word to the phrase level and culminates with developing fluency at the sentence level using sentences or passages that present words with R-controlled syllables.

Often, students struggle with the spelling component as er, ir, and ur all make the same /r/ sound. If you are running into this, you can remind students that ‘er’ is the most common and ‘ir’ is the least common. If your student has a strong orthographic (visual) memory, often, they will be able to recognize that words like ‘corner’ look better with an ‘er’ than if we tried ‘cornir’ or ‘cornur.’

As we’ve mentioned before, providing this framework for students provides them with that light-bulb “aha” moment that we as educators are always looking for.

Ready for MORE?

Helping students understand the syllable types is one of the most effective ways to support reading and SPELLING development. If you want to incorporate the six syllable types into your instruction - check out some of the printed products you can use in your teaching and continue your learning with the Science of Reading Blueprint. You can grab both below: