The syllable is part of a word that contains the sounds (phonemes) of the voice. It usually has a vowel in the middle. The syllable is also called a ‘rhythm’ and teachers often teach children to identify syllables by clapping ‘beats’ with words. Another way to define syllable is a ‘mouthful’ of a word.
Now, the most interesting approach should be considered and adopt as a strategy by teacher teaching syllables to kids is as under.
Let us define in brief the 05 strategies to teach syllables:
1. Marker Activity
How to teach students to use a marker (i.e., token) to count syllables.
The marker activity that is normally used for word counting can be changed to be used for counting the syllables. Teachers can give each child tokens and two or three horizontally connected boxes drawn on paper. The children mark each box from left to right as they hear each letter in the name.
2. Multisyllabic Manipulation
This example incorporates several functions and a multisyllabic word chart. One function specified on this page is the Multisyllabic Words Manipulation Game. Teachers can separate words from reading in selected groups, writing each vocabulary on an expert card and expressing these groups in sequence. Get learners to arrange the letters of the alphabet to form words. For example: Write a syllable on a note card, display a syllable that make up one of the words in jumbled order., as for fantastic – (tas – fan – tic in a jumbled manner), now have students to arrange syllables to form a word, if necessary pronounce and spell a word making it easy for a student forming a word.
3. Clapping Games
Combining the letters of the words with the rhythm can help student learners to better learn the concept of syllables or word groups within words. Here is a clapping game to help younger learners understand by separating words into groups of letters. For example: Every syllable ask student to clap and help them to clap on each syllable, like – apple – (ap = clap, ple = clap). This is no doubt very difficult for a student to remember but let them focus on clapping the syllables while the teacher says the words.
4. Using Mirrors
The following link provides details on introductory activities such as using mirrors to teach students about alphabetical groups. Information is also provided about the different syllable spelling patterns.
5. Jumping Syllables
This activity teaches the learner to divide words into syllables or groups of letters. Students hand out letters to create new “stupid” words that give them practice of handling different sounds. For example – let us take a word pencil, the student will be asked to make a jumping syllable of this word, with this, the student would move pen to the end of the word making a word cilpen, thus making a silly word.
Keep exploring EnglishBix to learn about different types of syllables.
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