Virginia SOL K.FFR.3.C
The Standard
Discriminate between long and short sounds with common spellings for the five major vowels with open and closed syllables (e.g., short /e/ as in “pet”, long /e/ as in “he”)
Virginia Standards of Learning for English · Phonics and Word Analysis: The student will apply phonetic principles to read and spell words
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students read words and listen for whether each vowel says its name or has a short sound. They check whether the syllable ends with the vowel or is closed by a consonant. They use that pattern when spelling simple words.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student correctly sorts words for each vowel into name sound and short sound groups. They explain why he has the name sound and hen has the short sound, then spell similar dictated words.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may name the vowel letter instead of listening to its sound. They may judge the whole word rather than the target syllable, so tiger looks closed because it ends in r. Many also mix up short e and short i, or short o and short u.
How to Assess It
- Give an exit ticket with five pairs: baby and cat, he and hen, tiger and sit, go and got, music and sun. Students circle the word with the vowel name sound and underline the word with the short sound in each pair.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Use letter tiles to build he and hen, go and got, then have students open or close each syllable with a consonant.
Prompt students to explain how the vowel changes when n is added to he, then write another open and closed pair.
Play a sorting race with picture cards for baby, cat, he, hen, tiger, sit, go, got, music, and sun.
Read names around the school, then sort examples such as Milo, Ben, Rita, and Tom by the first vowel sound.
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Related Standards
- 1.FFR.3.B
Decode and encode words with long vowels, open syllables, (CV, CCV) and vowelconsonant-e (CVCE, CCVCE).
- 2.FFR.3.A
Decode and encode words with short vowels to include blends, digraphs, and trigraphs in closed syllables (CVCC, CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC, and CCVCCC) and open syllable...
- K.FFR.3.D
Demonstrate knowledge that every word has a vowel sound
- 1.FFR.3.A
Decode and encode words with short vowels to include blends with digraphs, closed syllables (CVC, CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC).
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