Phonics Myth Busters #1: When 2 Vowels Go Walking, The First Does the Talking

Phonics Myth Busters Series

Dear Reader,

This last week we were in person with kids for the first time since March 13, 2020 (we know a lot of you have been in person way before now and we are in awe). It reminds us of a few truths:

1. Kids are amazing; we heard from a First Grader who is writing a small moment about Alex Trebek and a Kindergartener who believes that Omu in Thank You Omu should have kept a little of her delicious stew to herself instead of giving it away (boundaries are important).

2. Teaching little kids in person is EXHAUSTING! Like reeeeeallllly really exhausting. At the end of our first days in person with kids, Marie couldn’t find any of her stuff and Lizzie had lost seven flair pens. We also both forgot how to use public transportation and took several wrong trains.

In light of these truths- we offer you these myths, we hope they lift you up and help you teach those amazing little humans sitting in front of you.

Myth #1: When 2 Vowels Go Walking, The First Does the Talking

We’ve said it at some point—have you? This is a phonics “rule” that is often communicated to children. And sure, it works… sometimes. Like in the words rain, steam, and boat. But what about bread, took, and piece?

What’s actually more useful than this (albeit catchy) saying, is teaching common spellings for particular sounds. As a result, children learn to recognize that vowel combinations often represent certain sounds. This kind of teaching might sound like, “We’re going to learn about a sound today. Listen to the vowel sound in these words: rain, pay, and cake. Yes, the vowel sound is the long a, right? You already know that the long a sound can be represented with the a_e like cake. Look at these words--rain and pay. In rain, the ai is representing the long a sound. In pay, the ay is representing the long a sound.” Then, children can work to read more words using these patterns during the lesson.

 In Letter Lessons and First Words (2019), Heidi Mesmer shares estimates of how frequently vowel teams make particular sounds, based on research by Johnston (2001) and Gates and Yale (2011). (You’ll note that there aren’t percentages available for some.)

Long a: ai (75%) and ay (96%)

Long e: ee (95%) and ea (50%)

Ea Exceptions: ea like bread, ea like break (rare)

Long o: oa (95%) and ow (68%)

Long u: ue & ew (88%)

Long and short oo: oo like boot (50%) oo like took (40%)

Long i: y and igh 

Here’s another cool handout on the topic of spelling generalizations from TPRI. (Please note that the percentages in this document represent something different - the frequency with which words with that sound are spelled with the graphemes.)

We hope you enjoyed thinking or re-thinking about vowel teams today. 

Until next time —

Lizzie and Marie