Students need to learn the closed syllable exceptions in a phonics program for decoding and encoding words. Students learn that a vowel makes a short sound in a closed syllable when followed by one or more consonants. But there are a few exceptions to that rule about closed syllables. In a few cases, there can be a long vowel sound in a closed syllable.

In this blog post, I will uncover why these exceptions exist by exploring when to teach them and how best to do so with fun activities as well. But before teaching these tricky exceptions make sure your students understand the standard closed syllable spelling pattern before you introduce this concept to your teaching sequence.

What is a closed syllable exception?

Although most closed syllables contain short vowel sounds, certain patterns such as ild, ind, old olt, oll, or ost usually produce long vowels. To help students recognize and remember these exceptions requires memorization and practice within context. They may be taught as glued sounds or unit sounds.

Examples of Closed Syllable Exceptions (AKA Wild Old Words)

Here are some examples:

ild: child, mild

ind: mind, kind, find, wind (note: “wind” can be pronounced with the short or long i, and each word has a different meaning)

old: told, mold, gold, hold, sold,

olt: colt, molt, bolt, volt

ost: most, post (“lost” and “costs” are exceptions to the exception!)

oll: poll , roll (doll is an example word that does not follow this exception and it is not followed in multi-syllable words like “follow” or “pollen”.)

Students must have some prerequisite skills before learning the closed syllable exceptions. Closed syllable exceptions are typically introduced early in second grade or late in first grade.

• They must understand the sounds of both short and long vowels.
• They should have some fluency with the phonics of digraphs, consonant blends, and glued sounds.
• Additionally, they need to be familiar with opened & closed syllable types before further instruction can begin.

Develop Phonics Concepts Before Teaching

Get your students ready for the closed syllable exceptions lesson by making sure they have a good grasp of what a closed syllable is and why it’s important. The short vowel sound that usually comes with this type of syllable will be key to their understanding, so make sure you give them enough practice beforehand!

Order of Teaching Closed Syllable Exceptions

After introducing my students to the closed syllable exceptions with “old, olt ost” words We begin with the vowel <o> followed by <ld> <lt> and <st> because children are often familiar with the word <old>. Then I help them explore further by delving into new patterns of words featuring the vowel <i> examples would be ‘ild’ and ‘ind.’ It’s a great way for us to work together toward understanding why certain vowels are pronounced in long or short sounds!

Phonics Prerequisites before teaching closed syllable exceptions

• Understanding and practicing with the closed syllable-the vowel sound is usually short when followed by one or more consonants.
• Understanding and practicing with other syllable types like open syllables, r-controlled syllables, and silent e-syllables.

Tips for Teaching the Closed Syllable Exception

Play Games

Game Resources are often my favorite way to teach children to understand tricky concepts. Children love to play games over and over so why not use that enthusiasm to enhance learning the closed-syllable exceptions? Use some of these fun phonics ideas:

• •4 in a Row – give your students the 4 in a row worksheet game and your kids will have a ball reading and writing these tricky words.

• •Memory game – use my free closed syllable exception cards and create pairs of words and ask children to match up the pairs.

• •Rhyming words – give your students a list of words and have them come up with a rhyming word.

• •Word Sorts – print out a set of wild old words and ask your students to find the hidden words in the puzzle. It may be useful to contrast closed syllable exceptions with regular closed syllable words with a short vowel sound.

• Make a Word search- use the word lists and have your kids make their own word searches for friends on grid paper. It is a fun friendly way to practice spelling patterns and get kids to write these words.

• Spelling bee – use a list of wild old words as a spelling bee round for a quick, fun review. Spelling out loud is very helpful for struggling readers.

• If a spelling bee is too stressful for your students then teach some phoneme-grapheme mapping with an orthographic mapping template.

Mark Up those Words

If you are using Fundations for second grade then you may want to mark up those closed syllable exception words.

So, have fun exploring these tricky words with your students.

You may also make multi syllable words by adding affixes to words like cold + ly for “coldly” or un + told for “untold”.

Help Students Use Closed Syllable Words in Context

As a teacher, I love to combine learning new phonics and reading concepts with other necessary learning objectives. Get your students to use wild old words to learn grammar concepts such as subject-verb agreement and building vocabulary with these new words.

Read Decodable Text

Using decodable texts is great to teach students the closed syllable exceptions within sentences. These stories help reinforce the concepts and give children the opportunity to read words that they have just learned. It’s important to choose appropriate decodable passages that feature these wild old words so your students can gain fluency and confidence in their reading skills.

See the tricky words in context

One reason that reading decodable texts are so important when teaching closed syllable exceptions is that some of the vowels in the exceptions can be read either long or short. An example would be <ost>. It can be read with a short vowel like in the word <cost>. But in the word <post> the vowel <o> is read with a long sound. And with a word like “wind”. It can be read either with a long vowel <i> as in the sentence “I can wind up the string.” It can also be read as a short vowel <i> as in the sentence “The wind blew my hair.”

Use Cloze passages for a deeper understanding

Typically I use cloze passages after reading a decodable passage with children in a small or whole group. It gives the students another opportunity to connect with the closed-syllable exception words (ind, old, olt, ost). They can read and write those words again as well as work on their reading comprehension goals within targeted sentences.

Teach a Complete Lesson with closed-syllable exceptions

If you need detailed lesson plans and decodable texts to help your reading students focus on this closed-syllable exception pattern. Then I have complete phonics lesson resources available for your students. My decodable texts follow an Orton Gillingham Science of Reading Sequence. They can be taught to any child even students with dyslexia. If you need a free example lesson please sign up for the freebie library there are many examples available there.

FAQ:

Q: What is a closed-syllable exception word?

A: Closed syllable exception words are words that contain a vowel followed by two consonants and the vowel is read with a long sound rather than the usual short sound. Examples include “mind”, “cold”, and “most”. The most common closed syllable endings are: (ild, ind, old, olt)

Q: Why are they called closed-syllable exceptions?

A: Closed syllable exceptions are words that break the normal pattern closed syllables. In closed syllables, the vowel sound is usually short (e.g., cat). The rule generally taught is that a vowel followed by at least one consonant sound is short. However, in these exception words, the vowel sounds long and is followed by two consonants (e.g., cold). This breaks the usual closed syllable pattern.

Below you will find free resources for your classroom so download them today!