How to explain the r-controlled vowels can be hard.
- Start with bossy R first. Ar, the bossy r controlled the silent a, and r says its name.
- Or, is a word. This bossy r controls the o and they make the or sound together.
- Bossy r – er, ir, ur, all make the same sounds. Easy to remember. Teach these in a group together. If you are using my Uno game, sort out all the (er, ir, ur) into one group for a game. This makes it super easy for the students to decode the words. It is amazing to watch the faces of the students as they read new words for the very first time. It is super easy when they understand that the read letters in the middle all say “er”.
