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Introducing "silent" or "magic" e

Closed syllables + e=silent e syllable

This is a good page for introducing the silent e syllable.  These words change from short to long vowel words; they're all real words. This is a page that should be practiced and drilled to mastery and automaticity. This language pattern shows up many, may times.

Just as you demonstrated that adding a letter changed the sound of a word with closed syllables, you can demonstrate that here -- in this case, of course, the awesomely powerful "e" reaches over the consonant to empower the vowel to say its name. It is usually not powerful enough to reach over two consonants, though.

You can tell the student that e is usually silent at the end of a word. Many students overgeneralize the "spell the letter it sounds like" concept, and spell words like "any" with an "e" at the end. Learning about silent e will help the student with a lot of other patterns, too.

"Quit" and "quite" and "quiet" are words that are often confused -- give them a *lot* of practice. When they are mastered and automatic, the student may still be confused with "quiet." Rather than scramble all three, wait until "open syllables" to demonstrate that quiet is a more difficult word to read because it divides between two vowels -- "qui -- et." (If the word comes up in reading and is misread, add it to the word list and practice it as you would any other word.)

Some students will be able to apply what they've learned about /g/ to the rag -- rage and hug - huge transitions; other students will need extra practice integrating the concepts. This is a good diagnostic tool; if the student has trouble integrating this, be prepared to provide extra drill and practice integrating skills later, as well.

* ask student what the "e" will do to the "g" sound.