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📘 You sit. The box says kit.

You sit at the table. A grey first-aid box sits in front of you, a red cross on the lid. The word on the lid is kit. Three letters. Three sounds. A short i in the middle, the same short i you already know from sit and pin. England’s Year 1

4
lessons
~20 min
to learn
Adults
level
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What you’ll learn

  1. The kite was a kit firstExplain that a split digraph is a vowel letter, a consonant, and a final e working as one long-vowel team, and that magic e is another classroom name for the same pattern.Kit is three short sounds. Kite keeps three sounds because i and e are one team with t in the gap. The screening check calls that a split digraph. The reading framework allows the name magic e for the same GPC in late.
  2. The five split teamsName the five Year 1 split teams (a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e, u-e) and give each a word you can point at, including both voices of u-e.Appendix 1 lists five splits. Cake is a-e. Five and kite are i-e. Home and stone are o-e. Cube and tube are u-e, yoo and oo. E-e is rare: these, theme, complete.
  3. Start from a team you already knowRead a split-digraph word by finding the final e, giving the earlier vowel its name, and blending, using the Letters and Sounds tie-to-time method.Letters and Sounds splits ie in tie by sliding in m to make time. The screening check puts cone, came, fine, brute and huge in Section 2. Spot the e, find the vowel, say its name, blend.
  4. The e that is only sitting thereTell a true split (safe, tube, hole) apart from have, some and come, which end in e and keep a short vowel.Letters and Sounds names have, some and come as not split digraphs. Safe, tube and hole are. Tonight, find three final-e words in the house and listen for whether the first vowel says its name.

Questions this course answers

What is a split digraph?

The phonics screening check assessment framework defines a split digraph as a vowel letter followed by a consonant letter and then an e. The two vowel letters are one team. The consonant sits in the gap.

Match each split team to a word Appendix 1 gives you.

Appendix 1 lists a-e (made, came, same, take, safe), i-e (five, ride, like, time, side), o-e (home, those, woke, hope, hole) and u-e (June, rule, rude, use, tube, tune).

Put these moves in the order you actually read a split team.

The Agency’s shape is VCV: vowel, consonant, e. Your eye finds the e first, then the vowel it belongs to, then blends. Letters and Sounds teaches the same idea by starting from a known team and splitting it.

Which word ends in e but is NOT a split digraph?

Letters and Sounds says that although they end in e, some, come and have are not split digraph words. Have keeps a short a. Kite, cake and home are true splits.

Finish the Grade 1 line with the missing word.

Common Core RF.1.3.c: know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds. England’s name for the same pattern is split digraph.

How many split vowel teams does Year 1 Appendix 1 name?

Appendix 1 names five: a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e and u-e. E-e is the rare one (these, theme, complete). The other four do most of the Year 1 reading.

Grounded in trusted sources

  • Department for Education, English Appendix 1: Spelling — Year 1 vowel digraphs and trigraphs: a-e made, came, same, take, safe; e-e these, theme, complete; i-e five, ride, like, time, side; o-e home, those, woke, hope, hole; u-e both the /u:/ and /ju:/ (‘oo’ and ‘yoo’): June, rule, rude, use, tube, tune, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7ccc06ed915d63cc65ce61/English_Appendix_1_-_Spelling.pdf
  • Department for Education, National curriculum in England: English programmes of study — Year 1 word reading: respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes (letters or groups of letters) for all 40+ phonemes, including, where applicable, alternative sounds for graphemes; Year 1 spelling: apply simple spelling rules and guidance as listed in English Appendix 1; Year 1 common exception words include come, some, love, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study
  • Department for Education, The reading framework (July 2023): one programme might use the term split digraph, while another might refer to magic e, for the same vowel GPC in a word such as late; long-o spellings include o-e in stone, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/664f600c05e5fe28788fc437/The_reading_framework_.pdf
  • Department for Education and Skills, Letters and Sounds: Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics (2007), Phase Five — example session for split digraph i-e: start from the known grapheme ie in tie, ask what needs to be added to make time, hold m against tie making tiem, sound-talk it; note: although ending in the letter e, some, come and have are not split digraph words, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7aa7b6e5274a34770e630c/Letters_and_Sounds_-_DFES-00281-2007.pdf
  • Standards and Testing Agency, Assessment framework for the development of the year 1 phonics screening check (2012): a split digraph contains a vowel letter followed by a consonant letter and then an e; children at the expected standard should decode some items containing less frequent and less consistent vowel digraphs, including split digraphs; Section 2 examples a-e came, e-e scheme, i-e fine, o-e cone, u-e brute and huge, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/assessment-framework-for-the-development-of-the-year-1-phonics-screening-check/assessment-framework-for-the-development-of-the-year-1-phonics-screening-check
  • Common Core State Standards, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.1.2.a distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words; RF.1.3.c know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds, https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RF/1/
  • Foorman, B., et al. (2016), Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade, IES What Works Clearinghouse practice guide (NCEE 2016-4008), Recommendation 3: teach students to decode words, analyze word parts, and write and recognize words, https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/practiceguide/21

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