Teaching Mrs. Reinert: Silent E Changes Everything!

In the second grade, students spend a lot of time exploring the various spelling patterns of words. Right now, my students are learning about consonant-vowel-consonant patterns (CVC) and consonant-vowel-consonant-silent e patterns (CVCe). As part of my literacy project for the technology course that I am taking, I worked to help my students understand the ways in which a silent e can change a short vowel or CVC word. My students and I watched two video clips that illustrated how, when a silent e is added to a short vowel word, it changes that word into a long vowel word.

Next, my students and I brainstormed a list of short vowel words and then added a silent e to these words to see how the word would change. My students were delighted to find that shin changes to shine, glob changes to globe, and mat changes to mate when a silent e is added! My students chose their own short vowel words and demonstrated how their word changed when a silent e was added to it by writing and illustrating each word. Last, my students and I uploaded their work into a Little Bird Tale, added narration, and Voila! We created our own little digital story about the effects of the silent e!

Below is the Little Bird Tale that we created and the videos that my students and I watched at the start of this project.

Silent E Changes Everything!