- Hello, scholars.

Welcome to Read, Write, Roar.

Today, we focus on a big question.

How do our actions affect our environment?

We will work with words with open syllables, read a poem about how to care for our planet, and also color code an exemplar text.

You'll need something to write on, a scratch piece of paper, or even an envelope.

And don't forget, you're gonna need something to write with, a pencil or crayon.

Come join us, friends, for Read, Write, Roar.

- [Narrator] This program is made possible in part by the Michigan Department of Education, the state of Michigan, and the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation.

Additional support by, and by viewers like you, thank you.

(upbeat music) - Welcome, readers.

When I'm reading, and I come to a tricky word, the first strategy I like to use is to break that word apart into syllables, or word parts.

This really helps me read new words.

To be able to break words apart into syllables, we have to understand what types of syllables we can find while reading words.

Our goal today is to understand what an open syllable is.

We'll also use open syllables to read words with more than one syllable.

We need to begin by reminding ourselves of what a syllable is.

A syllable is a word part with only one vowel sound.

Remember, the letters, A, E, I, O, U, and often, the letter Y usually make a vowel sound.

When we see a written syllable, or we hear a syllable spoken, we will only see and hear one vowel sound.

Sometimes in a syllable, that vowel sound is made with more than one written vowel.

For example, this is what we would call a vowel team.

The A and the I can often work together to make the long A sound like this, A.

Even though there are two vowels here, there's only one vowel sound.

That's why we can have a vowel team in one syllable.

Now we've learned that closed syllables have only one written vowel, followed by one or more consonants.

We don't see vowel teams in closed syllables.

Open syllables, which are our focus for today, are very similar.

They have one vowel that is not followed by one or more consonants.

Here's the difference.

Both of these syllables have one vowel, but an open syllable does not have a consonant at the end of the syllable.

Instead, there is a vowel at the very end of that syllable.

It's not closed off by a consonant.

Why is this important?

Well, it's important to know the difference between closed and open syllables, because closed syllables often have vowels that make their short vowel sound.

Open syllables have vowels that usually make their long vowel sounds.

These are the long vowel sounds.

A, E, I, O, the letter U has two, U or U, and the letter Y can also make two long vowel sounds, I or E. When we see an open syllable with one of these vowels, we can try to first read that syllable by making one of those long vowel sounds.

Let's practice this with a word.

Here is our practice word, newspaper.

I've got a newspaper right here.

As we look at this word, do you see one syllable that is an open syllable, that has one vowel, and no consonants following it?

Let's look at the first one.

Does that match what we know about open syllables?

Well, it doesn't for two reasons.

First, it ends with a consonant, and open syllables do not end in consonants.

The vowel is not followed by consonants.

There's another reason too.

In this first syllable, the E and the W are working together in a vowel team to make a sound.

Since there's a vowel team here, and not just one written vowel, and there's a consonant at the end, this is not an open syllable.

Let's look at the two syllables that are left.

Do these syllables have one vowel?

They do.

The second syllable has the letter A, and the third syllable has the letter E. They both match the first part.

What about the second part?

Do these syllables have a vowel at the end?

Because if they do, they're open syllables, but if there is a consonant closing them off, then they're closed syllables.

Which of these two syllables is an open syllable?

It is the second syllable, because we have the vowel A at the end of the syllable.

In the next syllable, we have a consonant, the letter R at the end of the syllable.

So this is not an example of an open syllable.

Now that we understand the difference between open and closed syllables, let's practice reading words with these open syllables.

(upbeat music) As we start to break words apart into syllables, there are some tips that we can follow to find syllables more easily.

First, we have to remember that every syllable has one vowel or vowel team.

Another way to say this is that each syllable has one vowel sound.

While we begin to separate words into syllables, we can make sure that each syllable we find has one vowel sound if we place a dot under each vowel.

Let's do that with this word here.

What vowels do you see in this word?

First, I see the letter I, which makes a vowel sound in this word.

What other letter makes a vowel sound in this word?

The letter E is also a vowel.

Now we can underline any vowel team, because a vowel team would make only one vowel sound, so it could be in the same syllable.

Do you see any vowel teams here?

No, we don't.

Remember, a vowel team is where letters work together to make one vowel sound, like the E, E, that can work together to make the long E sound.

In this word, we don't have vowels working in teams to make one sound.

They're all separated by consonants.

Now we can divide syllables between two consonants, which is something we can practice a lot with closed syllables.

We can also divide between a consonant and a vowel.

Sometimes we'll separate a word into syllables by stopping after a consonant, and starting the next syllable with a vowel.

When we're looking for open syllables, we'll find the vowel first, we'll separate the syllable, and the next syllable could start with a consonant.

Let's practice that.

Where should we divide this word into syllables?

Well, the first thing that we can know is that the first syllable will have the letter I, and the second syllable will have the letter E. There will be two syllables in this word.

The letter F is our first letter.

It can't be a syllable all by itself, because it's not a vowel, and a syllable needs a vowel sound.

So the F and the I will be in the same syllable together.

Then we have this letter B.

We know that the E is going to start a new syllable.

So we have to decide if the B will go in the first syllable, or if it will go into the second syllable like this, we know that the E and the R have to stick together in that second syllable, because the R can't be its own syllable.

So we just have to figure out what to do with the letter B.

We're going to practice dividing between a consonant and vowel, but which way should we divide?

With the consonant and then a vowel, or with a vowel and then a consonant?

Well, we've been learning about open syllables, and we know that open syllables have vowels that aren't followed by a consonant.

So let's try separating here between the vowel and the consonant to have an open syllable first.

Since this is an open syllable, we will probably make the long I sound, as we read the syllable.

Are you ready to try?

All right, read with me.

Fi, ber.

Fiber.

This word is fiber.

It has an open syllable, where the vowel makes its long vowel sound.

A fiber is a long thin piece of a plant, an animal, or a mineral.

It's this teeny tiny thin, just like a piece of thread.

Paper is made of fibers.

And when we recycle paper, it's broken down into those teeny tiny fibers, and then the fibers are put back together to make a new piece of paper.

Great work reading this word with an open syllable.

(soft music) - Ah, new readers, it's teacher Tana.

And today I have an amazing book for you.

It's called Coyote Soundbite, A Poem For Our Planet.

And it's written by a John Agard with illustrations done by Piet Grobler.

We have special rights to read this book to you from Latana Publishing.

My friends, you know that when we read any text, we have a thinking job to do.

And today, our thinking job is to think about reading steps.

The steps that we have in front of us are step one.

So we need to think about the text.

What kind of text is it?

Step two, how is it organized?

Step three, are there similar details as you read throughout the text?

And then step four, what kind of connections do we make while we read?

We're gonna have to ask ourself two questions.

When is a detail introduced, and when does it change?

Also, when does one event cause another?

All right, my friends, are you ready to read?

Let's go.

We started this book, and we know that the goddesses are headed to a conference.

Just the women, the male gods cannot come, but Coyote is up to something.

And coyote has decided to put on his wife's blue dress, and go ahead and go to the conference.

He was just seated in the front row.

I know.

Okay.

So as we read, we're gonna continue to think about, when does this event cause another?

Coyote, he's awfully silly.

We'll have to see what happens, all right.

And then we're gonna be thinking about, are there any other details introduced, and when did they change?

All right, here we go.

"Then the chair goddess announced herself.

Darana, she whose singing gave birth to rain, had traveled from the land of the didgeridoo.

Too much applause, but without much ado, Darana recalled how from her belly button had sprouted the very first witchetty grub for the first ever humans to feed on.

Darana and humans then spoke one tongue."

That means, I think they spoke one language.

"So it was in the dream time beginning, before the riches of Darana's dark veins had become divided into losses and gains.

With that, Darana introduced Oduduwa.

Emerging from her calabash of ebony, Oduduwa said she'd keep it short and sweet.

All she wished was to jolt human memory.

Let them go ask the tree of 16 branches from whose flesh grew the first kola nut.

When the first humans toddled on their butt.

Imagining first humans toddling on their butt did make Coyote give a little grin.

A laugh out loud would be embarrassing.

Next came the earth goddess, Kujum Chantu, who spoke of wonders of which legends told.

Legends passed on to the young from the old.

How her eyes grew into the sun and moon.

How her bones became hills.

How her breast became what's known today as Mount Everest.

But most marvelous of all her telling was how Kujum Chantu's own belly fat became the home ground for first humans to squat."

Let's see, we have a poem, step one.

We have stanzas, step two.

Similar details, we've got lots of imagery here.

How grew, how her eyes grew into the sun and the moon.

How her bones became hills, and then Mount Everest.

Oh my goodness, friends, can you close your eyes, and picture all of this beautiful imagery?

I hope so.

I'm thinking to myself, when is a detail introduced, and when does it change?

Well, we know that Coyote is still at the conference sitting in the front row, but I don't think he's changed, or something hasn't changed about that just yet.

Hmm.

When does one event cause another?

I'm thinking to myself right now that we're just still getting information from the goddesses, and what it is that they want to accomplish at this conference.

So I don't think one event has caused another.

Maybe we should keep thinking about that.

All right, let's finish.

"Although the conference day have been sunny, the next speaker wore fur boots, and fur coat with leather trimmings down to her knees.

She was, of course, from the land of the permafrost, where folk were used to the igloo for a home.

She introduced herself as earth goddess Ninam.

Forgive me, my friends, if I, Ninam, shed a tear, I grieve for the polar bear, my iceberg rider.

For the walrus, my tooth-walking sea horse.

When human doing destroys their feeding grounds, when their home sweet home ice is no more, I ask, can my beloved creatures survive for long?"

Ooh.

I'm thinking to myself, what do we already know about climate change in how it has affected the Great Lakes?

What do we already know about science in changes in the Earth?

Hmm.

I'm wondering if I can make some connections here.

My friends, as we read today, we went through our steps.

Step one, text.

This is a poem.

Step two, how is it organized?

Stanzas.

Remember, stanzas are groups of lines in a poem, where a paragraph is about one main idea with lots of sentences to support that idea.

Step three.

What kind of similar details did we have in our imagery?

Lots of beautiful pictures about the beginning of how the Earth was created from our different goddesses.

And now step four, what kind of connections can we make?

When was a detail introduced?

We're thinking about Coyote.

And when has it changed?

Well, he hasn't changed other than the fact that, well, one event, Coyote was told he couldn't go to the conference, because he's a boy.

So what did he do?

Mhm, he put on his wife's blue dress.

Oh my goodness.

That event caused another, didn't it, friends?

As you read, friends, remember that you can think about these reading steps also to make your reading easier to comprehend, and mean more to you.

(upbeat music) Writers, today, we're gonna take a look at an exemplar text.

An exemplar text is a text that is used to help students learn about author's craft.

As we go through it, we're going to be thinking about the topic sentence, important information, and details.

This is gonna help us when we write ours.

All right, friends, here we go.

Michigan has a big problem.

Drinking water with lead is making children sick.

This is very unhealthy, and needs to stop now.

This is a topic sentence, and the topic sentence is going to tell us everything that's happening in the text that you're reading.

So we've gone ahead and underlined it green.

Let's go to the next paragraph.

One reason is that doctors believe that lead is a neurotoxin.

This means it causes problems in the brain.

This can make it hard for kids to learn.

When kids drink the water, it poisons their brain.

You can see that there is a green underlined sentence.

That is the topic sentence.

Everything in that paragraph is all going to be about that doctors believe that lead is a neurotoxin.

Well, what's the evidence, and supporting details?

Well, yellow happens to be the important information.

This means it causes problems in the brain.

It can make it hard for kids to learn.

Well, that's important information.

We can't forget the details.

Let's look at the next sentence.

The color orange signifies the details.

When kids drink the water, it poisons their brain.

I need your help on the next paragraph.

I've gone ahead and underlined the topic sentence.

Another reason is that a few years ago, lead was found in Flint's drinking water.

Okay, now we need to underline what, yellow.

Yellow means, oh, the important information.

'Kay.

Here we go.

Many kids got sick, because they had been drinking the water for a long time.

Ooh, is that important information?

I think so.

All right, so let's go ahead and underline that.

Let's keep reading.

Some kids had skin issues, and even changes in their brain, making it hard for them to learn.

Is that, writers, important information or details?

I'm gonna say important information.

I bet this next one happens to be some more details.

Let's read it, and find out.

Furthermore, it's happening in Benton Harbor, and many cities in Michigan right now.

Absolutely, that one happens to be, uh huh, important details.

Writers, you can see that the bottom, or the last paragraph is done in pink.

This is our ending, or conclusion.

That means we're gonna wrap it up, and bring it back to our topic.

Michigan needs to check its water to make sure kids are not being hurt from their drinking water.

Don't forget, you might want to add a hook.

One child in one family is too many.

Friends, today, we've gone through this exemplar text.

Remember that when you're doing your writing, you can use some reading to help you be the best writer you can be.

Wow, scholars, you've done an amazing job.

You've worked so hard, reading lots of words with open syllables, reading poems, and thinking about stanzas.

You've also helped me with this exemplar text, and trying to see the patterns in how an author can write.

Now, remember, my friends, you can always do this while you're doing your own reading and writing at home.

(speaking in foreign language) We'll see you next time on Read, Write, Roar.

- [Narrator] This program is made possible in part by the Michigan Department of Education, the state of Michigan, and the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation.

Additional support by, and by viewers like you, thank you.

(upbeat music)