Bossy R Syllable Type

What I call Bossy R is often referred to as the R controlled syllable type.  However, for the students I work with, Bossy R is much easier to connect to.  They understand that someone who is bossy often follows someone else to make the other person do what "Bossy" wants.  To introduce this syllable type a friend of mine has one student wear a vest with a vowel and another student wear a vest with the consonant r.  The consonant r's job is to follow the vowel wherever it goes and make the "r controlled" sound. This is quite fun for the little ones who all volunteer to be either the consonant r or the vowel!

The bossy r syllable is made up of  a vowel followed by an r.  (ar, or, er, ir, ur)  It is important for teachers to directly teach the order of vowel followed by an r when teaching the bossy r syllable type because vowel position is the trickiest part for many students.  As a matter of fact, when you begin to teach this syllable type, many students will think that any word with a consonant r is a bossy r syllable. Let's consider the words BARN and BRAN.  The first is a bossy r syllable and the second is a closed syllable.  That is an important distinction because we pronounce the vowels differently in these two syllable types.  Therefore, it is important to spend time helping students to accurately and quickly differentiate between the two.  I often give students the cue of "Find the vowel.  Does the r follow the vowel?" When we provide this cue over and over at the beginning of instruction, we are actually teaching the kids what they should be thinking when they come across a word they must decode with an r in it.

As with the other syllable types, I assign a hand gesture to the bossy r syllable.  This gesture is the American Sign Language (ASL) sign for the letter R.  To make this gesture, I have kids hold up their magic e gesture and cross their fingers.