Vowels
R-controlled vowels
When r follows a vowel it changes the vowel's sound entirely: ar in “car”, or in “for”, and er, ir and ur all saying the same sound in “her”, “bird” and “turn”. These are neither long nor short, which is why readers who have only met those two categories get stuck here.
The hard part is spelling rather than reading: er, ir and ur usually sound identical, so which one a word takes has to be learned word by word. Sometimes called bossy r.
Patterns and example words
Every word below is from the word list Cody generates from, not a hand-picked sample. The count is how many words in that list carry the pattern.
ar
5,558 wordsare part parted parting parts start started starting
er
17,456 wordswere her hers other others newer over overs
ir
733 wordsfirst girl girls firm firmed firmer firmest firming
or
6,175 wordsfor or report reported reporting reports important information
ur
2,314 wordsturn turned turning turns return returned returning returns
1 syllable r-control
1,274 wordsfor her hers or work worked works first
Curricula that teach this
Cody generates material against the scope and sequence you already teach. This skill appears in Cody Curriculum, Custom Pattern Selection, UFLI Inspired, Wilson Reading System.
Common questions
Why do er, ir and ur sound the same?
Because in most English words they are the same sound. Which spelling a word uses is a matter of that word's history, so it is learned by word rather than by rule.
Make a decodable story for this skill
Cody generates stories, word lists and worksheets constrained to the patterns a student has already been taught, so practice on r-controlled vowels does not smuggle in something they have not met yet.