R-controlled and variant vowel activities
By the IEP Atlas editorial teamLast updated
Short answer
R-controlled vowel activities teach that a vowel followed by r makes a new sound: ar in car, or in fork, and er, ir and ur in her, bird and fur. Teach ar and or first, then the three spellings of /er/ together. Variant vowels such as oo, au, aw, oi and ou come next. Read, sort and spell each pattern, and probe unpracticed words weekly.
When r follows a vowel, the vowel no longer says its short or long sound. The r changes it: cat becomes cart, fog becomes fork. Many programs call this "bossy r." Students who read "cat" plus an /r/, or who drop the r entirely ("fom" for farm), have not yet learned the vowel and r as one unit.
Variant vowels are the other patterns at this stage: oo (moon, book), au and aw (haul, saw), and the diphthongs oi, oy, ou and ow (coin, boy, out, cow). They follow the same teaching plan. For where this stage falls in the sequence, see the phonics interventions pillar guide.
Word lists by pattern
| Pattern | Sound | Keyword | Practice words |
|---|---|---|---|
| ar | /ar/ | car | farm, star, park, sharp, card, start |
| or | /or/ | fork | horn, sport, storm, short, corn, north |
| er | /er/ | her | fern, term, herd, verb, perch |
| ir | /er/ | bird | girl, dirt, first, shirt, stir, third |
| ur | /er/ | fur | turn, burn, curl, hurt, church, surf |
| oo | /oo/ as in moon, or /oo/ as in book | moon, book | soon, pool, room; look, foot, good |
| au, aw | /aw/ | saw | haul, launch, paw, draw, lawn, yawn |
| oi, oy | /oi/ | coin | soil, point, join; boy, toy, enjoy |
| ou, ow | /ow/ | out | loud, mouth, found; cow, town, crowd |
Teach ar and or first; each has one common spelling. Then teach er, ir and ur together, since they make the same sound. For reading, that is easy: all three say /er/. For spelling, it is hard, because the student must remember which one a word uses.
Add vowel-r patterns with a final e or a vowel team later: air, are, ear and ore (hair, care, bear, more). The vowel-r patterns template covers them.
Step-by-step: teaching r-controlled vowels
Step 1: Show the change
Write "cat." Add an r after the a: "cart." Read both. Do 6 pairs: had/hard, cot/cord, fog/fork, pat/part, shot/short, cap/carp. The student says what changed.
Step 2: Teach the vowel and r as one unit
In sound boxes, the vowel and r share one box. "Farm" has three boxes: f, ar, m. The student taps three sounds.
Step 3: Read mixed lines
Mix short vowels, silent e and the new pattern: car, cap, cape, card, star, stare, for, fort, fore. The student must look at the letters after the vowel each time.
Step 4: Teach the /er/ spellings together
Read er, ir and ur words in one list. Then sort them by spelling. Give a tip for spelling: er is the most common spelling at the end of words (teacher, faster, after). ir and ur must be learned word by word.
Step 5: Move to two-syllable words
R-controlled syllables show up in long words constantly: garden, number, corner, perfect, market. The r-controlled syllables in long words template builds a goal on this.
Five activities
- Change the vowel. With tiles: farm, form, firm. bark, bird, burn. Read each.
- R or no r. Read pairs: cot/cart, hum/hurt, fist/first. The student points to the r and says whether the vowel changed.
- /er/ spelling sort. 15 cards with er, ir and ur words. Read them, sort them, then cover them and spell 5 from memory.
- Variant vowel flex. Read oo words in sentences: "Look at the moon." "The book is in my room." If a word sounds wrong, try the other oo sound.
- Passage mark-up. Read a decodable passage. Box every r-controlled vowel. Circle every oi, oy, ou or ow.
How to correct errors
- Short vowel plus r ("cat-r" for cart): Point to ar. "Vowel and r together. ar says /ar/." Blend "cart" and reread.
- Dropped r ("fom" for farm): Tap the sounds together. "Three sounds: /f/ /ar/ /m/."
- Wrong /er/ spelling ("burd" for bird): Accept that the sound is right. "That's a good try for /er/. This word uses ir." Add the word to a personal spelling list.
- Wrong oo sound ("bewk" for book): "Try the other sound for oo."
Worked example: one 3rd grader over 6 weeks
Priya is a fictional 3rd grader with a reading IEP. She reads silent e words at 19 of 20 and vowel teams at 16 of 20. On three probes of 20 r-controlled words (ar, or, er, ir, ur), she scores 5, 7 and 6. Her baseline is 6 of 20. She reads most as short vowels and drops the r.
Her goal: given 20 unpracticed words with ar, or, er, ir and ur, Priya will read 18 of 20 correctly, up from 6 of 20, on 3 consecutive weekly probes. It follows the r-controlled vowels template.
| Week | R-controlled words correct of 20 | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline | 6 | |
| 1 | 9 | ar, pairs like cat and cart |
| 2 | 12 | or added |
| 3 | 13 | er, ir, ur together |
| 4 | 15 | Mixed lines |
| 5 | 17 | Two-syllable words added |
| 6 | 18 |
Reading rose quickly. Spelling did not: on a 10-word dictation of /er/ words in week 6, she spelled 5 of 10 correctly, choosing er for most of them. That gap is expected, and her spelling goal tracks it separately. These numbers are illustrations, not norms. A short probe each week is what makes the reading trend clear.[1]
Common mistakes
- Weak: Teaching ar, or, er, ir and ur all on one day. Better: ar first, then or, then the three /er/ spellings together.
- Weak: Treating the r as a separate sound in sound boxes. Better: Put the vowel and r in one box.
- Weak: Marking "burd" as a reading problem. Better: It is a spelling-choice problem. Track it in spelling, not decoding.
- Weak: Practicing only one-syllable words. Better: Add two-syllable words early, since r-controlled syllables are common in long words.
- Weak: Skipping variant vowels because "they're rare." Better: oo, ou, ow and aw appear in many common words. Teach them right after r-controlled vowels.
Templates and tools
See the phonics decoding goals page for 80 templates, including bossy-r words in an unpracticed passage and diphthongs and other vowel teams. Use the accuracy data sheet for weekly probes. More goal wording is in phonics IEP goal examples; check drafts in the goal checker. Related stages: vowel team activities and silent e activities. For the spelling side, see spelling interventions.
Frequently asked questions
What order should r-controlled vowels be taught in?
Most sequences teach ar first, then or, then er, ir and ur together because they share one sound. Vowel-r patterns like air, are, ear and ore come later, after vowel teams.
How do students know whether to spell er, ir or ur?
Mostly by memory. er is the most common spelling at the end of words, as in teacher and after. For ir and ur, students need practice with word families and a personal spelling list. Reading these words is much easier than spelling them.
Are r-controlled vowels the same as vowel teams?
No. In an r-controlled vowel, a single vowel is changed by the r that follows it, as in car. A vowel team is two or more vowel letters that spell one sound, as in rain. Some patterns, like ear and air, combine both.
Use it in IEP Atlas
- r-controlled vowels goal template
- Vowel-r patterns air, are, ear and ore goal template
- Phonics decoding goals (reading)
- Syllable types in the IEP glossary
- Accuracy data sheet
- IEP goal checker
Related guides
- Phonics interventions for struggling readers
- Vowel team activities and IEP goals
- Digraph activities and IEP goals
- Silent e (CVCe) activities and IEP goals
- Multisyllabic word strategies and IEP goals
Sources
- Progress Monitoring: Data & Goal Setting, National Center on Intensive Intervention
- Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade, What Works Clearinghouse, Institute of Education Sciences
Written and checked by the IEP Atlas editorial team under our editorial policy. This guide describes general practice and federal rules. It is not legal advice; your state may add requirements, and the IEP team makes the decisions for each student.