Syllables can be counted by tapping or clapping them out. Alternatively if you lean your elbow on your desk and put your palm on your jaw when you say a word aloud your jaw will move with each new syllable. Students should be taught a variety of ways of identifying syllables as what works for one doesn't necessarily work for another. It also helps to tell them that there is a vowel of a letter 'y' acting as a vowel in each new syllable. This rule has the effect of a self checking mechanism.
It may be useful to do this as a snowball exercise giving students an opportunity to work on their own, then in pairs to compare and add to what they've identified and then in groups of four before feeding back to the whole class.
Most sonnets are composed of ten syllable lines with five stress points.
Discuss how the syllable pattern lays stress on particular sounds. What impact does this have on the meaning of particular words, emphasis, pace and rhythm (punctuation plays its role with this)?
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