Beginning Reading:
"Uh, I dUnno"
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the short vowel correspondence u= /u/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations. In this lesson, children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling u. They will learn a meaningful representation (confused man saying uh, I don’t know?), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence u = /U/.
Materials:
Image of young child shrugging shoulders, imitating “I don’t know”
Cover up critters
Plastic letter manipulatives for each student
Letterboxes for students
Letterboxes drawn on whiteboard or on smart board for teacher
Magnetic or otherwise letters for teacher (a, e, i, o, u, c, p, l, m, p)
Fuzz and the Buzz (decodable book)
Dry-erase markers
words written on whiteboard for students to read: hug, crust, truck, just, stump, lunch
print out assessment
Procedures:
Say: In order to become an expert reader, we need to learn a secret code that will tells us how to pronounce words. Can anyone tell me how many vowels are in the alphabet? (let them answer) Yes, there are 5 vowels. We have gone through four of the vowels, a, e, i, and o. Can someone remind me what those vowels sound like? (let them give me the short vowel sounds for each). So for /e/, we know words with that sound like sled, /a/ we know words with that sound like crab, /i/ we know the words for that sound like icky sticky, and /o/ we know the words for that sound like blob. Great job remembering how to pronounce those vowels! Today we are going to learn the short u sound. When I say /u/ I want you to think of a boy named Sam and he says “I dunno know” when I ask him how many ants it takes to lift a person? (show picture of boy lifting his arms up in confusion).
Say: Before we learn what the spelling of /u/ looks like, we need to listen for it in some words. To make the sound /u/ my jaw drops a tiny bit and my mouth opens! [Make vocal gesture for /u/.] Look at my mouth when I say bump, like bumper cars!. (repeat b uuuu mp, bump) When I say “bump” I heard the /u/ sound and felt my jaw drop and my mouth open. That’s how I know there is a short-u in bump. Let’s listen to the word snail. When I hear snail, I don’t hear the /u/ sound and I don’t feel my jaw drop and my mouth open. That means the short u is not in the word snail. Now I want you to try it on your own. When you hear the /u/ sound I would like you to put your hands up and out to the side and shrug your shoulders like Sam in the picture. (show them how to do it). Is it in words cat, snug, lick, or plop?
Now let’s look at the spelling of /u/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /u/ is lets say we have the word crush, like I am going to crush this game! With the letter u and we know it makes the sound uh /u/, how would I spell the word crush in the sentence I am going to crush this game! Crush means do well/win in this sentence. To spell crush in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /c//r//u//sh/. I need 4 boxes. I heard that /u/ just before the /r/ so I’m going to put u in the 3rd box. The word starts with /c/, that’s easy; I need a c. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /c//r//u//sh/. I think I heard /r/ so I’ll put a r right after the c. I have one more box after the u. I think I heard someone say be quiet “sh” /sh/ so I need the sh for the “sh” sound. These two letters go together because they make one sound, “sh.”
Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. [pass out letter boxes] You’ll start out easy with three boxes for cup. Like, “I drink water out of a cup.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? How about the third? I will walk around and see how you did. [Observe progress.] For the next word, you are going to need four letterboxes. Listen for the beginning sound and put it in the first box. Then, listen for /u/. Here’s the word: jump. “I jump on the trampoline.” jump. [Allow students to spell the remaining words: hug, crust, truck, just, stump, lunch. Have a volunteer student come up to the board and spell the word so the other students can check their work.]
Now I will show you how I would read the tough word. (Display poster with scrunch on the top and model reading the word). If I didn’t know how to read it before I might have thought U said /U/. So I would have said /s//c//r//U//n//ch/. Now that I know the U says /u/ I know how to properly say it! I’m going to start with the u letter tile; remember that U says /u/. I’m going to use a cover-up critter to get the last part of the word. Now I’m going to put the beginning letters with it: s-c-r-u-n, /scrun/. Now I’ll put that chunk together with the last sound, /scrun-ch/. Oh, scrunch as in “I scrunch my nose when it itches.” [Have students read words in all together. Afterward, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn].
“You all have done a great job listening, spelling, and reading with the sound /u/. Now we’re going to read an awesome book called Fuzz and the Buzz! This book is about a bear cub named Fuzz. Fuzz loves his home but he loves the sun more, so he runs away from home. He runs so far that he gets lost and bumps into a beehive. When he tries to run from the bees can’t find his way back. Do you think the bees will catch up and sting him? Do you think he will ever find his way home? Let’s see what happens to Fuzz.” [Have students get in groups of two and read the book out loud, each child switching reading pages, during this walks around the room and supervise progress as well as providing scaffolding if necessary. After everyone is finished, the class will reread the story out loud and in between pages to talk about what is happening.]
Say: That was a fun story. I am glad Fuzz got home safe! That would have hurt!. Before we finish up with our lesson, we are going to work on a worksheet. Color the words that have short u /u/ in the picture blue. Color any words that do not have the short u /u/ red. When you are all done coloring there will be a picture that appears. Write what the picture is on the line below. I am asking you to work on this on your own and then when you’re finished come to bring me your worksheet so I can look it over. [Check each worksheet for accuracy and give further instruction as needed, identify students who are struggling and may need extra practice].
Resources:
Miss Lindsey’s Reading Lessons “Questioning with Cara: Uh, I dont know!” by Lindsey Hogan
https://lch0027.wixsite.com/readingiscool/beginning-reading
Adapted from Rachel Conley’s Grunt Like a Caveman, Uh, Uh, Uh!
http://rjc0017.wixsite.com/mysite/beginning-reading
Adapted from Ansley Christensen: “The Crying Baby Goes, Aaaaaaaa”
http://ansleychristensen.wixsite.com/lesson-designs/beginning-reading-design
Fuzz and the Buzz. Educational Insights, 1990. Phonics Readers, Short U Book 9.
http://www.amazon.com/Fuzz-Buzz-Phonics-Readers-Vowels/dp/0886798590
Murray, G. (2004) Jakes joke. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html