BR Lesson Design

Beginning Reading Design

Rationale: This lesson focuses on the short vowel correspondence u=/u/. For reading fluency, children must have an awareness of and be able to recognize spellings that map word pronunciations. The goal of this lesson is that children will be able to identify, spell, and read words containing the short u vowel. This lesson will teach a meaningful representation
(confused cave man saying ‘uhh?’), spelling and reading of words containing short vowel u in a letterbox lesson, and reading a decodable word focusing on correspondence u=/u/.

Materials: graphic image of confused caveman; cover-up critter; smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling; letter manipulatives for smartboard: b, d, e, g, h, k, l(2), m, p, r, s, t, u; individual Elkonin letterboxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each student: b, d, e, g, h, k, l(2), m, p, r, s, t, u; poster with word truck; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: up, us, Bud, rack, rosh, dip, tug, sup, but, push, lump, skull, dolls; copies of decodable book Bud in the Sub for half of class, individual copies of assessment worksheet

Procedures:

Introduction- “If we want to be able to read like experts we need to learn the code that helps us pronounce our words! We have been learning to read our short vowels like a says /a/ and e says /e/. Today we are going to work on the short u that says /u/ like a confused man when he says ‘uhh’. *show graphic image* When I think of this sound, I think of this little caveman scratching his head in confusion. Let’s look at a word that has this u in it. *Display sentence: The girl sips milk from the mug. Point to word mug* When you have just a single u in a word, it makes the /u/ sound. *Have students read the sentence and use the clues and familiar correspondences to read mug”
“Before we look at anymore spellings with this letter, we are going to listen for it. When I listen for the /u/ sound, I hear u say its name, /u/, and I know I can make the sound too. My lips push out forward, but do not touch each other, like this. *model lip shape* My tongue falls to the bottom and rests there during the /u/ sound. This sound is just like the one that our confused caveman is making when he scratches his head. *scratch head like cave man and say /u/ again* I hear this short u in words like ‘tug’ and ‘push’. *exaggerate uhhhh in these* Do I hear it in words like ‘huge’? *exaggerate the /U/ sound* hmm, no I don’t! This is a different sound. Now, class, you are going to shape your lips like mine and make the caveman sound and scratch your head. Say it with me, uhhh. I am going to say some words now; if you hear the /u/ sound, scratch your head like the cave man! Tug, bump, mouse, human, push, tin. *exaggerate vowels in these words*”
“Now we can practice spelling some words! I want to spell the word skull because it is getting close to Halloween and we are seeing a lot of them! The head of a skeleton is a skull. To spell this word in our letterboxes, I need to see how many boxes I will use. Each box is for one phoneme, which is one sound. Remember, if two letters make the same sound, they can share a letter box! How many boxes for skull? I am going to stretch it and count: /s//k//u//l/. I need 4 boxes. I hear my sound, /u/, right before my last sound; I start with the /u/ so I will place it right before the last sound /l/ which is this third letterbox. Next, I finish the first part of my word. I know it starts with the /s/ sound, so I will place my s in the first box! Next, I hear /k/ so I am going to put my k in the second box. We have /s//k//u/ which is the body of our word. The last sound I hear is /l/. In this word, the /l/ sound is made by two l’s. It is still only one sound, so both l’s will share the last letter box. We spelled skull! Now let’s work on reading a tough word! *Display poster with truck* I’m going to start with my /u/ sound that I know comes from this letter u. Now, we look at the beginning letters. These letters say /t//r/. We can put these letters together to make /t//r//u/. Now let’s put this chunk with the last sound. We know that when c is next to k, they work together to make the /k/ sound. *sound out full word* Oh, this word says truck! Our trash gets taken away by a garbage truck!”
“Now, each of you gets to spell your own words in some letter boxes! *have them get their individual letters and boxes out* First, you will start with two boxes to spell the word up. Up is direction, like the way that balloons go if you let them free. Spell this word and I will come around and check. *observe progress* Now try us. Follow us as we lead. *observe* Now, add one more box because the next words will have three phonemes. *present following list for them to spell and use each in a sentence* Bud, sub, tug, sup, but, push. *observe* Now add one more box, because our next word has 4 sounds. Spell lump. I made my bed, but there was a lump under my covers. *observe*”
“Next, you will read the words you just spelled, some review words, and even some words that are not real. Read them together as I point to them on this list. *Present list with up, us, Bud, rack, rosh, dip, tug, sup, but, push, lump, skull, dolls and point to them as class reads in unison; call on individuals after to read, also*”
“You all have done an excellent job spelling and reading today. It is time to read a book now! We are going to read the story Bud the Sub. *distribute copies to desks* Have you ever seen a submarine? A submarine is like a boat but it can go underwater! A shorter way of saying submarine is just sub. This story has a sub and a boss that captains the sub! His name is Gus. He takes his sub into the water, but there is another type of boat out! It’s a tug boat. The tug boat crashes into an ice burg! What happens next? Do you think the sub can come to the rescue? Do you think the boss is okay? We will have to read this story to find out! Find a partner to read with! You will go back and forth each reading one page at a time. I may come around and listen to your reading, but do not stop reading with your partner! When you finish, close your book and set it on your desk. We will read the story all together at the end. *display version of decodable book on smartboard and have class read aloud in unison, but stopping after pages to discuss content*”
“You have listened for the sound of the letter u, spelled words with /u/, and read words with /u/! Now we are going to finish with with a worksheet. You will read the words on the right hand side of the page, and draw lines matching each word to the picture showing that word! *pass out worksheets* Get out your pencils and match the words to the pictures. They all have the /u/ sound in them. *collect worksheets and evaluate each student’s understanding and progress*”