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UHH, I DON'T KNOW... 

 

BEGINNING READING DESIGN 

BY: MAKENZIE JONES

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Rationale: This lesson is designed to teach children about the short vowel correspondence u = /u/. To read this vowel, children must learn to recognize the spelling that map the word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn how to recognize, spell, and read words that have the vowel u = /u/.  They will learn the sound analogy Uhh, I don’t know, learn to spell and read words with the vowel u = /u/ in a letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that strongly focuses on u = /u/.

 

Materials:

 

Procedures:

  1. Say: To become an expert or skilled reader, we must learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. Today, we are going to learn about the short vowel u which is spelled with the letter u. When I say /u/, I want you to think of a confused caveman scratching his head and saying uhh I don’t know. (Show sound analogy picture)

  2. Say: Before we start spelling and reading words with the vowel u, lets listen to see if we can hear /u/ in some words. When I listen for /u/ in certain words the /u/ says “uhh.” When I say “uhh,” my mouth opens and my tongue stays on the bottom of my mouth and I push air out which makes the “uh” sound (make vocal gesture for /u/). Now listen to me say “duck.” In the word “duck” I heard the /u/ say “uhh” and felt my mouth open, so that means there is a short vowel /u/ in duck. Now I am going to see if the /u/ is in the word swan. I did not hear the /u/ say “uhh” in the word swan, and neither did my mouth open the same way as it did when I said the /u/ in duck, therefore there is no short vowel /u/ in swan. Now it is your turn! First I am going to say a sentence and I want you to repeat it back to me (“Uncle was upset because he was unable to put his umbrella up) then I am going to say some words: mud, car, bump, sum, care. If you hear the /u/ in the word say “uhh yes I hear it!” If you do not hear the /u/ say “uhh I don’t hear it.”

  3. Say: Now let’s learn how to spell words with the letter /u/. First, we need to know how to write the letter “u.” (Model on white board how to write the letter u.) We spell /u/ with the letter “u” and it is surrounded by other letters. For instance, lets spell the word: luck. “Wish me luck before my test!” To spell the word “luck” we must break it down to see how many phonemes are in the word “luck,” so we can put them into letterboxes. So, let’s stretch the word out and count how many phonemes are in luck. /l//u//ck/, I need three letterboxes. I heard the “uhh” sound after the /l/ and before the /ck/, so the “u” will go into the second letterbox, the /l/ will go in the first, and the /ck/ will go into the last letterbox. The word begins with a leaping /l/, so I need an “l,” then I heard our confused caveman saying “uhh,” and then I heard our /ck/ sound. Let’s see if we spelled it right, say the word slowly: /l//u//ck/. Uhh, that sounds right to me!

  4. Say: Now it is your turn to spell some words in the letterboxes. Let’s get your letterboxes and letters out. We will start off using only two letter boxes. Now I want you to spell the word up. “The man ran up the hill.” “Up is opposite of down.” What do you think should go in the first box? And what should go in the second box? (I will respond based off the children’s response and check each student’s spelling) For the next word we will now need three letterboxes and make sure you listen for the “uhh” sound. I want you to spell the word sun. “The sun shines.” “The sun is strong at the beach.” (allow students to spell then I will model how to spell “sun” in letterboxes on the board, the check the students spelling.) Let’s try another word using three letter boxes. I want you to spell the word yuck. “Yuck a fly flew into my soup!” (After students have spelled the word allow a student to come up to the board to demonstrate how to spell yuck.) For the next word, listen very closely to see if you hear the “uhh” sound in this word. I want you to spell hop. “I will hop on one foot.” Did you hear the /u/ or uhh sound? Uhh I sure didn’t, I heard the short vowel /o/ that makes the “ahh” sound. Now for the next word we will use four letter boxes, because this word has four phonemes. I want you to spell the word club. “Sarah is in an all-girls club.” Did you remember to put your bouncing basketball /b/ in the last letterbox? Now for the last word we will need five letter boxes and I want you to spell hunts. “My dad hunts in the woods.” Remember to listen for your confused caveman saying “uhh” in this word.

  5. Say: Now I will have you read the words you have spelled, but I will show you how to read a word first. (Write the word yuck on the board.) Looking at this word I see the letter /u/ and no silent /e/ at the end, so that means this /u/ says “uhh.” Now I will bring out my cover-up critter, so we can read the first part of the word. (Cover up the /ck/, so only the /y/ and /u/ are showing.) Now I will sound out the /y/ and /u/ and blend the pronunciations together saying /y-uhh/. Now I will blend the /ck/ after the u which makes a /k/ sound, like karate kicking. Yuck! We have read the word which says yuck. Now I want you to read the words I have written on the board together as a class: up, sun, yuck, hop, club, hunts, drum, sob, nuck.

  6. Say: Now that we have learned to spell and read words with the short vowel /u/, let’s read a book! We are going to read the story “Fun Gum,” and while we read I want you to listen for our caveman saying uhh throughout the story. This story is about a little girl named Jill. Jill thinks gum is very fun until she gets it stuck in her hair. YUCK!!! Jill must get her mom for help, so let’s read this story to find out what happens to Jill after she calls her mom for help. (Each child will read this book out loud individually, so I can mark miscues. Then I will read the book out loud and talk about the plot and pictures as I turn the pages.) After we read I will ask: Did you guys like that story? What was the little girl’s name in this story? Correct, her name was Jill. What did Jill like and think was fun in the beginning of the story? Yes, she loved gum and thought it was fun. What did Jill do when she got the gum stuck in her hair? Yes, she called her mom. And how did Jill’s mom get the gum out of Jill’s hair? Correct, mom had to cut it out. And gum became no fun after that.

  7. Say: To finish up this lesson I am going to have you complete a worksheet about the short vowel /u/. To complete this worksheet, listen to the directions carefully. I want you to read each sentence. Then I want you to highlight each word in the sentence that has the short vowel /u/ in it. Listen closely has you read to hear the uhh sound. For example, I will read the sentence I have a red mug. I heard the uhh sound in mug, so I will highlight the word mug. (I will provide help to students who need it and collect each worksheet to score each student’s progress.)

 

References:

 

Worksheet: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Decodable book:

Hall, Kristen. Fun Gum: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/home/geniebooks/teacherbooks/

Phonics Lesson: Lexie Motes: https://lmotes0053.wixsite.com/mysite/beginning-reading

Auburn University Reading Genie: Bruce Murray: http://wp.auburn.edu/rdggenie/

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