Uhhhh, I am confused!
Beginning Reading Design
​
CTRD 3000
Rationale: This lesson will teach children about the short vowel correspondence u = /u/. Children must learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations to be able to read. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling u = /u/. They will learn a meaningful representation (uhhhh, I am confused), 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: Graphic clipart image of a confused man; cover-up critter; whiteboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: u, p, n, l. c, k, a, j, m, t, r, s, o, g; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: up, sum, luck, fan, jump, truck, struck, cat (familiar), dog (familiar); decodable book: Bud the Sub; assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
1.Say in order to become expert reader, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We going to learn today about the short vowel /u/ that is spelled with the letter u. When I say /u/ I think of a funny confused man saying “Uhhhh, I am confused!” [show clipart graphic image].
2.Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /u/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /u/ in words, I hear u say “uhhhh” and my mouth opens with my tongue near the bottom of my mouth, and I push air out with an uh sound. [Make vocal gestures for /u/]. I will show you first: pup. I heard u say uh and felt my mouth open [open mouth in a circle shape]. There is a short u in pup. Now I am going to see if it’s in fan. Hmm, I did not hear u say uh and my mouth did not open to make the uh sound. Now I want you to try. If you hear /u/ say, “uhhhh, I am confused!”. If you do not hear /u/ say, “hmm that’s not right!”. Is /u/ in dinner, supper, cup, frog, bat? [Have children put their tongue in the top of their mouths to feel how their mouth is open when saying /u/.]
3. Now let’s look at the spelling of /u/ that we will learn today. One way to spell /u/ is with the letter u and it can be surrounded by either vowels or consonants. [Write the letter u on the board.] What if I want to spell the word sun? “I love to feel the sun on my skin.” Sun is a noun in this sentence. To spell sun in letterboxes, first we need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /s/ /u/ /n/. I need three 3 boxes. I heard /u/ before the /n/ so I am going to put a u letter in the second box and the n letter in the third box. The word starts with /s/, that is easy; I need a s. So I will put the s letter in the first box. Let’s make sure we spelled it right. Let’s say it slowly: /s/ /u/ /n/ [Point to the letters in boxes when stretching out the word] That is right! Sun!
​
​
​
​
4. Say: Now I am going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You will start out easy with two boxes for the word up. Up is the opposite word of down. The word up like, “The airplane went up in the sky”. What should go in the box first? [ Response to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? I will check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress]. For the next word, you will need three letterboxes. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box. The listen for /u/ sound. Our next word is sum. Sum, I found the sum of the math problem; sum. [Allow children to spell words]. Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: s - u - m. Check your work to see if you spelled sum the same way. Let’s try another word with three letterboxes: luck, It is pure luck I won the giveaway; luck. [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /u/ in it before you spell it: dog, the dog loves to go on walks, dog. Did you hear /u/? No you do not, we did not hear /u/ in dog. We heard short vowel /o/ in dog that we learned last week. We spell dog with short vowel /o/ , not using uhhh u = /u/. Now let’s try 4 phonemes: truck; the truck is so big compared to my car; truck. Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck? Now we are going to do one more word with spelling, and for this word you need five boxes: struck; the lightning struck the tree; struck. Remember to stretch out /u/ to get this tough word.
5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you have spelled, but first I will show you how I would read a tough word. [Display a poster with struck on the top and model reading the word.] First, I see that there is no silent e on the end making the long U sound; that is signal that the vowel will say its name. The word struck is the short vowel u and it is surrounded by consonants, so it must say /u/. First I am going to use the cover-up critter to figure out the first part of the word. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, them blend with the vowel.] /s//t/= /st/ + /r/ = /str/. Now I am going to blend that with /u/ = /stru/. Now all I need is end, /k/ = /struck/. Struck; that is right! Now it is your turn, everyone together. [Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individual students to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]
6. Say: You have done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /u/. Now we are going to read a story called Bud the Sub. This story is about a submarine named Bud and the captain of the submarine named Gus. Bud the sub hits a tug in the water and Gus and Bud find something. What do you think will happen? Let’s pair up and take turns reading Bud the Sub to find found what will happen to Bud and Gus. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads Bud the Sub aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]
7. Say: That was such a good story! What happened when Bud hit the tug in the water? Right, they saw another boat with a man and a pup. Could Bud lug the boat across the water? Right, Bud lugged the boat across the water and saved the man and pup. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell u = /u/, I want to see to work on a worksheet that will help you practice short vowel u. You will connect the right u sound to the picture, and you will fill in the missing letter for words. Reread your answers to make sure they make sense before I collect them at the end of class. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
Resources:
Assessment worksheet: https://www.greatschools.org/gk/worksheets/vowel-sounds-u-2/
Lexie Motes, Uhh, what did you say? https://lmotes0053.wixsite.com/mysite/beginning-reading
Murray, G. (2004) Jakes joke. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
​
s
u
n
