Rationale: In this lesson, I will teach children about the short vowel correspondence u=/u/. For children to be able to read, they must be able to recognize spellings that map word pronunciations. In this lesson, children will learn to spell, recognize, and read words that contain the short vowel u. They will learn a meaningful representation (Oscar the Grouch under an umbrella). Students will read and spell words in a Letter Box Lesson as well as read a decodable book which emphasizes words with the correspondence u=/u/.

 

Materials: Image of Oscar the Groch under an umbrella; cover-up critter; whiteboard/smartboard; Elkonin boxes for modeling and Elkonin boxes for each individual student; letter manipulatives for each student; magnetic letters or smartboard for teacher: b, u, g, h, m, j, p, t, r, c, k, s, l ; list of spelling words on flashcards for student to read: bug, hum, junk, plus, jump, truck, dog, strut, brunch; decodable book: Bud and Sub; assessment worksheets for each student.

 

Procedures:

1. *say* To become a reading expert, we need to learn how to read the “code” which tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read words with short vowels such as a, e, i, and o. Today we are going to learn about the short vowel u and the sound it makes /u/. When I say /u/, I think of being under an umbrella. {Show image of Oscar the Grouch under an umbrella}

2. *say* I want to introduce this next step with a tongue tickler. Uncle Ugo and I were going to the grocery store. Out of nowhere, it began to rain. Uncle Ugo’s umbrella was being finicky. Uncle Ugo was upset because he was unable to put his umbrella up. Repeat the tongue tickler with me, “Uncle Ugo was upset because he was unable to put his umbrella up”. {Ugo is pronounced uh-go}Now, before we learn about the spelling of /u/, we need to listen for it in spoken words. When I say /u/, my lips open, my tongue rests at the bottom of my mouth, and I make the “uuuhhh” noise in the back of my throat. {make vocal gestures for /u/}I will show you how to identify /u/: mud. I heard u say /u/ and my lips open, my tongue rests at the bottom of my mouth, and I make the “uuuhhh” noise in the back of my throat. There is a short u in mud. Now let's see if /u/ is in feet. Hmm, I did not hear /u/ in feet, I did not feel my lips open wide or hear my throat make the /u/ sound. If you hear /u/ say, “uuumbrella!” If you do not hear /u/ say, “Nope!” Is /u/ in cup, boat, but, cake, fan, hug? {Have students hold their arm up like they are holding an umbrella and say “uuumbrella!” when you say a word with /u/}

3. *say*  Now let's look at the spelling of /u/. One way to spell /u/ is with the letter u {demonstrate writing u on board}. I want to spell the word brunch. “I love going to get brunch on Sundays”. Brunch is a meal between breakfast and lunch. To spell brunch in letterboxes, I need to count how many phonemes are in the word, so I will stretch it out and count: /b//r//u//n//ch/. I need 5 boxes. I hear umbrella /u/ just before the /n/ sound so I am going to put a u in the third box. The word starts with /b/, that is easy; I need a b. Now it gets a little tricky so I am going to say it slowly, /b//r//u//n//ch/. I think I hear /r/ so I will put an r right after the b. Now I think I heard /n/ so I know I need an n after the /u/. I have one empty box now. {Point to the letters in the boxes as I stretch out the word: /b//r//u//n//ch/} The missing letters in the last letterbox is /ch/=ch/. We have spelled brunch!

 

                                                                                   B    R    U    N    CH

 

 

   4. *say* Now I am going to have you spell some words with letterboxes. We are going to start out easy with a simple word needing only 3 boxes, bug. “A bug landed in my hair at the soccer game”. Try spelling “bug” on your own as I walk around the room {observe progress}. Now spell hug like the action. “I love to hug my mom”. {Again observe student progress} Now add on more box because the next word has 4 phonemes. The word is junk. “My mom does not let me eat junk food before bed”. {Allow time for students to spell the word on their own} u-n-k and see if you have spelled it the same way. Let's try another word with 4 boxes: plus, “I get paid $8 an hour, plus overtime”. {Have a student volunteer to spell the word for the whole class and allow students 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: pet; “Today is bring your pet to work day”. Did you hear umbrella /u/ in pet? We spell “pet” with the short vowel e. {Student volunteer spells the word on the board} Now let's try a 5 phoneme word: strut; “the models strut down the runway”. {Observe student progress}Alright, let's check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: j-

 

5.*say* Now I am going to let you read the words you have spelled, but first I will show you how I read tough words. {Display word “pluck” on the whiteboard and model reading it}First, I see there is plu/. Now all I need is the end, /ck/ = /pluck/. Pluck; that is it! Not it is your turn, everyone together now! {Have students read words together. Afterward, call on individual students to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn}.a u; that is my signal that the vowel will say umbrella /u/. There is the vowel u! It must say /u/. I am going to use a cover-up critter to decode the first part. {uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel} /p//l/=pl. Now I am going to blend that with /u/ = /

 

6. *say* You all have done a fantastic job reading and spelling words with u=/u/. Now we are going to read a book called Bud and Sub. A submarine is like a boat that can go underwater, and we shorten the word to call it a sub. In this story, there is a sub named Bud and his captain named Gus. One day, Gus takes Bud the sub into the water. They see a tug boat sailing by, and the tug boat crashes into an iceberg! What do you think will happen to Bud the sub and Gus? Do you think the tug boat is okay? We will have to read to find out! {Students will partner up and take turns reading Bud and Sud one page at a time. I will walk around the classroom to monitor the students. After partner reading, the class will read Bud and Sub aloud together and stop between pages to discuss the story}.

 

7.*say* What a fun story! What was your favorite part? Before we finish today’s lesson of short u, we are going to complete a worksheet. Each word on the right side of the page is a picture on the left side of the page. Your job is to find the word with u=/u/ that matches the picture and draw a line to connect that picture with the correct word. {Allow time for students to complete the worksheet. Collect the worksheets and evaluate each student’s understanding}.