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Beginning Reading Design
Uhhh Whats Up?
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Rationale: This lesson teaches children the short vowel correspondence u= /u/. In order to read, children must learn to recognize spellings that map out word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the letter u. They will learn a meaningful representation by saying “Uhhh, What’s Up?” to emphasize the /u/ sound, 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:
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Picture of a girl/boy shrugging their shoulders emphasizing “/u/”
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Cover-up critter
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Whiteboard for modeling and individual use
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Letter tiles for each child
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Letterbox sets for each child
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Magnetic letters for teacher: r, u, n, l, m, p, h, i, a
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List of spelling words on poster to read: hit, trunk, put, sat, tub, shut, trush
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Decodable text: A Bump in the mud
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Assessment worksheet
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Procedures:
1. Say: “To become a great reader, we must learn the secret code that tells us how to form and pronounce words. Who in here likes figuring out codes that help us figure out how to do learn newz things? I know I do! Today we are going to learn about short U. When I say /u/ I think of being confused and scratching my head because I am not sure of an answer. When that happens we say “/u/” but we drag out the sound because we are confused and do not understand (pronounced like “uhhhh”).” I will show the picture of the child shrugging their shoulders and ask the students to say “uhhhh what’s up?” To teach them /u/.”
2. Say: “Before we learn about the spelling of /u/, we need to listen and hear the sounds /u/ in words. When we say /u/ our mouths are open, our tongues sits at the bottom of our mouths, and we are making the sound from the back of our throats [Make a vocal gesture for /u/.] I’ll show you first: run. I heard /u/ sounding confused and I felt my mouth open and my tongue flatten on the bottom of my mouth. There is a short u in run. Let’s see if we hear short u in mute. Uh oh, I didn’t hear the confused sound like “uhhh” in mute, did you? If you hear /u/ in these next few words I’m going to read aloud, I want you to shrug your shoulders and say what’s up?. Do you hear /u/ in cup or hat? sit or gum? punk or pack? slump or hop? trunk or plan?
3. “Now how about we start using that secret code to learn to read. Let’s learn to spell words that have the confused /u/ sound that we are learning about today! What if I want to spell the word tug? First, I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word tug so I stretch it out and count: /t/u/g/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that confused sound of /u/ just before the /g/ so I am going to put a u in the 2nd box. The word starts with /t/, so I need to place a t in the first box right in front of the u. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word]. Now, let’s read this word together. /t/u/g/, tug.
4. Say: “Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out with two boxes. Where is the sky? up. What should go in the first box? What goes in the second box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box and then listen for the/u/. I tuck my legs under the table when I sit. [Allow children to spell word and check so see if they put the digraph ck in the same box. Model on board if necessary. Have students spell trunk, put, hunt, tub, shut]
5. Say: “Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster board with lump on the top and model reading the word.] This is how I would know how to read the word without the letterboxes. I start by covering up every letter except the /u/ in the middle. We learned today that /u/ makes the confused uhhhh sound and it makes me want to shrug my shoulders. Everyone say with me, Uhhhhh what’s up? Next, I know that the word starts with the letter l which makes the /l/ sound. After the /u/ sound, I see the letter m which I know makes the /m/ sound so now I have /l/u/m. Finally, I add the last sound, /p/, that is at the very end of the word. So now I have /l/-/u/-/m/-/p/.” [Show words hit, trunk, put, sat, tub, shut, trush (psuedoword) on poster board. Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]
6. Say: “Since everyone has done such a great job at reading all the words with our new /u/ spelling, now we are going to read a book called A Bump in the Mud. Jan and Tim are outside when they realize their pig slim is in the mud. The mud interests them. Do you think they go play in the mud? Read the book to find out! (Have students break off into pairs and take turn reading different pages out of the book and walk around the room to monitor their progress, after everyone finishes reading on their own, reread the book aloud all together)
Assessment:
Say: “On this worksheet, there are words that need letters filled in the blanks. See if you can correctly finish each word that has the /u/ “uhhhh” sound. Say: "Bring it to me to be checked when you are done!"
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Resources:
Angel Fuentes Uhhhh What?
https://angelfuentes1721.wixsite.com/mysite-1/uhhhh-what
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A Bump in the Mud, 2019. Lad and His Pals, Bruce and Geri Murray.
https://murraba.wixsite.com/geniebooks
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Assessment Sheet:
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