Ew, That’s Gross!
A Beginning Reading Lesson
By: Catherine Bonner
Rationale: This
lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence u_e
= /U/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to
recognize the spellings that construct word pronunciations. In
this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read
words containing the spelling u_e. They will learn a meaningful
representation, (holding nose and saying ew) they will spell and
read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and
read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence u_e = /U/.
Materials: Graphic
image of man holding his nose; cover-up critter; whiteboard or
smartboard, letter boxes for modeling and individual letter
boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and
magnetic or Smartboard letters for teacher : u, s, e, m, l, c,
b, g, r, f, t, p ; list of spelling words on poster or
whiteboard to read : use, mule, cube, club, crude, flute,
spruce; decodable
text: Pig on the Loose, and assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
1. Say: In order
to become really good readers we need to learn the code that
helps us pronounce words. We have already learned to read short
vowel words with u, like bug, and today we are going to learn
about long U and the silent e signal that is used to make U say
its name, /U/. When I say /U/ I think of a stinky smell that
makes me want to hold my nose! [show graphic image]. Now let’s
look at the spelling of /U/ that we’ll learn today. One way to
spell /U/ is with the letter u and a tricky e at the end of the
word to tell me to say U’s name. [Write u_e on the board.] This
blank line here means there is a consonant after u, and at the
end of the word there is a little silent e ( tricky e) signal.
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 its
name /U/ and my lips make a little circle as if I were going to
whistle. [Make vocal gesture for /U/.] I’ll show you first:
tube. I heard u say its name and I felt my lips make a little
circle [make a circle motion around pursed lips]. There is a
long U in tube. Now I’m going to see if it’s in cut. Hmm, I
didn’t hear u say its name and my lips didn’t make that little
circle like I was going to whistle. Now you try. If you hear /U/
say, “Ew, that’s gross” and grab hold your nose. If you don’t hear /U/
take a deep breath in through your nose (model), And say “my nose says
no!” Is it in cute, rain, fun, blue , toe, umbrella, mute? [Have
children make a circle motion around their pursed lips when they
feel /U/ say its name.]
3. What if I want
to spell the word huge? “The dog that chased me was huge.” Huge
means very big in this sentence. To spell huge in letterboxes,
first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I
stretch it out and count: /h//u//g/. I need 3 boxes. I heard
that /U/ just before the /g/ so I’m going to put an u in the 2nd box and
the silent e signal outside the last box. The word starts with
/h/, that’s easy; I need an h. Now it gets a little tricky so
I’m going to say it slowly, /h//u//g/.I have one empty box now.
[Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word:
/h//u//g/.] The missing one is /g/.
Now I’ll show you
how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with spruce on
the top and model reading the word.] I’m going to start with the
u_e; that part says /U/. Now I’m going to put the beginning
letters with it: s-p-r- u_e, /sprU/. Now I’ll put that chunk
together with the last sound, /sprU-c/. Oh, spruce, like “We
need to spruce up the house for our guests.”
4. Say: Now we are
going to spell some words in our letterboxes. We are going to
start with just two boxes for the word use. Use means to put
something to work, “I will use a pencil to do my homework.” What
should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers].
What goes in the second box? What about silent, or tricky e, did
you remember to put it outside the boxes? I will be walking
around checking on all of you. [Observe student effort.] You’ll
need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the
beginning sound to spell in the first box. Then listen for /U/
and don’t forget to put the signal silent e at the end, outside
the boxes. Here’s the word: mule, A mule is similar to a
horse, mule. [Allow
children to spell remaining words: cube, glue, crude, flute,
spruce.]
5. Say: Now I am
going to let you read the words you’ve spelled. [Have children
read words all together. Afterwards, call on individuals to read
one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]
6. Say: You guys
have done a great job reading words with our new spelling for
/U/: u_e. Now we are going to read a book called Pig on the
Loose. This is a story about Tim and Jan. Their aunt was staying
with them while their parents went on a cruise. They loved to
play tricks on their aunt. While their aunt was staying with
them, their new pet pig got loose. What will Tim and Jan do? How
will they get their pig back? Will their new pet get into
trouble? Each person will be given a partner and we will read
Pig on the Loose to find out what happens. [Children pair up and
take turns reading. The teacher will walk around the room
monitoring progress. After partner reading, the class rereads
Pig on the Loose aloud together, and stops between page turns to
discuss the plot.]
7. Say: “Before we
finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /U/ = u_e, we
are going to read Pig on
the Loose together as a class. We will take turns, each of
us reading a page of the text aloud.” The teacher will note
errors in the children’s reading and will grade each child
individually.
Resources:
Murray, G. (2004)
Pig on the Loose. Reading Genie: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/bookindex.html
Letters on the
Loose by Cathryn Albright http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/realizations/albrightbr.htm