Beginning Reading Lesson
Design
The
Loud Trout Shouts!
Rationale:
In order to learn to read and spell words,
children need to understand digraphs so they can match letters to their
phonemes. In this lesson, children will recognize the digraph ou = /ow/
in both
spoken and written words by practicing reading and spelling words
containing ou
= /ow/. I will also use a letterbox lesson to help with instruction of
this
correspondence.
Materials:
1. Primary paper
2. Pencils
3. The Napping House by
Audrey Wood (Harcourt Children's Books; 1st Edition,
c 1984.)
4. Elkonin letter boxes
5. Letters for Letterbox lesson - c, d,
h, l, m, o, p, r, s, t, u, w
6. Chart paper with tongue twister: “The loud trout
shouts with his mouth!”
7. Flash cards with letterbox words on
them - sour, loud,
shout, mouth, cow
(enough for half the students in the class)
8. Worksheet
with pictures of certain
things, some containing words that have the ou = /ow/ sound in it.
Procedure:
1. Introduce
the lesson by writing the
"ou" on the board. When we see the o and u next to each other, they
make the /ow/ sound in many words. Today, we are going to practice
recognizing
ou as /ow/ in spoken and written words.
2. Ask
students: Have you ever been
hurt by someone and said OW!? Well, when o and u are together in words,
they
team up to say /ow/. Let's all say that together "ow!"
3. Write, "The
loud trout shouts with his mouth” on chart
paper. Read the tongue twister to the students and then say Now
let's all
say it together “I found out about her loud mouth.” Let's say it again,
this
time stretching out the /ow/ in each word: The l oow d tr oow t sh oow
ts with
his m oow th. Great job everyone!
4. Ask
students to take out their
letterboxes and envelope of letters. Now we are going to spell out
some
letters with /ow/ in them. When we spell the words, we will spell only
one
sound in each box. Because ou works as a team to spell /ow/,
both o and
u will go in one box. Are there any questions? Model an example on
the
board for students and ask them to follow along with you at their
desks. (ex.
word - out) Boys and girls, there are three letters in out,
but I am
only going to use two boxes. For the first box, I will put the o
and the
u because they join together to make the /ow/ sound. For
the
second box, I will put the remaining letter – t.
5. Words for
students to spell in lesson:
3
– [sour, loud, shout, mouth, cow]
4 – [trout,
cloud, proud, plow]
(Shows
number of boxes needed)
s-ou-r,
l-ou-d, t-r-ou-t,
s-h-ou-t, c-l-ou-d, p-r-ou-d, m-ou-t-h
Say
each word slowly, emphasizing
the /ow/ and use each word with a sentence. Boys and Girls, for the
first
word sour we are going to use three letterboxes.
Remember the
rule about o and u going together. I have a sour piece
of candy.
Sour. Okay, next word…(Keeping going through all the words until
finished).
Give students time to spell each word and walk around the room
throughout the
activity to see how students are doing.
6. Allow students
to choose a partner and give each pair of
students a set of flash cards with the letterbox words written on them.
Now
we are going to practice reading the words that we have just spelled
with our
letters. Show the cards to your partner one at a time to practice
reading the
words. When they have finished, the two of you can switch the cards and
the
other partner will read the words.
7. Distribute
multiple copies of The Napping House (Harcourt
Children's Books; 1st Edition, c 1984.) to
the students. Introduce the book with this book talk:
It's
raining outside and everyone inside is sleeping. The dog, cat, grandma
and
grandchild are all snoozing and decide to pile up on grandma in the
cozy bed.
So, one by one, the child first, each animal and the rodent crawl on
top of
granny to take a nap. With all these people on one bed, I’m hoping
nothing bad
will happen! Let’s see what these sleepy people will do.
Ask them
to make their mouth wide open like a fish whenever they hear a word
with /ow/
in it while reading. Children may read on their own or with a partner.
8. For
assessment, distribute the worksheets you have made to
students (worksheet is below). Tell them to circle the pictures of the
words containing the /ow/
phonemes and then write the spelling of the word beneath the picture.
(Pictures
that should be included: book, couch, house, lamp, mouse, stove,
window, clown).
References:
Eldredge,
J. Lloyd. (1995) Teaching Decoding in Holistic Classrooms. New Jersey:
Prentice
All, 105 - 118
Casey,
April. OW!
I stubbed my toe.
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return to Constructions
Name
________________________________
Reading Assessment for
/ow/ Phoneme
Directions: Circle the picture whose name has the /ow/
sound in it.
1. 
2. 
3.
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 