Rationale:  In order for students to become fluent readers, they must build their sight vocabulary and learn to decode unfamiliar words.  The goal of this lesson is to help students with the vowel correspondence u=/u/ correspondence.  This lesson will provide students with practice pronouncing the /u/ phoneme when shown the grapheme u, reading u, and writing words that contain the u=/u/ correspondence.

Materials: 
student copies of Fuzz and the Buzz (Educational Insights)
chalkboard
chalk
Elkonin letterboxes drawn on the chalkboard
student letterboxes and cutout letters:  b, c, d, f, g, h, j, l, m, n, p, r, s, u, ck
student paper and pencils
word cards (sun, coke, tuck , pluck, hall, tube, rug, stuck, stack, rush, strut, wide)
magazines (optional)
activity sheets.

Procedures:
1. "To become fast readers, we need to figure out what sounds all of these letters make. Today we are going to learn to spot the letter u in written text.  Who can tell me what sound the u makes?"  Wait for response.  If no one says /u/, then help them by saying the sound.  "Does anyone remember what our mouth does when we make the /u/ sound?  Good, our mouth opens and our tongue just kind of lies there. Are you ready to begin learning???"

2.  "Can anyone tell me a word that has the /u/ sound in it?"  Wait for response.  "Very good."  Here are a few more words that have the /u/ sound:  rub, tub, scrub."  Write these words on the board.

3. Underline the u in each of the words:  the grapheme that makes the /u/ sound.  "Class, we would underline the u in bug because it makes the /u/ sound.  Does everyone understand?  Great!  There are many other words that we say that also have the /u/ sound.  We are going to learn to spot these words in books and writing.  Let's try a few more."  Write bud on the board.  "Can some one come up and underline the letter that makes the /u/ sound?"  Wait for hands and call on one student.

4. Write this tongue twister on the board:  Uncle was unable to put up his umbrella.  As a class, say the tongue twister.  "How many times did we hear the /u/ sound?  Can anyone raise their hand and tell me one word that has the /u/ sound in it?  Yes, uncle has the /u/ sound.  Everyone say uncle and stress that "uhhhh" at the beginning of the word.  Everyone-"Uuuuuncle."  Good!  Now let's find all the words in this tongue twister that have the /u/ sound."  Call on different students and circle all the words that contain the /u/ sound.

5. "Now, let's play a word game. I am going to hold up a card with a word on it.  I want each of you to say "Rub a dub" if the word has the mouth move /u/ in it.  For example, if I held up the word tug you would say "Rub a dub." The list of words for these cards is: sun, coke, tuck , pluck, hall, tube, rug, stuck, stack, rush, strut, wide.

6.  Now, use the Elkonin boxes that are drawn on the board to do a whole class letterbox lesson (Murray).  Explain that we are going to do a letterbox lesson that uses u.
a. Have students get out their letterboxes and letters.
b. Remind students to turn their letters on the lower case side.
c. Remind the students that each box can hold only one mouth move.
d. Demonstrate on the board two examples.  "Class, what if we had the word sun as in "I like to be in the sun."  It would go in three letterboxes because you make three mouth moves when you say sun.  Listen-"sssss, uhhhhh, nnnnnnnn."  So, in the first letterbox I would put an s, in the second box the u, and in the third box put the n.  Now, let's try one as a class.  How about the word duck. I love Daffy the Duck.   Give students a moment to think.  How many boxes class?  Correct, we would only need three boxes again.  Have a student come to the board and put the word duck into the 3 boxes.  Good job! D goes in the first box, u in the second box, and ck in the third box. Remember that ck makes one mouth move, /k/, so it only goes in one box.
e. Now have students fill in the correct letters in their letterboxes for the words below.  Instruct them to use the lower case side of their letters to spell the words.  Have the students spell the words and then choose a volunteer to come up and spell it on the board.  Walk around the class and observe while the students work.
• cub, luck, tug, sum, run (3)
• club, drug, hunk (4)
• strum, plunk (5)
f.  Go around to each student, spell the words outside of the letterbox and have them read the word.

7.   Now the children will be given the book, Fuzz and the Buzz.  Pair them up and let them buddy read while walking around scaffolding and assisting when needed.  Remember students:  "We do not tell the word immediately if one messes up.  We wait, then read the sentence, and lastly try cover-ups.  Each student should take turns reading the book one time completely."

8. Assessment:  The students will be given an activity sheet.  The sheet contains 5 sentences on it.  They are to circle all of the words that contain the /u/ sound in them.
While they are doing this, call the students one at a time to you and have them read a small passage from the Fuzz and Buzz book to you (2-3 sentences).  Do a running record for each student.

9. Practice - Have each students find pictures and words in a magazines that contain the /u/ sound.  Cut out the pictures and words and glue them to piece of construction paper.  The student then share their findings with the rest of the class. This makes for a great display.

Resources:

<http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/openings.html>

Patterson, Leann.  "Lucky Ducky."
<http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/openings/pattersonbr.html>

Murray, B. A., & Lesnick, T. (1999) The letterbox lesson:  A hands-on approach for
teaching decoding.  The Reading Teacher, 52, 644-650.

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