Under the
Umbrella
Beginning
Reading Lesson
Rationale: Children need explicit
instruction
to learn how to recognize phonemes so that they can learn to read.
Vowels are
the basis for children being able to decode words; they are seen in
almost all
our words. Having a strong understanding and identification of common
correspondences develops proficient readers. It is extremely
important to
be familiar with vowel correspondences. This lesson will focus on
teaching the
vowel correspondence u=/u/ (short u).
This lesson will teach
children a meaningful representation (letter symbol) and how to
pronounce the
phoneme /u/. The children will have practice in identify u=/u/
in written words, recognizing the grapheme u, reading u in print, and writing words that contain the u correspondence.
Materials:
1. Tongue Twister
(written on poster board or the chalkboard, large enough for all to see)
a. Uncle is upset because he’s under
an umbrella with an upset umpire.
2. Large poster of
an Open Umbrella (large enough to hold many words under the umbrella)
3. Large Class
Version of Letterboxes and Letter Tiles (with a plastic hanging rack to
hold
them)
4. Student Set of
Letterboxes and Letter Tiles (one for each student)
5. Large Index
Cards (with words from letterbox lesson written on them)
a.
Word List of u words: cup, fun, sub,
mud, duck, rush, luck, drum, jump, jugs, thump, scrub, stump, etc.
b Word List of review words: cat, rot,
top, mend, milk, flag, etc.
6. Class Set of
Book
a. Bud
the Sub – book 10, short u; Phonics Readers, Short Vowels;
by
Educational Insights, © 1990
7. Small Paper
Umbrellas (one for each student)
8. Primary Writing
Paper and Pencil
9. Worksheet
(pictures of /u/ words with letterboxes or primary writing lines below
them)
10. Crayons (to color
in pictures if finished early)
Procedure:
1.
Begin
the lesson with a review of the vowel correspondences previously taught
(for
instance, short vowel, such as a=/a/,
e=/e/, i=/i/, o=/o/,
and u=/u/). Class, can anyone give me a
vowel that we have talked about in class?
wait for an answer That’s right! The
teacher can write them on the board as the students call them out. The sound we are going to concentrate on
today is the vowel u=/u/. Can everyone make that sound with me? Wait
for
class to make sound together, go over a gesture if you feel it is
needed, may
use the punching sound)Review how the mouth moves and the tongue
twister used
when Uu was taught as a phoneme. Do you
remember what your mouth does when
it says /u/? Wait for the children to make the sound with their
mouths and
to give you an answer. Watch what my
mouth does and then we will all do it together. The teacher says
the
phoneme and the children watch her mouth; then it is repeated as a
class. The sound is /u/. Watch as I hold the
sound out /uuuuu/. Can you guys hold /u/ out like me? Wait for
children to
repeat. Splendid! That was perfect! You
are all remembering. Now go over a tongue twister for the /u/
phoneme. Class, I am going to say a short tongue
twister. First, I will say it word by word. Then I will say it as a
sentence. I
want you to repeat after me. Have the tongue twister written on a
large
sheet of paper, to hang on the wall, or you can write it on the board,
above
your lists of words. “Uncle is upset because he’s under an umbrella
with an
upset umpire.” Say each word of the tongue twister in order and allow
time for
the children to repeat; then break the saying into words or thirds, say
aloud
and wait for children to repeat; lastly, say the whole sentence and
wait for
children to repeat. While you are saying the words and the children are
repeating, be sure to point to each of the words on the poster or on
the board.
2.
Ask the class, Class,
we have learned how to identify words with the vowels a,
e, i, and o in them, so which vowel do you think
we will discuss identifying today?”
Wait for the answer of u. That’s right;
so Uu is what we are going to learn today. We are
going to learn how
to spot the letter u in written text. Now, call out a list
of words
and ask the children which word contains which correspondence. Okay, I am going to call out some words and
I want you guys to tell me which ones have the /u/ sound. A list of
words
you can use are: fat, hog, best, bug,
milk, maps, gum, dock, yell, ran, tub, hit, mends, stop, big, and duck. If the children miss a word, say
the word again and emphasize the phoneme. If the children say that the
word
does not have the /u/ sound, ask them which sound it does have and
place it
under that letter on the board, for instance, the word fat
would go under a=/a/.
If you think the children need to see the words, you can write them up
on the
board under the vowel graphemes you wrote on the board earlier.
3.
If needed, have children
practice writing
the letter Uu on the first couple
lines of their paper. Let’s all write a
lower case u on our papers, remember, we start the letter u at the
fence
(dashed middle line). Then, draw straight down to the sidewalk (solid
bottom
line), curve over (still on bottom line), and draw back up to the fence
(dashed
middle line). Now, without lifting your pencil, draw a straight line
back down
to the sidewalk (solid bottom line). Do the same with the
4.
Ask the class, Class
can you tell me any words that come to mind that have the /u/
sound in them? Wait for some answers, if none, say, I
will begin. I am thinking of the word bug. As
the students give you words, write them on the
poster (picture of large open umbrella) and underline the /u/ in each
word. So,
put bug on the poster and underline
the u in bug. Does
everyone see
why I used this word and why I underlined the u? Wait for
responses.
Good, now I want you to give me some
words. As the children give you words, ask the whole class if they
agree
that the word should go on the poster, if they agree and are right,
write the
words on the poster. If the children give you a wrong word, say the
word aloud
and ask if anyone can tell you why it should not go on the poster, be
sure to
explain if the other children do not explain fully.
5.
Tell the class, Now
we are going to play the “Under the Umbrella” game. Put/
Draw a picture of an umbrella on the chalkboard or on one side of the
board. Explain
the game to the class; I am going to
show you a card that has a word on it. If the words have the /u/ sound,
I want everybody to say “umbrella” and if it does not, I want everybody
to say
“rain.” For example, if the card had the word bug
on it you would say “umbrella,” but if the card had the word mad on it you would say “rain.” Does
everybody understand? Wait for responses, answer any questions. Okay, now let’s play the game. A
list of words may be rug, ran, boat,
rung, fun, sat, mend, lump, rush, milk, rump, bump, get, etc. Be
sure to
make them different from the list you used in step one, so that the
children
can not just look at the lists on the board. Place the words along the
chalk
holder on the chalkboard, into two sides, “umbrella” and “rain.”
6.
Explain to the class that we are
going to
do a letterbox lesson. The class will know how to do these, since they
are done
throughout year. Okay class; put your
letterboxes on your desk. Now, I need everyone to get out the
following
letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k,
l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, and u.
The teacher needs to get out her big set of letter tiles and a plastic
hanging
rack. You can place a colored square in the hanging areas to represent
the
letterboxes (add more as needed) and you can place the letter tiles
needed
either in the bottom hanging racks or on the chalk holder of the
chalkboard. Explain
that we are going to spell words with the /u/ sound using the letter u and we will have some review words
mixed in with the letters a, e, i,
and o. Remind the students to turn
their letters over to the lower case side. Review with class how to use
the
letterboxes and tiles; model by spelling the word tug.
The word is tug. TUG.
A tug floated by on the water. It will go into three boxes because we
made
three different mouth movements. Listen "t"
"uuuu" "gggggg”. So in the first box I will put a t, in the second I will put a u, and in
the third I will put a g. Now let's
try one as a class. Let's use the word sub. SUB.
The sub moves under the water. How many boxes will we need for this
word? Wait
for answer – three. How many sounds
does our mouth make? Good, three. What will we put in our
first
box? s will go in our first box
and then u and then b. You guys
did that wonderfully! Now
the children will fill in the correct letters in their letterboxes for
the
words you give them. Be sure to give a sentence with each word, or
you can
allow them to make up sentences for the words. Be sure to remind the
children
that each letterbox holds only one mouth movement. Class,
we are going to use the letter tiles to spell words. I am going
to call out some words. As I call out these words, I want you
spell them
the best you can on the letterboxes. Remember, say the word to
yourself
and sound it out letter by letter. For each sound you hear, put
the
representing letter in a box. Start with two/three phoneme words
and work
your way up to five/six phoneme words. First, fold
your letterboxes where three boxes are showing. The
first word is hug. As the
students are placing the letter tiles down for the words, walk around
and check
their progress. Once everyone has it done, choose a child to go to the
front of
the class and create the word using the large class set. If anyone has
it wrong
on their set, make sure they understand now how the word is correctly
spelled.
Continue on with words, adding letterboxes as needed, until you have
done the
whole list. After the spelling of each word, ask the students the
number of
phonemes in each one. Instruct them to count with their fingers to
figure
out how many sounds (phonemes) are in each word. This is to make
sure that
the students really understand the concept of phonemes. You should
be sure
that the students are not simply counting the boxes to figure out the
number of
phonemes. A list of words could be cup
(3), fun (3), sub (3), mud (3), duck (3), rush (3), luck (3), drum (4),
jump
(4), jugs (4), thump (4), scrub (5), and stump (5).
If you want, you can add some review words to the
lesson, such as cat (3), rot (3), top (3),
mend (4), milk (4), and flag (4).
Remember to tell the children the number of phonemes in each word after
it is
spelled. During this entire process, the teacher should walk
around the room
checking the children’s progress. Making sure that when there are
errors, the
child fixes them and understands the correct way. When you are done
with the
letterbox lesson, have the children put all materials away, so that
they are
not distracted during the reading of the story.
7.
After the letterbox lesson is
complete,
take out the cards (the words used for the letterbox lesson should be
written
on the cards) and explain to the class that you will hold up a card,
give them
a minute to look at it and come up with a word, then we will all say
the word
aloud together or call on individuals. Class,
I am going to hold up cards that have words on them, I want you to
identify
what the word is and raise your hand when you have it. Once the whole
class has
it, I will call on someone to tell the class the word. I will only call
on
children who are following directions and working quietly. Now, go
through
the list of words; you can either put these on the word wall or you can
put
these words along the chalk holder of the chalkboard.
8.
Have the children will take out
their book
or pass out a class set of Bud the Sub,
so that each child has a book of their own. The teacher can pass
out a
small paper umbrella to each child. The teacher will give brief book
talk about
the book giving the names of the characters and the initial interesting
event.
Instruct the children that as we read the book, when we hear the /u/
sound, we
need to raise our umbrellas high in the air and twirl them around. Then
put
them down and wait for the next /u/ word to appear or be read. Model
this
activity with the tongue twister that is still hanging in the front of
the room
for all to see. The class reads through the book, following along when
others
are reading and reading themselves if selected.
9.
After everyone has read the
story, have
each child take out a pencil and a sheet of primary writing paper. Tell
the
children, Now, I want everyone to get
with their partner and read the book again together. This time though,
you will
write the words that contain the /u/ sound on your sheet of paper. Explain,
After everyone is finished, we will go
over the words everyone has written down. I will have a copy of all the
words
in the story that have the /u/ sound. This time should be spent
working
quietly, if they have questions, they can ask their partners or the
teacher. If
needed, they can pair up by reading ability and the teacher can walk
around
assisting and scaffolding as needed. After most everyone is finished,
call on various
children to give you a word. Try to allow everyone to give you a word.
You may
have to call on those lower ability children first, so that they get a
chance
to participate before all the easier words are called out. Explain to
the children;
Do not call out any answers unless you
are called upon. I will call on those who are raising their hands.
10.
Assessment: I will give each
child a
worksheet that has pictures on it (approximately 9 or 10). Explain
to the
children, Each picture will have
letterboxes below it. The number of letterboxes will be
appropriate for
the picture. If the picture represents a word that has the /u/
sound in
it, then you need to write the word inside the letterboxes. If the
picture
represents a word that does not have the /u/ sound in it, then you
leave it
blank. If you finish and there is still time, you can color in the
pictures.
Remind the children that each sound of a word goes in one/different
letterboxes. If you do not want to create the pictures with letterboxes
under
them, you can just put primary paper lines under the pictures and have
the
children write the words of the pictures with the /u/ sound in them.
Whichever
is best for your children? You can get the images from clip art or from
the
internet or copied from books.
References:
1. Cushman,
Sheila. Bud the Sub.
2. Murray, B.A.
and T. Lesniak. (1999). "The
letterbox lesson: A hands-on approach to teaching decoding."
The
4. Maudlin,
Heather. The Reading Genie Website: Umbrellas
Up. http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/elucid/mauldinbr.html
5. Wells, Lisa.
The Reading Genie Website: Ugly Umbrellas.
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/inroads/wellsbr.html
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