Emergent Literacy Lesson Design
Rationale:
Before children can grasp
understanding of the alphabetic principle, they must understand that
sounds are
paired with letters in spoken words. It
is important in the learning process to understand how to recognize
phonemes. This lesson will help children
notice the phoneme /u/ (short u). They
will learn to recognize /u/, and they will discover the short vowel’s
existence
and separability from other phonemes.
They will learn this by completing a variety of tasks, such as
learning
the meaningful representation and letter symbols, practice spelling
with /u/,
and practice finding /u/ in words.
Materials:
Primary paper and pencil;
chart with “My ugly uncle was upset because he was unusual.”; drawing
paper and
crayons; Fuzz and the Buzz
(Educational Insights); picture page with bug, sun, cup, and skunk. Also, pictures of other short vowels, so the
children can depict what is /u/ and what is not, such as dog, cat, rat,
and
bed.
Procedures:
1.
Introduce the lesson by explaining to the
children that our written language is a difficult and slow process. There are many sounds and letters in words,
but today we are going to learn about /u/.
This is short u. Notice how your
mouth moves when you say /u/. It will
become more evident as we study it closer.
2.
Ask students: Have you ever heard the /u/
sound when you punch (Demonstrate the motion and sound).
That’s the sound we will be working on today.
Can everyone say it with me? Can
you hear /u/ in sub? What about bus?
3.
Now let’s try a tongue twister [on
chart]. “My ugly uncle was upset because
he was unusual” Let’s all say that together now. This
time, let’s say the /u/ sound
longer. “My uuuugly uuuuncle was
uuuupset because he was uuuunusual.” Try
it again, and this time , let’s break the /u/ off of each word. “My /u/ gly /u/ ncle was /u/ pset because he
was /u/ nusual.” Great job!
4.
Ask students to take out their primary paper
and pencils. Now we are going to use the
letter u to spell the sound /u/. Let’s begin!
Start by leaving the dotted fence and going down the sidewalk,
curve
around the block, back up to the fence, and now, without lifting up
your pencil,
go straight down to the sidewalk. It
looks like a upside down “n” doesn’t it?
When you are correct, I will give you a sticker on your paper,
and you
are to continue practicing writing the letter u.
5.
Let me show you how to find /u/ in the word buzz.
I’m going to stretch out buzz
slowly, and listen for the sound of that punch.
B-u-zz. B-b-b-u-u-u. . . There it
is! I do hear that punching sound /u/ in
buzz. Do you? Do
you hear /u/ in bed or bug? Fun or ball?
Run or ran?
6.
Call on students to answer how they knew: Do
you hear /u/ in dog or bug?
Sun or cat? Cup
or rat?
Skunk or bed? [Pass out a card
to everyone.] Say: Let’s see if you can hear
the punching /u/ in some words. Punch if
you hear /u/. My, ugly, uncle, was,
upset, because, he, was, unusual. [Note: was has /u/].
7. Say:
“Fuzz is a cub. He plays outside. Fuzz starts to have a bad day when nuts from
a tree hit him and bees start to chase him.
Will Fuzz end up having a good day?
Read Fuzz and the Buzz and
talk about the story. Read it again, and
have the students make a punching motion when they hear /u/. List the words on the board.
Then, have the students draw a bear and write
a message using invented spelling.
Display their work.
8.
For assessment, hand out the picture page and
have students name the pictures. Ask the
students to circle the pictures whose names have /u/.
If there is time allowed, also have students
write two sentences containing the /u/ sound.
Model a sentence for them. “The
bug got stuck on the cup.”
Reference:
Beck, Isabel
L. Making
Sense of Phonics: The Hows and Whys.
Fuzz and
the Buzz. Educational Insights, 1990.