Confused Dug Says "Uhhhh..."

Beginning Reading

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By: Kristin Peacock

 

Rationale:  This lesson is designed to teach children about the short vowel correspondence u=/u/.  In order for children to become successful readers, they must learn to recognize the spellings that map out word pronunciation.  In this lesson, children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words that contain the letter u. This will be done through a meaningful representation of “Dug the Confused Caveman.”  They will spell words containing the correspondence u=/u/ through a letterbox lesson.  They will also read a decodable book that focuses on this correspondence. 

 

Materials:  Large printout of “Dug the Confused Caveman” picture with the written correspondence u=/u/; Smartboard Elkonin boxes and letter tiles for modeling; individual Elkonin boxes and letter tiles for students, printed word list with words for spelling, list of words on whiteboard for students to read, decodable book: Buzz and the Fuzz.

[Words:  mud, bug, cut, fun, luck, sung, stuck, jump, stump, glud]

[Letter Tiles:  m, u, d, b, g, c, t, f, n, l, k, s, j, p]

 

Procedures:

 

1. Say:  If we want to become expert readers, we must learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words.  We have already practiced this with some other letters, such as “Crybaby A who says Ahhhhhh” and “Creaky Door E, Ehhhhh.”  Today, I would like to introduce you to “Dug the Confused Caveman.”  Dug isn’t very smart so he is always confused!  He is always scratching his head and thinking out loud.  It sounds like “Uhhhhh.”  Let’s all try that together. (Class will all scratch their head and say uhhh)

 

2. Say:  Before we learn and practice spelling words with /u/ let’s practice listening for it in some words.  When I say /u/, my mouth is open, my tongue is resting at the bottom of my mouth, and the sound comes from the back of my throat.  (Teacher should model this for students by saying the word “cut”.)  Did everyone hear the /u/ sound as I said the word “cut?”  Great!  Let’s practice some more words together.  (Teacher will say the words luck, bug, shoe, up, hand and let students determine which words contain the /u/ sound.)

 

3.  Say:  Now that we are good at listening for “confused u” let’s learn how to spell some of the words that contain this sound.  The spelling for /u/ is very simple (teacher models by drawing an uppercase and lowercase U on the board). What if I want to spell the word jump?  The first thing I need to do is decide how many phonemes are in the word.  Let’s all stretch out this word together. J-u-m-p.  How many sounds did everyone hear?!  I heard four, so we need to use four letterboxes.  On the Smartboard, the teacher will model four letterboxes and ask students what letter goes in the first box.  Since the first sound we heard was “J” we will all put a J in the first box.  Next, the teacher will ask the students for the next sound in the word.  The students should recognize “confused u” as the next sound and say that letter “u” should be placed in the second box.  They will finish off the word jump by putting “m” in the 3rd box and “p” in the last box. 

 

4.  Say:  Now it’s your turn to practice spelling words with your own letterboxes.  Let’s start out with three boxes.  The first word is “mud” as in “The pigs played in the mud.”  What should go in the first box?  What about the second? And third?  I will walk around and check your work.  Once everyone has gotten it right we will move on to the next word.  Clear off your three boxes.  Now, let’s spell the word “cut” as in “I will not cut in line.”  Let’s start at the first letter again (c).  Now the second letter, our confused u.  What is the last sound we hear? (t).  Teacher will continue this activity for the following words:  bug, fun, luck, sung, stuck, stump. 

 

5.  Say:  Now that we are expert spellers, let’s practice reading the words you have spelled.  Teacher will now present the large word list on the whiteboard with all the words that have been spelled in the letterbox lesson.  The teacher will tell the students that the very last word (glud) isn’t a real word, so we didn’t practice spelling in our letterboxes but now that they know the confused u sound, they should be able to read it anyway!  As a class, the students will read the words aloud.

 

6.  Say:  You have done a terrific job spelling and reading words with our new correspondence, u=/u/ (the confused u).  For extra practice, let’s use our new skill to read this book, Fuzz and the Buzz. Buzz the bear is having a normal day playing outside.  He is having so much fun until he hears a buzzing noise going all around him.  Buzz doesn’t seem so happy now!  What could have happened to him?  Let’s read and find out!  (Teacher will pair students up and instruct them to take turns reading pages of this book.  The teacher should walk around the room and observe progress.  After paired reading, we should reread as a class, stopping between each page to allow discussion). 

 

 Assessment:  “You have done such an amazing job with our new vowel, /u/.  On this worksheet, I want you to match the pictures in the first column to its word in the second column.  Every picture will have a word that contains “confused u.”  (Teacher will collect worksheets to assess individual progress) 

 

References:

 

Fuzz and the Buzz. Educational Insights, 1990. Phonics Readers, Short U Book 9.

 

Murray, B.A. (2012).  Making Sight Words:  Teaching Word Recognition from Phoneme Awareness to Fluency.  Ronkonkoma NY: Linus.

 

“Uhh, I’m Confused” By:  Lindsay Sanford

https://sites.google.com/site/sanfordreadinglesson/home/uhh-i-m-confused

 

Worksheet:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/alphabet/matchwordsandpix/shortu/

 

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