Sound the Foghorn
Beginning Reading
Rationale: To learn to read and spell words, children need to understand how spellings map out the phonemes in spoken words. This lesson will help students use the letter u to represent the phoneme /u/ in spelling and reading words. They will review how to detect /u/ in spoken words, observe spelling and reading modeling, practice spelling and reading words with teacher guidance, and apply their knowledge in reading a decodable book.
Materials: Chart with "Uncle was upset because he was unable to put his umbrella up"; Bud the Sub (Educational Insights); letter manipulatives for u, p, n, t, s, h, o, p, i, and m and Elkonin letterbox sets for each student. Cards printed with the words and pseudowords up, nut, shot, shut, spun, hint, hunt, stump, brunch, strut, splum. List with the pseudowords nug, nuck, shosp, stug, flust, spum.
Procedures: 1. Introduce the lesson by explaining that our written language is a secret code. The letters stand for the mouth moves we make as we say words. Today we're going to work on spotting the mouth move /u/. We will see how the letter u spells /u/ in words by spelling and reading some words. Then you will read a book.
2. Ask students: Did you ever hear a tugboat's foghorn say /u/? That's the mouth move we're looking for in words. Let's pretend to sound the foghorn and say /u/. [Pull an imaginary foghorn chain.] We sound a foghorn to warn the other ships we're coming through the fog. Sound your foghorn: /u/.f
3. Let's try a tongue twister [on chart]. Say: "Uncle was unable to put his umbrella up." Now say it again, and this time, stretch the /u/ at the beginning of the words. "Uuuncle was uuunable to put his uuumbrella uuup." Try it again, and this time break it off the word: "/u/ ncle was /u/ nable to put his /u/ mbrella /u/ p.h
4. Call on students to answer and tell how they knew: Do you hear /u/ in up or down? Glass or cup? Walk or run? Under or over? Work or fun?
5. Watch how I spell the word brunch. A brunch is a big, late breakfast that is also your lunch. I need 5 letterboxes. /b/, /r/, that’s b and r in the first two boxes. /u/, that’s foghorn u in the middle box. Brunnn—I hear /n/ next, that’s n. Brun-ch. /ch/ takes two letters, c and h together in the last box. If I see a word with u all alone, the u is a good place to start reading that word. Look at this word: [strut]. The u says /u/, so if I sound out the letters before u, I get /s/ /t/ /r/ /u/, struh. Now I’ll add the ending, stru-t, strut? Oh, strut. You walk with your head high and your chest thrown out, like this [demonstrate].
6. Your turn to spell. Unfold two boxes and spell up, as in “Climb up the ladder.” [Check students’ work throughout the practice, pronouncing any misspellings as is to scaffold corrections.] With three boxes, spell nut. The squirrel hid a nut. Still with three boxes, spell shot. I shot the basketball. Now change it to shut, as in shut the door. Open up one more box and spell spun. The spider spun a web. Spell hint. Can you take a hint? Now change it to hunt. We went on a treasure hunt. Open up five boxes and spell stump. Only a stump of the tree was left.
7. Have each student read the following list of words (including a pseudoword) from large cards: up, nut, shot, shut, spun, hint, hunt, stump, brunch, strut, splum.
8. Say: "Bud is a little submarine. Gus is the captain. They find a tugboat that gets hit by an iceberg and starts to sink. Can Bud and Gus rescue the crew and save the day?" Have students read Bud the Sub silently, and then lead a discussion of the book. Then have students pair up and practice rereading the book aloud with a partner.
8. For assessment, call each student up to read a list of pseudowords: nug, nuck, shosp, stug, flust, spum. Note any miscues for later reteaching.
References
Mary Hope McGehee, Uhhh, Said the Caveman. https://sites.google.com/site/ctrdmaryhope/home/beginning-reading
Letterbox materials are described here: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/letbox.html
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