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Owl says Hoot

Beginning Reading

Anne Marie Doxtader

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A Beginning Reading Lesson

Rationale: This lesson teaches children the long vowel correspondence oo =/U/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations. In this lesson, children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling of oo. They will learn a meaningful representation (owl says hoot), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson and read a decodable book on the correspondence oo =/U/.

 

Materials: Graphic image of owl; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin letterboxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: o, o, b, f, h, l, m, n, p, s, t, z; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: zoo, pool, boot, moon, food, roof, spoon, shoot, tooth, stoon; decodable text “The Tooth Book” by Dr. Seuss and assessment worksheet.

 

Procedures: 1. Say: In order to become expert readers, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read short vowel words with o, like top, and today we are going to learn about what sound will be made when we put two os together. Oo tegther will make a long /U/ sound. When I say /U/ I think of a little owl saying “Hoot Hoot! [show graphic image]. Now let’s look at the spelling of /U/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /U/ is with two letter o’s together. [Write oo on the board.] 

 

Lesson Reviews: 2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /U/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /U/ in words, I hear u say its name /U/ and my lips make a little o shape like this. [Make vocal gesture for /U/.] I’ll show you first: Food. I heard u say its name and I felt my lips make a little o [make a circle motion around pursed lips]. There is a long U in food. Now I’m going to see if it’s in slob. Hmm, I didn’t hear u say its name and my mouth was open like a yawn. Now you try. If you hear /U/ say, “Hoot Hoot” like an owl. If you don’t hear /U/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in fruit, ran, mute, shoot, cop, trot?

 

 Model: 3. What if I want to spell the word tooth? “If I lose my tooth, the tooth fairy will visit.” A tooth is one of those little white things in your mouth that you use to chew. To spell tooth in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /t//U//th/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /U/ just before the /th/ so I’m going to put an oo in the 2nd box. The word starts with /t/, that’s easy; I need ants. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /t//U//th/. I think I heard /th/ so I’ll put a th right after the oo. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /s//t//r//O//k/.]

Now I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with spoke on the top and model reading the word.]  I’m going to start with the oo; that part says /U/. Now I’m going to put the beginning letters with it: s-p-oo, /spU/. Now I’ll put that chunk together with the last sound, /spU-n/. Oh, spoon, like “I use a spoon to sip my soop.”

 

Guided Practice: 4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for zoo. A zoo is a place where people can go to see all kinds of animals, “Mary’s favorite animals at the zoo were the monkeys.” What about oo, did you remember to put them in the same box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress.] You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound to spell in the first box. Then listen for /U/ and don’t forget to put the oo in the same box to make the /U/ sound.  Here’s the word: pool, I swam in the pool today; pool. [Allow children to spell remaining words, giving sentences for each word: boot, moon, food, spoon.]

 

5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled. [Show the words zoo, boot, moon, food, spoon] the extra words shoot and tooth, and the pseudoword stoon. Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]

 

6.  Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spelling for /U/: oo. Now we are going to read a book called “The Tooth Book” by Dr. Seuss. This is a story of all the different kinds of creatures with all different kinds of teeth. Let’s pair up and take turns reading The Tooth Book to find out all about teeth. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads The Tooth Book chorally, stopping between page turns to discuss the story.]

 

Assessment: 7. Say: Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /U/ = oo, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, you will see some pictures. Your job is to look in the box of word choices and decide which oo word fits best desicibe the piture. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the picture. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

 

Reference

         Internet site: The Teacher Wife, “Double oo Looking Glasses”

 

Resources

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