Emergent Literacy Design
Ew that Stinks!
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ew=/oo/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize the spellings that map out word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling ew. They will learn a meaningful representation (holding their nose), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ew=/oo/.
Materials: Graphic image of little boy holding his nose, cover-up critter; whiteboard or letterboxes for modeling and individual letterboxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: d, r, f, l, e, w; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: dew, flew, bet, crew, bun, threw, nut, shrewd, knew. A decodable text: The Storm that Blew and assessment worksheet.
Procedures:
1. Say: We all want to become good readers. In order to do that, we need to learn how to pronounce words. In previous lessons we have already learned to read words with long E, like he and we, today we are going to learn about ew, like Flew, which says /oo/. When I say /ew/, I think of something that smells bad and holding my nose and saying “ew. ” [All students to see the image that goes along with the focus sound].
2. Say: Now we are going to start our lesson, but first we need to learn about the spelling of /ew/ . When I listen for /ew/ in words, I hear the /ew/ sound and my lips make an o shape like this and I let the air in my throat leak out. [Make vocal gesture for /ew/.] I will begin by showing you first: flew. I heard ew say its name and I felt my lips make a little o and my throat release air slowly [make a circle motion around pursed lips]. There is a /ew/ in flew. I am going to see if ew is in free. Did you hear ew like something was smelly say /ew/? I know I did not say /ew/ like something was smelly, and my lips didn’t make that round little o. Now you try. If you hear /ew/, "hold your nose like there is something smelly.” If you do not hear /ew/ say, “That is not the sound.” Is it in dew, rain, chew, screw, nose, stew? [Have the hold their nose when they hear /ew/ in a word.]
3. Say: Now we will take a look at the spelling of /ew/. One-way to spell /oo/ is with the letters ew. [Write the letters e and w on the board.] What if I want to spell the word drew? “I drew a picture of my family.” Drew means to make a picture in this sentence. In order for me to spell drew in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes are in the word. Let’s stretch it out and count: /d/ /r/ /ew/. I need three boxes. When you see the letters e and w, they go together in one box. I heard that /oo/ just after the /r/, so I’m going to put an ew in the second box and the consonant /d/ in the first box. The word starts with /d/, so I know I need a d. I’m going to say the word slowly so that we can figure out the rest of the word, /d/ /r/ /ew/. I think I heard /oo/, so I’ll put an ew right after the r, [stretch out the word and use your finger to point to each word: /d/ /r/ /ew/].
4. Say: Now let’s begin with our letterbox lesson, since we have identified what we are going to be focusing on. I am going to have you start out with an easy two boxes for dew. Dew is the act of stitching things together, “The grass was wet with morning dew” What should go in the first box? s. What goes in the second box? Could silent ew? Did you remember to put those two letters together? Write the word on the board. Check your spelling. Use what you have been taught and make sure that you try to the best of your abilities. For the next word, you are going to need three letterboxes. Listen to all of the sound and focus on the first one to figure out what goes in the first box. Then listen for /oo/ and do not forget what we said, you need to put the ew together in one box. The word is: flew, the bird flew over the playground. Flew. [Children will spell the word.] Did you spell it correctly? Let’s look and see how each one of you did. I will spell the word on the board
F
l
ew
Did you spell it the same way? How about a review word bet; The girl bet she could win the contest. Now let’s take a look at another with three box /OO/ word: crew; I need a crew to help me build a new house. Let’s try another review word bun, I put my hair in a bun. Next word. I would like for you to listen to see if this word has /oo/ in it before you spell it: threw; He threw the ball across the field. Can you locate the sound /oo/? Yes, now I would like for you to spell the word. Did you remember to spell /th/ with a th? One more three boxes: nut; I saw a squirrel eating a nut on the playground. Now let’s try one 4 box word: shrewd; I gave a shrewd look, before I did something bad. Do you remember what we did with the th? Good job, the th goes in the same box. Should the sh be put in the same box? Correct. Let's do one more word: knew; I knew that I would get cake on my birthday. Who remembers out rules? That is right; we have to remember to stretch it out each sound to be able to spell difficult or tricky words.
5. Say: Now let’s go over how you can spell words one more time. Write the word can spell words one more time. Write the word blew on the board. To begin, let’s see if there is an ew on the end. There are the letters ew, so it must say /oo/. I think that we should use a cover-up. I will cover up part of the word, so that we can focus on the beginning part of the word. Cover every letter but b. B says /b/. Cover everything but l. L says /l/. Uncover and blend /b/ /l/ = /bl/. Now I’m going to blend that with /oo/ = /bloo/. Blew; that’s it. Ok I want everyone to speak the word at the same time. The children will read all of the words together. Have the students read the words that have been practiced and spelled.
dew
flew
bet
crew
bun
threw
nut
shrewd
knew
6. Say: Everyone has done a great job reading the words on the board, but now we are going to read a little story about a little girl that was eating her stew, but that heard a loud sound and went to see what it was. Children will be paired up and will talk turns reading pages. The teacher will listen in on all of the students and make sure that they are on track depending on his or her reading levels. Remind the students to always make sure and talk before you turn.
7. Say: That was a pretty good story, but now we are going to work on reading and writing ew with a little worksheet. I will be walking around to help you as needed. Remember our smelly thing analogy. Your job on this worksheet is to match the pictures to the words that you see written on the page and cut and paste them. Then I want you to use that to help you spell the words on the next paper. (walk around and help). (collect worksheets then go over answers on the board)
Resources:
The Ew Family Set Page 5 and 6: http://www.carlscorner.us.com/Wonders%202/Toons%20ew.pdf
Teacher’s Resource Book. Page 41: http://www.sel.k12.oh.us/Downloads/teachers_rb.pdf
Ms. Pugh’s Lesson: https://akp0034.wixsite.com/ela19/beginning-reading