OW! I Hurt My Elbow!
Beginning Reading Lesson
Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ow = /ow/. To be able to read, children must be able to recognize and learn the spellings that map word pronunciations. In this lesson, children will learn how to spell, read, and recognize words containing the spelling ow. They will learn a meaningful representation (little kid with a hurt elbow), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence of ow = /ow/.
Materials: graphic image of little kid with a hurt elbow; cover-up marker/critter; primary paper and pencil; letter boxes; letter manipulative for each child and a board for the letters for teacher; list of spelling words on a posterboard to read; decodable text “Cow Takes A Bow” by Russell Punter and Fred Blunt (Usborne, 2013); and assessment (linked below).
Procedures:
1. Say: To become expert readers, we need to learn the code that teaches us how to pronounce words. We are going to learn about ow and how /ow/ is the pronunciation of ow. When I hear /ow/, I think of when I hurt my elbow. When I get hurt, I always say “ow, I hurt my elbow” (show the picture). When we hear that sound, we know to say /ow/. Let’s say it together. Great!
2. Say: Now, we are going to learn about the way our mouth moves when we pronounce the /ow/. When I say /ow/ in words, I make my mouth form a big O and then decrease it into a little O. Let’s all try it together by the word “bow” and as we say this word, we are going to make the same depiction as the graphic. Hold your elbow as if you are trying to cover a cut when we say /ow/. Make sure you focus on the way your mouth is moving when we say “bow”. Now, we are going to try another word: “bot”. Did you hear the /ow/ sound? No! We didn’t. I’m going to give you a few more words, and if the word has the /ow/ sound, then do our gesture to the elbow. Here are your words: crown, chow, joke, owl, town, crop, down.
3. Say: Now, let’s look at the spelling of /ow/ that we’ll learn today by using it in a few words. Our first word is going to be “town”, and we are going to use letterboxes to count and show how many phonemes we have. For this word we will need three boxes. First, we hear the letter /t/, so we put the t in the first box. Then, we hear our /ow/ sound, and the ow will go in our second box. Lastly, we hear /n/, so this n will go into the third and last box. Now, we must put it all together /t/ /ow/ /n/. TOWN!
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4. Say: Now, I’m going to give you some words to spell out in letterboxes. Let’s play! You are going to show me what all you know! Let’s start with two boxes. Your first word is “owl”, so our sentence would be “I heard the owl hooting in a tree.” [Now give the students time to find and place their letters.] Your next word is “down”, so your sentence would be “I am headed down to the river.” You will use three letterboxes for this word. [Repeat lessons with the rest of the list: job, stop, spot, crown, chow, town, growl, clown, wow.] I’m going to give you some more words to work on playing with for your letterboxes. I will come around and check your work as you work!
5. Say: Now, I am going to have you read the words that you spelled in your letterbox lesson. Remember what sound the ow makes in these words! To understand what the word sounds like we must use our creepy crawlers covering critter. As we cover it up, we will easily get the first part of the word. [Uncover and blend before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /c/ + /r/ = /cr/. Now, we will blend that with the // = /crow/. Now, all we need is the end, /n/ = /crown/. Crown; that’s it. Now, it’s your turn. I’m now going to put some words on the screen, and I want you to volunteer what you think the word sounds like by raising your hand. [Display the words: town, wow, crown, growl, arrow, clown, chow, power, owl, down.]
6. Say: You have done a great job with learning the /ow/ sound. Before we get into our book, we are going to watch a short video on the /ow/ sound. Here we go! [Show linked video below.] Now, we are going to read a book to help with the /ow/ sound. We are going to read “Cow Takes A Bow” by Russell Punter and Fred Blunt (Usborne, 2013). Book talk: This book is about a cow who has super talent! The cow tries a bunch of different ways to perform. How do you think the cow performs? I guess we will just have to read to find out. We are going to read this in groups, and as you read, I will be walking around to make sure you are doing what you are supposed to do. [Once we finish the reading, we will go back through and read again, and students will answer questions related to the text.]
7. Say: That was a super fun story. What types of performances did the cow try? [Have students raise their hands and answer the question.] Does the cow end up embarrassed or happy? [Have students raise their hands and answer the question.] Right! Before we finish up our lesson on ow = /ow/, I want to see how you solve some reading worksheets. On one of these worksheets, there are some /ow/ words that need to be matched to pictures. Then, there is another worksheet that requires you to fill in the blanks to complete the words. This is an individual project, so make sure you are completing it on your own. [Collect student’s work after they complete.]
Resources:
Reference Lesson: Chloe Campbell, Ow, I Stubbed My Toe. https://cac0199.wixsite.com/my-site/beginning-reading
Decodable Book: Punter, Russell and Blunt, Fred. Cow Takes A Bow. Usborne, 2013.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JE8rQLfLCA
Worksheet #1: https://www.liveworksheets.com/ga141599sb
Graphic Image: https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/boy-injured-gm1148988234-310472389
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