Ow, That Hurt!
By: Meleigha Kizer
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Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the vowel correspondence ow = /ow/. 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 ow. They will learn a meaningful representation (boy on the ground in pain saying ow) they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson, and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ow = /ow/.
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Materials:
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Graphic image of boy in pain saying ow
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Cover-up critter
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Whiteboard or smartboard letterboxes for modeling
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Individual letterboxes for each student
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Letter manipulatives for each child
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Magnetic or smartboard letters for teacher: w, o, t, n, h, s, a, c, k, l, r, e
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List of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: wow, town, howl, shack, clown, trowel
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Decodable text:“The Clown Who Lost Her Smile”
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Assessment worksheet
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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 mop, and today we are going to learn about the correspondence o and w that is used to say /ow/. When I say /ow/ I think of someone shouting in pain “Ow, that hurt! [show graphic image of boy on the ground holding his leg].
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2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /ow/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /ow/ in words, I hear the combination of o and w say /ow/ and my lips and teeth start a part form each other and come together while I close my mouth. [Make vocal gesture for /ow/.] I’ll show you first: cow. I heard ow say its name and I felt my lips and teeth come together while I closed my mouth [make a circle motion around resting mouth]. There is an ow in cow. Now I’m going to see if it’s in look. Hmm, I didn’t hear ow say its name and my lips didn’t come together to a resting position. Now you try. If you hear /ow/ say, “Ow, that hurt.” If you don’t hear /ow/ say, “That’s not it.” Is it in owl, cook, crowd, toy, out, night? [Have children make a circle motion around their resting lips/mouth when they feel /ow/ say its name.]
Ow?
3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /ow/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /ow/ is combining the letters o and w that tells me to say ow. [Write ow on the board.]. What if I want to spell the word growl? “If I upset the puppy, he may growl at me.” Growl means the puppy is making a deep sound that shows he is angry in this sentence. To spell growl in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /g//r//ow//l/ I need 4 boxes. I heard that /ow/ just before the /l/ so I’m going to put owin the 3rdbox. The word starts with /g/, that’s easy; I need a g. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /g//r//ow//l/. I think I heard /r/ so I’ll put a r right after the g. Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /g//r//ow//l/.
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4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for wow. When someone says wow they may be surprised at something like, “Wow, that was really fun.” What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? What about the combination of ow, did you remember to put it 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 that goes in the first box. Then listen for /ow/ and don’t forget to put ow in the same box. Here’s the word: town, there was a parade in town today; town. [Allow children to spell words.] Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: t – ow – n and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: howl; The coyote howls at night [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /ow/ in it before you spell it: shack; They made a shack and slept in it overnight. Did you need an o and w to make ow? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear ow say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a. [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Did you remember to spell /k/ with a ck? Now let’s try 4 phonemes: clown, the clown was funny at the circus. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: trowel; A trowel is similar to a shovel but smaller that you may use in the garden. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.
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5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with trowel on the top and model reading the word.] First I see there’s an o and w together; that’s my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s the vowel ow. It must say /ow/. I’m going to use a cover-up to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /t//r/ = /tr/ /. Now I’m going to blend that with /ow/ = /trOW/. Now all I need is the end, /e//l/= /trowel/. trowel; that’s it. Now it’s your turn, everyone together. [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 /ow/: ow. Now we are going to read a book called“The Clown Who Lost Her Smile”. This is a story about a clown who lost her smile. In the town, it is bad luck if a clown does not have a smile. They look and ask everyone if they have seen her smile, but they have no luck. The town was feeling sad that they could not find the clowns smile, until they see a wise owl. Let’s pair up and take turns reading “The Clown Who Lost Her Smile”to find out how the clown finds her smile and what the wise owl tells them. [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 Clown Who Lost Her Smile” aloud together, and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.
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7. Say: That was a fun story. How did the clown find her smile? Right, she had to find it inside herself. What helped her find her smile? Right, a mouse. Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /ow/ = ow, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some words missing. Your job is to look in the box of word choices, and decide which ow word fits best to make sense of this very short story. First try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]
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Resources:
Amber Glass "Say Ahhh! with O" http://ang0018.wixsite.com/mysite/beginning-reading
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The Reading Genie
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/
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“The Clown Who Lost Her Smile”
https://www.readinga-z.com/book/decodable.php?id=64
Assessment: Finishing sentences with ow
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/-ow-making-the-ou-sound-worksheets-6333441
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