Design for Learning

Instructor: L. Donahoo
Lesson Title: Letter/Sound recognition for
Y&U
Curriculum Area: English Language Arts

Grade Level/Cooperating Teacher: KMrs. Burton

Standards Connection: Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds
(phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words. (This does not
include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.) (Words, syllables, or phonemes written in /slashes/
refer to their pronunciation or phonology. Thus, /CVC/ is a word with three phonemes regardless
of the number of letters in the spelling of the word.) [RF.K.2d]
Learning Objective(s):
Students will recognize the difference between the short u sound and the y sound with no
errors.
Learning Objective(s) stated in kid-friendly language:
Today students, we will do our best work and show that we know the difference between the
short u sound and the y sound.
Evaluation of Learning Objective(s):
Students will be given a worksheet that is divided down the center and one side will be labeled
u and the other will be labeled y. Under each of these sections students will cut and paste
pictures that are provided in the correct column. The pictures provided will either have a u or
y beginning sound and the students will paste these in the correct column with 100% accuracy.
Engagement:
The teacher will show the students pictures of objects that have the beginning sound of u or
y. She will ask them what the pictures are of and the first sound they hear in each. Also the
teacher will read a book called The Mutt and the Bug, by Cheryl Ryan. I need students A, B, C
and D to come with me to the classroom next-door for a fun new lesson today. Okay friends, I
need everyone to sit on their bottom with your eyes and ears forward. I dont want anyone to
miss anything. Also I may have a sticker for those who behave and try their absolute best for me
today! Can you do that me friends? I know that you can! Alright, I know that we have had
some trouble with the sound of the letter u confusing it with the y sound, which I can see
how they can be confused. But we arent going to let it confuse us anymore are we? The teacher
will have little pictures of objects with either the beginning sound u and y. Im going to hold
up a picture and I want you to tell me what the picture is of and what is the first sound that you
hear. The teacher will hold up four different pictures, two of the pictures will have the beginning
sound u and two of them will have the beginning sound y. The first picture the teacher holds
up is of the color yellow. Here is the first picture, what color is this? Yes, yellow! What is the
first sound that you hear? Yes yuh! What letter sounds like yuh? The next picture will be
of an umbrella. Here is our next picture, who can tell me what this is? Yes thats right, its an

umbrella. What is the first sound that you hear in that word? Yes, uh. What letter sounds like
uh? Yes, u sounds like that doesnt it? Two more picture guys! The next picture will be a
picture of a yo-yo. Okay, what is this is a picture of? Yes, a yo-yo! What is the first sound that
you hear in the word yo-yo? Yes, yuh! You guys are doing such a good job, one more and we
are going to get started! The last picture will be a n arrow pointing up, that stands for the word
up. Last picture friends, where is the arrow in the picture pointing? Yes, up! What is the first
sound in the word up? Yes uh. You guys did such a good job! Now that we have reviewed the
sounds I want to read you a story called The Mutt and the Bug by Cheryl Ryan. What do you
think this story is about? Yes, a mutt and a bug. Can anyone tell me what a mutt is? Yes, its a
dog isnt it? Thats right! (Transition to teaching)
Learning Design:
I. Teaching: The teacher will read the book The Mutt and the Bug by Cheryl Ryan. Before she
starts reading the story she will ask the students to listen and pay attention. I want you all to
make the uh sound that the letter u makes. What does your mouth do when you make that
sound? Before I read the book The Mutt and the Bug I want each of you to sit on your bottom
and put on your listening ears! Can you do that for me? What sound do you make when you see
a ugly bug and want to smash it? What about the sound uh!? Well that is the sound that I
think of. And every time you hear an ugly /u/ sound I want you to act like you are squishing a
bug like this and say uh. The teacher will show the students how to act like they are squishing
a bug by using one finger and pushing down on the table and making the sound uh. Friends I
want you to listen very closely for the uh sound in the words that Im going to read. Like I
said before, if you hear that sound in a word I want you to squish your imaginary bug and say
uh? The words that the students should do this for will be mutt, hut, rug, bug, jug, cup,
jumped, just, hug and cub. Each time the teacher says one of those words, whether they squish
their imaginary bug or not. The Mutt and the Bug. I already see some of you squishing your
bugs! Can you sound out each letter in the word mutt together for me friends? M-u-tt. Thats
right! Now sound out each letter in the word bug. B-u-g. Great job! Im going to keep reading
and I want you to keep listening for the uh sound okay? The teacher will continue reading to
the students and each time she comes across a word that has the uh sound she will stop and
discuss that word and the sounds with the students.
II. Opportunity for Practice:
Students will be given sentence strips that contain words that are mentioned in the book The
Mutt and the Bug, by Cheryl Ryan. Okay friends, Im going to give you each a sentence that
relates to the book that we just read. Each sentence strip will contain six words that are all the
same for each student, except for the second word, which is different for every student. The
students will each receive a baggie of two different versions of their sentence. Does everyone
have their sentences? One of their sentences will be whole and completed and the other will be
cut into three pieces and they have to arrange them in the correct order. I want to make your
sentences match okay? Make the sentence that is cut into three pieces one whole sentence strip.
Everyones sentence is the same except for one word. I want each of you to read aloud your
sentence starting with A. The students A-D will then take turns reading aloud their sentences.
The teacher will assist each student if they struggle reading the words and will ask them to sound
out each letter and put those sounds together, but will not give them the answer. After a number

of attempts if the student cant read the word, ask another student in the group what the word is.
Then ask the original student what the word is and to re-read their sentence. Repeat this with
each student in the group and go around one more time allowing the students to read their
sentences one last time. They will read their sentence strips two times in all (unless they
struggled with it the first time then it will be their third time to read it). Great job guys!
III. Assessment
Friends Im going to walk you back to your classroom for you to finish a worksheet on the
sounds that we have talked about today. What sounds have we talked about? Yes, y and u.
This worksheet will have pictures at the bottom for the students to cut out. The rest of the
worksheet will be divided in half with y on one side and u on the other and these will
represent the beginning letter sounds. There will be three boxes under each letter sound and the
teacher will explain to students what they need to do in these boxes. The bottom of this
worksheet has six pictures that you will need to cut out. See how at the top one side is labeled
u and the other is labeled y? Okay, what I want you to do is paste the pictures that have
the beginning sound y on the y side and the pictures that have the beginning sound u on
the u side. Do you think you can do that? I know that you can! The teacher will walk
students back to their classroom and give them a worksheet to work on independently at their
desk.
IV. Closure: What have you learned today? If you can tell me one thing from what we have
talked about today give me a thumbs up. Yes, we discussed the sounds of the letters y and u
didnt we? We now know the difference between the two sounds dont we? We arent going to let
u confuse us anymore, right? The teacher will hold up a flash card of the letters u and y and will
ask the students one last time the sound of each letter. What is this letter? Yes, u. What sound
does this letter make? Yes, uh. What about this letter? Yes, this is y, what does this letter
sound like? Yes, yuh. Such a great job! I think that you are ready to work on this on your
own! Im so proud of each of you.
Materials and Resources:
http://alex.state.al.us
https://www.readinga-z.com/book/decodable.php?id=21
Mutt and the Bug
Sentence strips
Worksheet
Scissors
Glue
Differentiation Strategies (including plans for individual learners):
This is a small group of students that are in my action research group that are overall on the same
level.
Data Analysis:
Overall I was very pleased with how my Action Research Group did with this lesson and on their
assessment. I didnt have to assist them at all and they all finished their assessment with 100%
accuracy. During their practice time I do wish that I saw more accuracy in their reading,

especially of the sight words that they have been going over and spelling almost everyday. With
guidance they eventually were all able to read their sentences, but two of them really struggled. I
had to spend a large amount of time trying to get these two students to figure out what the words
word. I pointed to the words and asked them to sound them out one letter at a time and point to
the sounds as they said them. Although this was a result of me not reading them the sentences
before I asked them to try on their own. I should have asked the students to read each of the
sentence strips together with me before I asked them to read them out loud on their own. But as
far as their assessments, all four students completed them with no errors, which show me that
they know the material, but I need to focus more on putting letters together with words, and
words together to form sentences.
Reflection:
Overall I thought that this was the best lesson I have taught and I think the students responded
really well to it. Although I know that I spent way to much time on the sentence strips with
them. Dr. Rogers and I discussed it after the lesson and I definitely agree. The cooperating
teacher that I am currently with doesnt like us to give the students answers, but rather figure the
answers out on their own. That is why I had a hard time finding middle ground in this lesson
when one of the students was really struggling reading their sentence strips. I realize now after
teaching the lesson that I should have asked the students to all read each of the sentence strips
together before I asked them to read them on their own. Most of the students in this small group
had no trouble reading their sentence, but even the sentences that I used were straight from the
book I just read, I should have known that they would have been too difficult to read 100% on
their own. I stopped and helped the student that was struggling and asked him to sound out the
each word with me. Finally at the end I decided to ask everyone in the group to read the
sentence together with him. And then he finally could read at least half of the sentence. But
during this time when I was helping this one student figure out how to read their sentence
without reading it for them, I completely lost the other three students. Dr. Rogers played back
the video of the group as I was assisting the student that couldnt read their sentence and I saw
first hand that how crucial that time is that I lost and took away from the other students learning
experience. But now I know that without a doubt I would read these sentences with the students
before I asked them to read them. Some of these students are still having trouble with several
letters therefore I cant expect them to read a sentence 100% on their own.

Materials:
Sentence strips:
The bug sat in the hut.
The mutt sat in the hut.
The cup sat in the hut.
The cub sat in the hut.

Flashcards:

Worksheet:

Samford University
Design for Learning