Lesson Plan

Book Summary: The book used for this mini-lesson is Froggy Goes to School by Jonathan
London. In this book, Froggy has his first day of school. He says he isnt nervous, but his dream
says otherwise. At school, he learns how to read his name, but it is hard for him to pay attention.
By the end of the day, Froggy realizes that school is fun.

Rationale: Froggy Goes to School can be used for the purpose of teaching the short vowels o
and u. Jonathan London uses many single syllable words containing these vowels, such as, hop,
and bus.

Objective: Students will be able to identify examples of short o and short u vowel words
throughout the book Froggy Goes to School, by Jonathan London.

Procedure
To introduce the lesson on short o and short u vowel sounds, the teacher will read two
poems, Otter and Frog and Muddy Rubber Ducky, both by Lorrie Birchall. While reading
each poem, the teacher will point out each word that contains a short o or short u vowel. The
teacher will read that word, and pronounce the sound that is heard.
Next, the teacher will model a word sort containing these vowels. Using a pocket chart,
there will be two columns labeled Short o and Short u. The teacher will begin by laying
down a known word as a key word for each vowel. She will then read each word and isolate the
vowel: Here is the word hop. Listen: hop, op, //. Hop has the short o sound in the middle. We
will listen for other words that have the same vowel sound in the middle The teacher will repeat
this for Short u vowel.

The teacher will then pick a new word from the pile of cards, such as, stop. The teacher
will say, I am going to put this word under hop. Listen: ho-o-op, sto-o-op. They have the same
vowel sound in the middle. The teacher will continue to model.

Guided Application: The teacher will have each student come up, one at a time, to sort a word.
Once the students have sorted all the words, the teacher will read all the words in the Short o
column and ask the students what pattern those words follow. Then, the teacher will repeat this
for the Short u column. With the teachers guidance, the students will make a generalization
about Short o and Short u words. The generalization will be that in most closed syllable
CVC and CCVC words, the vowel is usually short.

Application: Students will go on a word hunt, using Froggy Goes to School. They will go
through the book, and find words that have the short o and short u vowel. They will be given a
sheet of paper with two columns, Short o and Short u, to create their lists. Students will
have to find at least 5 words for each column.

Effectiveness of the Lesson: In order to assess students understanding of short o and short u
words, they will be required to hand in their lists of words from Froggy Goes to School. If they
are able to properly identify at least 5 short o and short u words, the lesson is effective.