How Words Are Built Lesson / Unit - Visual Explanations & Practice Sheets

Teach your students how the English spelling system really works (beyond just phonics) - starting with how words are built (prefixes, bases, suffixes, and the ‘joins’ between them). This complete morphology lesson/unit is not ‘cute’ or babyish and it is open-ended, so it can be used with all levels and ages.

Based on research by a dyslexic scholar, the explanations and ‘rules’ included will show your students that English spelling does make sense and that there are reasons why words are spelled the way they are. No more frustration, guesswork or rote learning required.

This 45-page printable PDF includes:

• Lesson Plan
• Ideas for Use
• Open-Ended Pre-Assessment
• Open-Ended Post-Assessment
• 10 full-color visual explanations
• 10 blackline Practice sheets
• 10 answer sheets
• 11 blackline open-ended extension sheets

The Lesson Plan is:

• Ready to use - all you need is a whiteboard and the print-outs
• Inquiry-based, starting with the gathering of evidence and the finding of patterns.
• Open-ended, with opportunities to extend the learning further.
• Balanced between inquiry, practice, and extension.

The Visual Explanations, 10 Practice Sheets and 11 open-ended extension sheets cover:

• How words are built (morphemes: prefixes, bases, suffixes).
• Changes that can happen when you add a suffix.
• Prefixes
• Adding consonant suffixes
• Consonant suffix examples
• Adding vowel suffixes
• When vowel suffixes cause doubling (in monosyllables)
• When vowel suffixes cause doubling (in polysyllables)
• When vowel suffixes take away the <e>
• Vowel suffix examples

The Highly-Visual Explanation Pages can be used as mini-posters, on screen, in student journals, or as a teaching aid.

This explanation of spelling rules is backed up by decades of research by a dyslexic scholar into linguistics and the history of the English spelling system (orthography), including right back to when Samuel Johnson was choosing which spellings to use when he wrote the first definitive English language dictionary. You will not find bogus rules like ‘i before e except after c’ in this collection!

An understanding of English orthography also develops strengths in vocabulary, reading, oral language and comprehension, and can be used to complement the Science of Reading, Orton-Gillingham, and Structured Literacy approaches.

Suggested Lesson Plan/Structure:

Optional: Students complete open-ended pre-assessment about their knowledge of why words are spelled the way they are.