mudassardev312

Understanding the 'essence' of the  plural suffixing pattern. During the past few years, teaching Grade One and Two students, I have often observed the children's puzzling expressions and seemingly random guesses when attempting to build a plural word from a singular word.  I have observed students who on one day will use (-s) to build a plural word in their writing but on another day decide to choose (-es), or use an apostrophe (-'s), for no real reason but just to experiment! Or maybe their parents have shared some 'interesting rule' that they learned at school many years ago.  The students can often  demonstrate understanding of the difference between singular and plural and know that there are two choices, (-s) or (-es) ... but which one?  Over the years,  I have implemented and experimented with a variety of different strategies and ways to support children's learning of this concept. Critical to success, is ensuring  the children hav...

Building 'word webs' through a collaborative approach . Using a collaborative strategy, Round Table Word Webs ,  students will develop an understanding of the importance of  connecting  SPELLING  with  MEANING,  the essence of the English spelling system.  The students will have an opportunity to build a number of different word webs, by collecting words that all have a common  base . This activity will help students to understand how and why words are related in  'word families'  and how this essential knowledge demonstrates the key to the spelling. Read on for further details regarding this collaborative activity by clicking on the link.