mudassardev312

Investigating the underlying structure of words through the analogy of  'opening up a mystery box'. This activity introduces an important linguistic feature, which demonstrates that words have many layers (substructure) that need to be uncovered to reveal the reason for the spelling. Only through careful investigation of these 'hidden' layers can we begin to fully understand why and how words are spelled the way they are. These grade 2/3 students are investigating the underlying structure of words using the analogy of a mystery box. This activity was specifically planned to introduce the concept that words have a linguistic structure that is not at first 'visible'. These students did not have any previous knowledge of how the English spelling system really works. Our investigative question:  Why is <hoping> spelled with one <p>  but <hopping> spelled with double <pp>?  The answer lies in the MEANING...this may, at first, seem like a simpl...

...in the previous post I discussed some ways to utilise literature, such as big books, to explicitly guide a structured word inquiry. This particular big book, This is the Bear and the Scary Night , uses a wide range of expressive verbs, highlighting the (-ed)  suffix to indicate the past tense. What an excellent way  to guide a structured word inquiry into:  -->the function of the suffix (-ed); -->the phonemes that represent the suffix (-ed); -->the suffixing pattern for the final, single,  silent (e); and glow + ed --> glow ed Why doesn't the final <w> double? --> an investigation into some significant vowel phonemes to represent the long /o/ phoneme. float + ed --> float ed Why are there no changes to the base? hope/ + ed --> hop(e) ed Why is the final, single, silent (e) removed? swoop + ed --> swoop ed How does the etymology of this word help us understand the grapheme (oo)? Use authentic wri...