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Showing posts from October, 2013

Practising, consolidating and refining learning...developing independent spelling projects.

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Developing Independent Word Inquiry Projects For many years  Brian Cambourne  has been researching and writing about the significance of providing 8 learning conditions to ensure deep, purposeful learning and understanding in literacy. Two of these conditions are  use and response . We must provide many opportunities for learners to apply their developing understanding about how the English system works.  Once the students have had multiple opportunities and experiences to learn about the structure of words, they need time to independently practice and apply their understanding. The students can question and reflect on what they know, consolidate new learning and deepen understanding of how the English spelling system works. Developing independent word inquiry projects is one way of ensuring children are given opportunities to fine tune and practice their learning. In this particular activity the children identify some of their own spelling errors and/or identify words of interest for

Interesting and boring suffixes!

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When a suffix is fixed to a base, why do some bases  make a change but others do not? How can we identify which suffixes cause a change to the base? These questions, and many others, begin to quickly emerge when students are exposed and introduced to the underlying structure of words, through the morphological word sum.                              Even young children begin to critically observe and then question why sometimes there is a change and other times there is not a change to the base.  Here is a suffixing activity that demonstrates  the importance  of the vowel suffixes. To begin the learning journey, the students perform a 'suffix hunt'. If I am planning this activity with young children, I prepare a selection of known big books and class texts for the students to search through.  The students identify an appropriate word in a big book, or other appropriate text/literature. To provide proof of the suffix the children write the word sum to demonstrate the different m