After third grade students increasingly need to read, spell and understand longer, complex words. Here is research-based guidelines for how to teach longer, more complex words:
1) Longer words (i.e., with three or more syllables) tend to have more regular letter-sound correspondences than do one- and two-syllable words, but students will need specific decoding and word-analysis skills to read, spell and understand them. (Venezky, 1999, p. 241)
2) Teaching how syllable structure relates to vowel pronunciation, as well as practice with syllable stress patterns can help students divide words in to syllables. However, Venezky (1999) cautions: "Teaching formal rules for dividing words into syllables is of doubtful value." (p. 241) Venezky advocates introducing common affixes (prefixes and suffixes), with the object being "...not to teach all possible affixes, but to sensitize the students to look for recurring prefixes and suffixes and to use this knowledge to decode longer words." (p. 241)
3) Teaching the 20 most common prefixes and the 20 most common suffixes will introduce the student to more than 95% of the affixed words in printed school English. (White et al., 1999) See below for a list of the most common affixes and the Levels at which they are explicitly introduced in Lexercise.
4) Bowers and Cooke (2012) advocate a "guided scientific approach" to teaching and learning word structure, identifying words' meaning elements (i.e., prefixes, bases, suffixes) following a formal approach called Structured Word Inquiry. (Bowers & Cooke, 2012).
REFERENCES:
Bowers, P. N. and Cooke, G. (2012). Morphology and the Common Core: Building Students' Understanding of the Written Word. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, Vol.38 (4), 31-35.
Venezky, R.L. (1999). The American Way of Spelling: The Structure and Origins of American English Orthography. New York: The Guilford Press.
White, T.G., Sowell, V., and Yanagihara, A. (1999). Teaching elementary students to use word-part clues. The Reading Teacher, 42. 303-308.
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PREFIXES
Rank (%) |
PREFIX |
MEANING |
Example |
LEXERCISE LEVEL |
1 – 26% |
un- |
not, opposite |
unsaddle |
19 |
2- 14% |
re- |
again, back |
repay |
19 |
3- 11% |
in, im, ir, ill |
not , opposite |
impolite |
19 |
4- 7% |
dis |
not , opposite |
discover |
19 |
5- 4% |
en, em |
cause to |
enjoy |
20 |
6- 4% |
non |
not , opposite |
nonfat |
20 |
7- 4% |
in, im |
in, into |
inside |
20 |
8- 3% |
over |
too much, above |
overdo |
n/a |
9- 3% |
mis |
wrongly |
mistake |
19 |
10 -3% |
sub |
under, lower |
subtract |
23 |
11- 3% |
pre |
before |
prepare |
31 |
12- 3% |
inter |
between, among |
interrupt |
30 |
13- 3% |
fore |
before |
foretell |
20 |
14- 2% |
de |
opposite of |
descend |
19 |
15- 2% |
trans |
across |
transport |
20 |
16- 1% |
super |
above, beyond |
superman |
21 |
17- 1% |
semi |
half |
semicircle |
21 |
18- 1% |
anti |
against |
antiwar |
21 |
19- 1% |
mid |
middle |
midsection |
21 |
20- 1% |
under |
too little, below |
underdone |
21 |
SUFFIXES
Rank - % |
SUFFIX |
MEANING |
Example |
LEXERCISE LEVEL |
1 – 31% |
-s, -es |
plural (nouns) |
cats |
1 & 3 |
2- 20% |
-ed |
past tense (verbs) |
batted |
5 |
3- 14% |
-ing |
progressive ( verbs) |
batting |
5 |
4- 7% |
-ly |
characteristic |
playing |
21 |
5- 4% |
-er, -or |
person connected with |
sailor |
22 |
6- 4% |
-ion |
act, process |
action |
29 |
7- 2% |
-ible, -able |
can be done |
likeable |
25 |
8- 1% |
-al, -ial |
having characteristic of |
final |
n/a |
9- 1% |
-y |
characterized by |
funny |
21 |
10- 1 % |
-ness |
state or condition of |
happiness |
30 |
11- 1% |
-ity, -ty |
state of |
activity |
21 |
12- 1% |
-ment |
action or process |
enjoyment |
18 |
13- 1% |
-ic |
having characteristic of |
comic |
23 |
14- 1% |
-ous |
possessing qualities of |
joyous |
22 & 29 |
15- 1% |
-en |
made of |
wooden |
22 |
16- 1% |
-er |
comparative |
bigger |
15 |
17- 1% |
-ive |
adjective form of noun |
attractive |
24 |
18- 1% |
-ful |
full of |
healthful |
18 |
19- 1% |
-less |
without |
lifeless |
18 |
20- 1% |
-est |
comparative |
smallest |
15 |
|
-s |
3rd person agreement |
|
3 |
|
-‘s |
possessive |
|
4 |
|
-s’ |
plural possessive |
|
10 |
|
-en |
past participle |
|
17 |