Found in the Files: 8A = 97

Submitted by Steve Schmidt on Tue, 08/03/2021 - 11:27
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Hi Everyone,

We recently moved from a home we lived in for over a decade. One thing I found in my files during the move was a handout about affixes (prefixes and suffixes) I used during face-to-face STAR training. This handout made the bold claim that for readers up to grade level 8, eight affixes accounted for 97 percent of use in printed school English. The reading instruction takeaway is that if we can teach our emerging readers these 8 affixes, they will be able to unlock the pronunciation and meaning of a host of words that use these affixes.

So, what are these affixes?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What methods are you using to teach affixes to your students?

Thanks in advance for your comments,

Steve Schmidt

Moderator, LINCS Reading and Writing Group

 

Comments

Hi Steve, I agree that it's super important to draw learners' attention to patterns such as these. I'm struck by the number of prefixes that mean "not."

One activity that can be meaningful is to have learners generate as many words as they can using one of the prefixes. Another task I like to engage learners in is looking through a relevant text to find the prefixes we have been focusing on. 

I've also had learners search for suffixes such as the "-ed" ending, which then leads to a lesson on the different ways this ending is pronounced. I'll copy a couple of online sorting activities I created focused on the pronunciation of "-ed" endings. I emphasize that we need to add an extra syllable only when words end with /t/ or /d/. All the words come from a text we read in class. 

I know members have many other teaching tips they can share with us here.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

So, the cute bullet point links don't work but I think the actual links to the ideas do.   I've decided to try to upload at least 5 things a week to my site and making something more sharable for these can go on the list :)   

Word Parts Exercises

For six months in 1998, I had an intern position at ldonline.org .   I'd been active on its forum for a while and I was gobsmacked that basically ONE LADY (with an intern) had gotten so much content up there!   I got to read journal articles and get permission to share (surprised how easy that was!), put a weekly "teacher tip" up.... 
 ... so when that was "up,"  I learned enough HTML to make my own site.  I'd spent 5 years teaching Language Fundamentals -- structured, multisensory phonics -- to folks at The New Community School adn had a lot of stuff sitting in files.  I put some things out for sale ... 
     Welp, life went on ;)  I became gainfully employed again.... but the past year or so I've tried to go back and revive a few things.  F'rinstance, I'd made a PDF with word lists of all kinds of phonics patterns, and I made it into a better PDF and then made it into Word files .   I am going to try to upload Stuff From The Files -- starting with the amazing progression from categorizing lists to organizing ideas into an outline...  so they'll land somewhere in Reading Comprehension

... but what I really, really, really want to do is figure out how to develop that same kind of structured, multisensory material for adults learning math.  I'm playing around with lessons in the times tables -- and trying to learn how to make it into a Moodle course to see if people would want to try it.  

Now, I've got a few more Days Really Off, then next week is "prep week" at the college and I have no idea what that's going to be like.  They moved or got rid of all but 3 positions in our student support unit, closed it, and are sending us up to the library.  My main duty is supporting and  tutoring students in pre-college level math and reading -- and when there were oh, 2 FT tutors and support from math profs for 3 hours each day, it was so busy we were running out of seats... now it's just me. BUT!   I'm going to try ;)  

Prob'ly TMI TMI ;)  

Hi Susan, Thanks for sharing these helpful exercises! I just checked all the links in Steve's and my posts, and they all work for me. I'm curious what might be the issue.

Members, are the links working for you?

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Thanks for bringing up the topic of teaching affixes!

I whole-heartedly agree that teaching intermediate/advanced readers about commonly-used word parts helps them to accurately read and recognize more words. For some readers, learning the skill of "chunking" longer words into decodable parts gives them another key to the (sometimes) mystery of written English. 

During the last school year, in response to request and need from Minnesota STAR teachers, I created e-Advanced Alphabetics, a FREE set of slides for teaching compound words and the most common affixes (8 suffixes, 8 prefixes). It is a very flexible resource that teachers are encouraged to select and adapt as needed. In fact, there is a handout of valuable ideas from reading teachers who used the slides in their virtual classrooms! I learned a lot about affixes while as I created the slides...and yes, there are many that mean "not." If you are interested in viewing or using e-Advanced Alphabetics, go to: https://atlasabe.org/resource/e-advanced-alphabetics/  Many of the slide sets include short texts that use 10 of the taught words for sentence combining or oral readings. 

PS I was able to open the documents and links.