Improving spelling through a better understanding of word structure

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How did the teachers raise children's awareness of word structure in lessons?

As morphemes often have a grammatical function (plurals (e.g.' –s'), past tense of verbs (e.g. '-ed'), changing a verb to a noun (e.g. '–ion', as in 'confuse' > 'confusion' etc.) the children completed some exercises to familiarise themselves with verbs, nouns and adjectives. For example, children were asked to decide if a word fitted in a sentence: e.g. 'We saw a sing in the town centre'. The teachers then introduced the concept of morphemes over several stages.

Firstly they introduced a range of morphemes which changed the meaning of words in an obvious way such as 'un-', e.g. 'happy' > 'unhappy'.
Next the children worked with inflectional morphemes that changed the type of word, e.g. '-er' as in teach (verb) > teacher (noun).
The teachers also encouraged the pupils to experiment by adding beginnings (e.g. 'un-') and endings (e.g. '-ness') to different stems, and to think about how this changed the meaning of words, and how adding morphemes changed the way a word was spelt. The types of questions teachers used to get the pupils thinking included:
- Does ‘hop’ become 'hoping' or 'hopping'?
- Why does 'say' have a 'y' but 'said' have an 'i'?
- And does that have anything to do with 'baby' and 'babies'?
In addition the teachers asked the pupils to try to find spelling rules, for example, for when to use '-ion' and '-ian'.

Teachers also encouraged children not just to answer questions but to give reasons for their answers, often discussing and working in pairs.

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction What were the aims of the training and what impact did it have on teachers and pupils? How aware were the teachers of word structure before the training? How did the teachers change as a result of the training? Were there links between children's improved spelling and the training? What were the aims and design of the study? What training did the teachers receive to improve their knowledge of word structure? How did the teachers raise children's awareness of word structure in lessons? What are the implications? Where can I find out more? Glossary Send us your feedback Collated digests To view/remove/add notes and save your collated digests click here Get Word Reader Improving spelling through a better understanding of word structure This digest found in English Send to a friend Word doc 90KB Printer friendly Collate for later How did the teachers raise children's awareness of word structure in lessons? As morphemes often have a grammatical function (plurals (e.g.' –s'), past tense of verbs (e.g. '-ed'), changing a verb to a noun (e.g. '–ion', as in 'confuse' > 'confusion' etc.) the children completed some exercises to familiarise themselves with verbs, nouns and adjectives. For example, children were asked to decide if a word fitted in a sentence: e.g. 'We saw a sing in the town centre'. The teachers then introduced the concept of morphemes over several stages. Firstly they introduced a range of morphemes which changed the meaning of words in an obvious way such as 'un-', e.g. 'happy' > 'unhappy'. Next the children worked with inflectional morphemes that changed the type of word, e.g. '-er' as in teach (verb) > teacher (noun). The teachers also encouraged the pupils to experiment by adding beginnings (e.g. 'un-') and endings (e.g. '-ness') to different stems, and to think about how this changed the meaning of words, and how adding morphemes changed the way a word was spelt. The types of questions teachers used to get the pupils thinking included: - Does ‘hop’ become 'hoping' or 'hopping'? - Why does 'say' have a 'y' but 'said' have an 'i'? - And does that have anything to do with 'baby' and 'babies'? In addition the teachers asked the pupils to try to find spelling rules, for example, for when to use '-ion' and '-ian'. Teachers also encouraged children not just to answer questions but to give reasons for their answers, often discussing and working in pairs.