Issue 17: Morphemic Spelling Activity | Mary Beth Steven

A few years ago, I had my students write me a letter at the start of the school year. It was a way for them to introduce themselves to me. They wrote about their families, their likes and dislikes, favorite activities, and more.

After the initial reading of the letters, I looked at them again, noting misspelled words, sentence structures, legibility of their handwriting, use of margins, and other writing-related features. As I made a list of the misspelled words, what startled me more than anything else was the number of students who misspelled 'goes.' My students were incoming fifth graders (ten years old). This is a word they had been using for years, and yet, 15 out of 60 students couldn't spell it. A look at the attempted spellings revealed the strategy being used – sound it out.

*gows
*gose
*go's
*gous

I knew immediately how to help. The students needed to see the word family for <go>.

I suspected that the students understood that 'go' and 'goes' were related in meaning, but I wondered if they had ever actually seen 'go' surrounded by the other members of its word family. Had they seen that every member includes the base <go> or that we build those members by adding elements to <go>? If they had, they would not be thinking that *<ws> was a suffix to add to <go>, would they?

After showing my students that 'goes' was composed of <go + es>, I concluded that this kind of misunderstanding probably comes from students learning the spelling of a word outside of its family. An example of this is when second-grade students learn the word 'busy,' but it isn't until three years later that they learn 'business.' I wanted to change that. I wanted my students to see how words are related by spelling and meaning, so I created the activity below. Not only have my students grown in their understanding of the morphological structure of words, but they've also had opportunities along the way to better understand the suffixing conventions and so much more!

When we talk about morphemes, we are talking about the smallest forms in a word that carry or contribute to that word's meaning. When we write the word sum for 'helping' as <help + ing>, there is a recognition that the word has two morphemes. This word consists of a base plus a suffix. Some words consist of one morpheme. When that is the case, that morpheme is called a free base. Morphemes that are free bases don't have to have other morphemes fixed to them. They can, of course, but it isn't necessary in order for us to recognize the free base as a word. The words 'help' and 'helping' both have the free base 'help.' We call that a free base because it can be used as a word on its own. The suffix <ing>, on the other hand, is a bound morpheme. It must be fixed to a base in order for us to use it. When used, it is always part of a word but is not a word on its own. All prefixes, connecting vowel letters, and suffixes are bound – but so are some bases. I begin this activity using free bases because my students are familiar with the words, and I am highlighting the morphemic structure in the words they already know.

Preparation

Before I ask my students to engage in the following activity, they need to know what a word sum is. I might use a word like 'jumped' to demonstrate. If I write it as a word sum, I am showing the two morphemes that combine to create this word. The word sum would be <jump + ed -> jumped>. I would also demonstrate that we read this word sum as "j u m p plus ed, which is rewritten as jump ed." Notice that the graphemes in the base are read individually, but the graphemes in the suffix are read quickly, as a unit. The arrow is where we pause and look back at the place where the base is joined to the suffix. Do we need to apply any suffixing conventions? Since we don't, we move on and spell the completed word, leaving a slight pause between the base and the suffix to indicate awareness of the two elements.

Activity – Spelling by Morphemes

I start by choosing a free base and 5-7 words that have the same free base in their structure. Notice that I've chosen a free base they are very familiar with. My goal with this exercise is to show them that words have structure - meaning they are built of one or more morphemes.

<help>
helper
helped
helps
helping
unhelpful

I have the students write the base we are focused on at the top of their paper. I tell them that I will be reading a word and asking them to write a word sum for it on their paper. I demonstrate what I mean by writing the word sum for 'jumped' (jump + ed -> jumped) on the board. I also tell them that the spelling of the base 'help' will be the same in each word sum. It is the base that carries the main meaning in the words that I'm about to read. If we change it or split it into something like 'he + lp,' it is no longer the base 'help' with the meaning of "offer aid."

I proceed by reading the first word on my list. I read it, use it in a sentence, and then read it again. I give the students time to write 'helper' as the word sum <help + er -> helper>.

This process is repeated for each word on my list. Once the students have written down their word sums, I ask for volunteers to write the same word sums on the board. As this is happening, I ask students to compare what they have on their paper to what they see on the board. Do they have any questions? Have they written a word sum for each? I've had some students use an equal sign instead of a process arrow. This is where I can point out that the arrow indicates that joining the morphemes is a process that results in a completed word. The two sides of the word sum may or may not be "equal."

The next step is to ask students to read aloud the word sums. It's important to begin asking students to spell out each morpheme. (This may be something the adult needs to practice as well.) This is important because announcing morphemes as if they are words can confuse students and send the wrong message about what is a word and what is not. Besides, we don't really know the specific pronunciation of each morpheme until it's part of a completed word. Take the base <dict> "say or tell," for instance. Even though we see it in predict, diction, and indict, there isn't a consistent pronunciation that makes sense to use.

I repeat this activity with other free bases such as 'jump,' 'hold,' and 'look.' When I sense that the students are understanding that words must have a base and may have one or more affixes, we are ready to move on to different types of bases. I begin with a free base that has a single, final, non-syllabic <e> such as 'give,' 'hope,' or 'make.' In the five to seven words I choose, I make sure that I have suffixes that require the final <e> to be replaced and some that do not. I will also choose a compound word on occasion.

Once I've read each of the words and the students have written word sums, we again look at those word sums and discuss any misunderstandings about either the left side of the word sum (base plus affixes) or the right (final spelling). (*Notice that in the example above, the student has misapplied the suffixing convention when a base was added.) When I ask the students to read aloud the word sums, I ask the students to explain why they either replaced the final <e> or why they did not. Students explain the suffixing conventions in their own words and how they are or are not applied depending on the situation. Words are chosen specifically to help the students learn to recognize and explain the following situations:

1. The final <e> on the base is replaced with a vowel suffix. (give/ + ing -> giving)
2. We don't replace the final <e> if we are not adding a suffix. (for + give -> forgive)
3. We don't replace the final <e> if we are adding a consonant suffix. (for + give + ness -> forgiveness)
4. We don't replace the final <e> if we are adding another base. (make + up -> makeup)

When I see that the students understand this first suffixing convention, we move on to the convention in which they might double the final consonant on the base. I might use bases such as 'stop,' 'sad,' or 'clip.' Again, I include words that provide situations in which the students have to choose to either apply the suffixing convention or not. I want the students to recognize and explain the following situations:

1. The final consonant on the base doubles when adding a vowel suffix to a one syllable base with one final consonant and a single vowel preceding that consonant. (stop + ed -> stopped)
2. The final consonant on the base does not double when adding a consonant suffix. (stop + s -> stops)
3. The final consonant on the base does not double when we are not adding a suffix. (un + clip -> unclip)
4. The final consonant on the base does not double when we are adding another base. (clip + board -> clipboard)

When the students demonstrate that they understand the doubling suffixing convention, I switch to a base in which the final <y> might toggle with an <i> as a suffix is added. When I introduce this convention, I use bases such as 'busy,' 'heavy,' or 'dirty.' When focused on this particular suffixing convention, I choose words for which my students can explain the following:

1. The final <y> toggles to <i> when the letter before the final <y> is a consonant AND the suffix begins with something other than an <i>. (busy + est -> busiest)
2. The final <y> does not toggle to <i> when the letter before the final <y> is a vowel. (en + joy + ed -> enjoyed)
3. The final <y> does not toggle to <i> when the suffix begins with an <i>. (busy + ing -> busying)
4. The final <y> does not toggle to <i> when another base is added. (heavy + weight -> heavyweight)

As the understanding of the suffixing conventions solidifies, I move on to bases that we are investigating in class ('graph,' ‘water,' 'write'). Beyond that, I choose bound bases that we've encountered by then (<struct>, <port>, <dict>) and also bases that I'd like to review.

Each time we repeat this activity, the process is the same. What changes is the type of base we focus on and what might need to happen at the places where the morphemes join. Students get to practice thinking of a word as a combination of morphemes. They practice thinking through whether or not applying a suffixing convention is warranted. Because of repeated exposure, they become familiar with many prefixes, suffixes, connecting vowels, and bases. And most important of all, they consider that words come in families – they share spelling, and they share meaning. What they don't necessarily share is the pronunciation of the morphemes – that can sometimes shift. My year-end goal for them is to spell words morpheme by morpheme instead of letter, letter, letter.

Mary Beth Steven

Mary Beth Steven recently retired after teaching fifth grade in a public elementary school in Wisconsin, USA. For most of those 26 years, Mary Beth was frustrated that she couldn't truly help her students understand English spelling. The materials available encouraged rote memorization of word lists. As a result, many students disliked writing and absolutely hated spelling.

Everything changed in 2012 when Mary Beth read a blog about a teacher using Structured Word Inquiry. She began incorporating SWI and immediately noticed how valuable it was to show students the morphological structure of a word. The activity she’s sharing today was consistently named most effective by her students. During the year-end reflection, students said this activity helped them not only see the morphemic structure of words, but also to notice familiar morphemes in unfamiliar words in other settings.

The year Mary Beth incorporated SWI is also the year she began sharing her classroom experiences by creating YouTube videos featuring her students. Additionally, she began Mrs. Steven’s Classroom Blog in which she describes in detail her classroom experiences and the SWI activities used while teaching orthography, grammar, writing, and science.

Since 2017, Mary Beth has taught two online classes – Bringing Structured Word Inquiry into the Classroom and Getting a Grip on Grammar. Information is available at her blog. She also manages a Facebook group called Structured Word Inquiry in the Classroom.

Extracts from Dystinct Magazine