Item #L5

Independent student discovery of the building blocks of words

Working in a carefully designed booklet and with a good class dictionary as a companion, students explore how words are built from base words with the addition of the most common prefixes and suffixes. Each page encourages them to think for themselves as they create words, and then use their words to show they know the new meanings after affixes are added.

On standardized tests, breaking out base words is often challenging for students. Practice in breaking words down into parts is included in a number of the work pages, with specific rules illustrated and then practiced.

Included in the booklet are:

• 24 unique work pages, including Prefix Explorations, Prefix Discovery, Suffix Explorations, Suffix Discovery, Affix Hunt, Base Word Discovery, Review: Base Words and Affixes, and Prefix and Suffix Challenge

• 3 lists of base words designed for student success with the work pages

• 2 challenge pages where students apply their knowledge in stories

• a check-list for the student to monitor progress

• a glossary of terms

• a letter to the student with an overview of how words are built with affixes

Discovering Words is appropriate for students who have learned the basics of how to navigate a dictionary, have some basic grammar knowledge (functions of verbs, adjectives, adverbs) and who can work relatively independently: approximately ages 8-10.