Using morphology to teach word structure.

Amber Guardians, Workbook, books 1-10

Do you have children who spell the word ‘jumped’ – like this: ‘jumpt’ and ‘wanted’ like this: ‘wantid’?

This is because they are listening to the sound/s at the end of the word. This is because we tell them to listen to the sounds when they spell. But sometimes it is very helpful to bring a bit of morphology into our teaching of spelling.

What children need to learn it that the suffix ‘-ed’ indicates that a verb is in the past tense. It can be pronounced three different ways:

1. In the word ‘lifted’ – ‘-ed’ spells ‘id’

2. In the word ‘jumped’ – ‘ed’ spells /t/

3 In the word ‘grabbed’ – ‘ed’ spells /d/

Children need to remember that the suffix has an important job to do (showing the past tense) and is always spelled ‘-ed’ regardless of how it is pronounced.

Our  Amber Guardians Series is accompanied by a workbook which focuses on primarily on morphology which helps children to recognise and understand the structure of words and parts of words through the study of morphology. Fully photocopiable and with answer sheets included, the workbook is a useful resource to support teaching practices and document a child’s understanding and progress.

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