Week Long Word Study-Middle Syllables and Affixes

Samantha Snider
Day of the Week
Monday

Tuesday

Small Group
As a group, the
students will have
a discussion about
how they sorted
their words and
come to a
conclusion about
what the pattern is
for this week
(or/er/en).
The students will
come up with
picture
associations for
their words. They
will draw create
one picture that
encompasses all of
the words in one
group (-er, -or and
-en) into one
picture
representation. The
words should be
present in the
picture
representation.(i.e.
if the ending was
-el the student
could draw a
picture of stairs
(levels) and on
each stair the
student can write
all of their -el
words-model,
angel, novel,
cancel etc.) They
may use any of the
words ending in (er, -or, or -en) to
be the base picture
as long as all words

Individual Activity
The students will
cut their words and
attempt a blind
sort.

Homework
The students will
look through
magazines to find
their words and
words with similar
ending sounds
(er/or/en). They will
cut them out and
bring them to class
in a plastic baggie.
The student will
complete a speed
sort with their
words ending in
-er, -or and -en.
The student will
complete three
trials and time
themselves each
time.

Week Long Word Study-Middle Syllables and Affixes

Samantha Snider
Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

are included.
The students will
bring together all
of their words
found in a variety
of magazines and
paste them on a
piece of poster.
Then they will
circle the -er words
in red, the -or
words in blue and
the -en words in
yellow.

The students will

play word study
scrabble. The
students will use
the tiles provided
to them to form
words that contain
the endings -er, -or
and -en. Each tile
will be assigned a
particular point
value and the
winner will be the
student who has
the highest total.
The students can
also choose to
work as a group to
make words
together and reach
the highest total
possible as a team.
They can take a
vote to decide
which option they
would prefer.
The students will

The students will

complete a speed
sort with their
words ending in
-er, -or and -en.

The students will

create a concept
map which
organizes their
words into word
endings (-er, -or,
and -en).

The students will

The student will

come up with a list
of words ending in
-er, -or and -en.
The list can include
words from their
sort, environmental
words and words
from their
magazine word
hunt. They may
also add words that
they have found
since those
activities have
been completed.
The students will
complete an
environmental
word hunt. They
will look for words
with the associated
endings (-er, -or
and -en) in their
home and outside
environment. They
will record the
words as they find
them. They should
find at least 5
words.

Week Long Word Study-Middle Syllables and Affixes

Samantha Snider
play a match
game. There are a
number of cards
with the 3 endings
and a number of
words with the
endings missing.
The students will
flip over two cards
and will attempt to
match the correct
word with its
missing ending.

write their words in

their word study
journals as their
assessment. They
will divide the
paper into 3
sections -en, -or
and -ar. Then as
the teacher reads
the words they will
spell it and place in
the correct column.

Justification
The students work with -er, -or and -en words throughout the week. They will be
assessed on these words every two weeks. They will have a spelling test at the end
of the two weeks that includes both words from their original list and added words.
The students using this word list are in the middle syllable and affixes stage of
spelling. The students in that stage of spelling need to strengthen their skills with
unaccented final syllables. The students begin the week by completing a blind sort
where they attempt to figure out how the words should be categorized. Then
throughout the week they work individually and in group settings to acquire
confidence in working with unaccented endings. The students in this stage have
mastered beginning and ending sounds and most digraphs and blends. They have a
solid understanding of common long vowels, other vowels, inflicted endings and
syllable junctures. They still need work mastering unaccented syllables because
they spell what they hear and if they cannot explicitly hear a sound they will likely
not spell it correctly. They most likely do not have the amount of experience with
these types of words that would result in mastery. They are beginning to understand
patterns, but they need lots of work on harder suffixes as well as bases and roots.

Week Long Word Study-Middle Syllables and Affixes

Samantha Snider
These word patterns are often spelled differently than they sound and therefore the
student in this phase will misspell words containing these letter patterns. As they
acquire more experience with these words, better understanding will follow. I
started the week by having the students do a blind sort and talk as a group about
the sort for the week. I did this to get an ideas of what the students know. Then the
students do a number of activities including games, drawings and word finds to gain
experience with the words. They have multiple opportunities to sort the words. At
the end of the week, they will be assessed. They learn to associate words with
similar endings.