Group Teaching Session: Prefixes, Antonyms and Spelling.

Learning Objectives: introduce the terms prefix and antonym. Explore the use of spelling rules as a possible  spelling strategy. Encourage students to find patterns in words, discover useful spelling rules, think about word meanings and use dictionaries or a thesaurus.

Understand the term "prefix".  Use knowledge of prefixes to work out word meanings. Rw/E3.1 Rw/L1.3 Rw/L2.1

Use knowledge of prefixes to decode /read words. Rw/E2.2 Rw/E3.5

 Use thesaurus and dictionary to find out or check meanings, find antonyms, check spelling, word origins, etc.   Rw/L2.2

Understand term "antonym".  Make antonyms of common words - especially those that are formed by using prefixes. Ww/E3.2

Understand and use rules for adding prefixes as one possible spelling strategy.  Ww/E2.2  Ww/E3.2  Ww/L1.1  Ww/L2.1

NEW: comments from other students / tutors

1) We started class with an introduction to prefixes.  "A letter or group of letters that are added to the front of a word to change its meaning". Several examples were written on the whiteboard. Suggestions or questions were welcomed from students.

2) The whiteboard was then divided up into ten areas - each area can be labelled as above, or use the set of header cards available as PDF (86K).  Share out the smaller game cards between the students and then use the list of root words (page 5 of PDF file) to play the game.

3) Tutors may prefer to play the game with a smaller selection of prefixes - that's fine! Download the PDF for full instructions, useful OT and  worksheets for individual work after the group session.

Thanks to following game players for all their contributions: Ross, Andrew, Liz, Luisa (students), Linda (volunteer tutor and chief dictionary-checker!) and Maggie (tutor).

1) The following week we returned to prefixes, going over some of the rules we had discovered whilst playing the game (useful OT in PDF). We also discussed a few oddities (flammable / inflammable, impractical / unpractical) and confusables (disinterested / uninterested, etc).

2) An overhead transparency (doc file)  (OT) that had been used in a previous group session on descriptive writing was redisplayed. The positive house description was looked at and possible antonyms were discussed. It was pointed out that although prefixes are often used to form antonyms this is not always the case. The negative description (see OT) can be used for similar discussion. Example prompts below:

3) Students then continued to work on individual worksheets (worksheets and extension activities available in PDF download).

Tutor's conclusion: "... this was a very successful activity that I would definitely do again. All members of the group contributed and everyone seemed to find the spelling rules useful.
There was little time left to discuss the meanings of the prefixes used in the game - we need to revisit antonyms during another group session. As a class we had previously covered adjectives - could have reinforced this by indicating which words (made in the game) were adjectives.
During the second session the "Prefix Spelling Test" (available in PDF file) was very successful - everyone felt as if they had achieved something. After the second session several students asked for copies of the overhead transparency to keep for reference.
Definitely need someone to check suggested words in the dictionary - thanks Linda! "

Possible changes: Didn't need all the root words - half of those on the list would have been enough! Could have played game with less prefixes.

Comments from students and other tutors
Hilary Scotton from Sutton College of Learning for Adults says, "Your prefix activities involving the use of cards was right up my street as I often use card-based activities in my Spelling Workshop. The group is small so I dealt out a full set of prefixes to each student."
... and a suggestion from David Morley, a student in Hilary's class: "Turn the activity into a competition. As students name a word with the correct prefix they should turn over that prefix card. The first person to turn over all their cards was the winner."
"It worked very well," concludes Hilary.

Useful Links: Visit DfEE Standards site for downloadable spelling banks which include huge lists of word with prefixes, along with meanings of prefixes, group and individual activities, etc.

Chris Jackson has some good interactive prefix quizzes on his Basic Skills site at Manchester City College (select quizzes - spelling - prefixes).

ESL Self-Study Quizzes includes a nice quiz on negative prefixes.

Spellzone 30+ interactive lessons including 9 page prefix section.

Wild World of Words has some useful online quizzes about prefixes and suffixes.

Printed exercises and reference material: try these books for further practise with prefixes - General (Basic Spelling. Michael Temple) 7195-7026-3, Negative Prefixes (English Basics Book 2. Mark Cholij)  0-521-64864-5.

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