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In my first post (and I mean that quite literally) I asked for (and got) lists of prefixes, suffixes, and roots to be compiled into an exhaustive list. Now, to put them to use! I'd like to put together five lesson components that will include an introduction (to whatever prefix, suffix, root, or combination of those on which I'll be focusing that week) and an assessment at the end of the week. I have the intro and assessment parts figured out.
What I'd like are suggestions as to lesson components that will help the kids: connect the dictionary meaning of the word (or actual everyday usage) with the literal meaning of the root + prefix + suffix, and, become cognizant of and readily recognize the meanings of the more common prefixes, suffixes, and roots.
The lessons need to be quick (20 min. max) and academically vigorous. The school district I work for has mandated a whole bunch of silly curriculum so I have very little time for the useful stuff.
Thanks in advance!
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Boy, Bigwig, you look lonely. Mind if I join you?
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The lessons need to be quick (20 min. max) and academically vigorous. The school district I work for has mandated a whole bunch of silly curriculum so I have very little time for the useful stuff.  No,Boy, Bigwig, you're not lonely. Only your request might not be on the menue. I've been a teacher part of my life, but I always took it making lessons is part of a teacher's job.(the true vocation). I may be wrong , but I don't think you will find ready-made GOOD lessons on the internet.( Not sure about that though)
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do you mean taking a word like PHOTO as in photograph or photophobic or photosynthisis or photo...(what is that work that is used to about plants? not photogenic, (but that's another photo word) but the name of a plant hormone that effects the parts of plants exposed to light?) and relate them to science? (the tops of plants grow towards the sun, but the roots tend to be photophobic!) or other stuff like telephoto lenes on cameras, or radiophoto space exploration? i would suggest something like one lookto search for words. (enter *photo or Photo* and get hundred of words with photo as a root, or prefix or suffix!
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Actually, I'm doing almost the reverse. I want to take a word like "unindictable", and have the students: recognize that the word has a prefix, root, and suffix; recognize and remember the meanings of common prefixes and suffixes; and finally, to learn as many new roots as possible.
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have you thought of making up custom 'flash cards? (use a computer, and card stock, and a paper cutter)
side A the prefix/suffix/root (un, dis, ex, ing, ed, tion, etc)
side B a definition of the prefix/suffix/root-- (make up a few sets)
some times a prefix can mean several different things.
take A (amoral) A means Not/lacking (amoral is lacking morals)
but A in arise, awaken, has a totally different meaning!
does ing always make a word into a gerund? (what is a gerund?!)
let the kids try to figure out what the word means (based on the clues the cards provide).
(have some blank cards for root words.. )
you could divide the class into teams. and see which team come up with the right meaning.. each team gets points. (which are worth nothing or worth a 'crown of olive leafs' or something else valueless.)
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Sounds like a great idea! I use groups regularly and points are always awarded because they translate into money within the classroom economy. This helps with motivation and management. I have several millionaires (they started in September with 300).
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my favorite lesson from english was about predicate nomnitive case--(do you remember it? i do!
sing to the tune of yankee doodle:
Be, Seen, Feel, Become, Appear,
Look, Taste, Grow, Sound, Remain, Smell,
Copulative Verbs take Nomative,
Predicate nouns or Adjectives
singing (under my breath!) that list of works, got me through many a state wide test.. (Which Sentence has a predicate noun? --the one with Be, Seen, Feel... would always be my first choice (and usually the right one!))
(and some, (um, lets just say a lot of years!) later, i still know them!
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In my district, the mandated curriculum is a mile wide and an inch deep. Nominative, subjunctive, anything-tive case is not allowed, nor required, nor wanted. We are basically told to teach to the state and district mandated tests. I must fight continually to actually educate my students.
Unfortunately, if you were to ask any of my colleagues to give rules to (or even examples of) what nominative case is, they would not be able to even guess. This is a result of dumbed down language instruction, pervasive from elementary through university. I am self taught. Very sad, that.
Last edited by Bigwig Rabbit; 12/29/07 11:22 PM.
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I am old enough that i learned parts of speech by being taught to diagram sentences!(mind you, i have some dyslexia, and can't spell for beans, but i know how to find the nominative case!)
I won't go into my feelings about the "no child left behind" (too political!) but it's sad.
i often watch Jay Leno, and its sad (i know they cherry pick the worst respondants) how little history, or general knowledge people have (one example i remember was american history..(something as simple as 'why (and what) do we celebrate on July 4th?)
jay started with the "college student" (he didn't know answer) nor did his 'educated parents" but his grandfather (a man in his late 60's or early 70's,) knew the answer in detail!
my kids got pushed not to just to pass tests, but to learn..
even my daughter was depressed at how little (and how inaccurate ) the stuff she was served up at school was.
i deplore the idea of home schooling, but i understand why some parents are for it--schools are less and less about education, and more and more about lock step information (and regurgation)
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Home schooling is an interesting subject. I have known many types of home schooled students; from those that were well educated (I did not say well rounded) to some whose skills appalled even me, a jaded, just-outside-the-inner-city teacher. It all depends on the quality of the education delivered. I would never home school my own kids. I am hardly disciplined enough to make sure my son does his piano practice with any great regularity. There is a certain difference between classroom teaching and home-teaching.
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re (I did not say well rounded)
Oh yes, in our family we agree, TV is crap.. but the kids watch some anyway. watching TV doesn't make you stupid, it make you normal.. same with school.. going to school makes you normal.
you meet others out side of your social set, (richer, poorer, better educated, less educated--those that value the arts, those that value nothing.
in the of best worlds, you learn how to get along with people, and get an education! (in the worst, your cohorts, through peer pressure, bring you down to their level!)
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In the slipstream of considering and treating every child as an individual from a very young age, many useful educational basic helps have disappeared. Such as: mnemonic devices for spelling- conjugation, calculation and important years in national and world history rattled off by the whole class. (those shared incantations were fun) (over 30 kids in three rows).
Singing in class does not survive kindergarten any more (here),
it's considered a waste of time. ( the best shared waste of time
imaginable, but..)
Same chances for all has left us without plummers, bricklayers, carpenters, pavement repairers etc. By the time youngsters, who initially would have chosen a métier(hand-work)are allowed to choose between a hand-work education or the theoretical side, they have becom so bored by (to them) useless theoretical things, that they choose whatever is the easiest way. ( loads of them anyway )
Don't know if this falls under politics or thought sharing.
Let me know if it crossed the line. (or interrupted a steady conversation).
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Oh yes, the silly songs of education. or silly sentences..
HOMES (for the five US great lakes--not in order, (any order!) but it still works!)
My Very Educated Mother Just Sat Upon Noodle Pudding
equals
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupitor, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, (Pluto) --the planets in order!
I before E, except after C
or when sounded as A, (as in neighbor or weigh!)
Garrison Kellior (i used to listen regularly now.. not so regularly) used to have 'the department of folk songs" for many of these silly songs that help remember spelling (encyclopedia!) or grammer, or FACTS.
now, the kids don't know the songs, and worse, don't know the facts!
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>>My Very Educated Mother Just Sat Upon Noodle Pudding.<< Good song! Ah, yes, she just sits on plain Noodles now. 
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I think you have hit the nail on the head. We are (admonished to be ) focused on State Test scores. The current system is educating no one. Your statement that singing in class goes nowhere beyond Kinder is very accurate. I do music, but must disguise it as English Language Development. Certainly, there is no room for singing in the current climate.
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i went to a parochial school class size was over 60--every year (graduation class in 8th grade was 64!)
Ok, we were all girls (more chatter than antics) and there was the threat of expulsion --not unique, but apparently uncommonly, no corporal punishment (we were mortified, but not manhandled!)
we had:
religion,
english,
poetry (once a week, in addition to english, and we had separate poetry books) we read aloud, and were required to memorize!
SRA, (reading)
controlled reading (2 times a week),
spelling (oh how i hated spelling!)and vocabulary
math,
science,
history,
geography,
civics (once a week)
art(once a week--3 weeks of drawing (making art) and 1 week a month of art appreciation),
music (once a week(again, 3 weeks of song, 1 week of music technicalities--like learning to read music.)
Dance (no gym-once a week)
plus, of course, fire drills (NYC Mandates 1 fire drill every 2 weeks-for schools!) (and even air raid drills!)
and field trips (NYC museums, the zoo, the botanical gardens) at least once a year. (often 2 field trips a year) and once a year trips to the local library (to learn library skills!)
and we got out early (1 hour) once a week--a release time progam (so public school kids could come and get religious education!)
our day was full of learning! lots of subjects! (part of that learning was rote and part was songs (another form of rote!))
nowdays, it is 'social studies' history, geography and civics all rolled into one, and more focus on soft stuff and not on dates and facts
Geography! today's kids don't know it, or how to read a map! and they know less civic too,
and we had state wide test (for reading and math comprehension) once a year..and "regents" exams (state wide test in a subject (like history) that were optional, but all good school opted in.. (so parents could see where kids 'stood' compared to others in the state. (my school always came up in 70th or percentile.. not a top school, but still above the average!)
I see my friends kids, doing lots of busy work ("workbook" stuff) they do pages of this stuff in school and many more pages of this stuff for homework!) the kids are bored by this dull work!
in first grade i was expect to memorize poetry .
i am bright, but i wasn't one of those kid who learned to read early.. (i could read words, but real reading, that i learned in school (and as soon as i could read, i was allowed/encouraged to read real stuff, not "dick and jane" junk!)
(while still in elementary school, i discovered serial novels (crime novels no less!) in the newspaper and started to read them!--(NYDaily news!)
my grandkids are in 'charter schools" and one requirement is heavy parental involvement.. my grand daughter (like my son) is a bit slow in learning to read.. but she loves books, and i suspect any day now (she is in second grade) reading will click, and she'll make up 'lost time' (my son went from not reading to reading above grade level in 8 weeks.. ) but the school is in a quandry.. she is 'failing' (and remember, there is to be no child left behind!)--so all the supposed 'individual education" it all crap.. she need to be "normal" (not herself!)
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yep, the world was perfect before today. kids are all stupid because of schools. amazing that anything gets done.
funny when you think about our world leaders that went through schools when they were so good...
formerly known as etaoin...
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The fact that the schools were so good does not imply that their heads were. Sadly.
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alchemy doesn't work any better today than it used to.
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Oh yes, it's not just the schools.. schools are social institutions that reflect the zeitgeist.
I went to school before TV was so pervasive. and at a time (a dark time!) when mothers were discouraged from working out of the home (and when it was economically possible to support a family (a large family!) on a single paycheck and 40 to 44 hours salary.
and i came from a culture that valued education --and reading,and the arts. (it was a struggle for my parents to afford school tuition.. my father brown bagged his lunch, and took a thermos of tea to work (so he didn't have to buy a cup of take out) all so the family could afford the schools.
this kind of commitment to schooling is factor--
in the 1950's things were different.. (in good ways, and in bad ways, too!)
and there was an element of luck.. my parents moved to a neighborhood they could afford.. and the neighboord catholic parish school waa lucky enough to have a Teaching order (and well educated nuns)
(not all nuns who are teachers are well educated..most states do not require parochial school teachers to meet the same standards as public school teachers!--and many a catholic school nun has no more than a HS education!)
and (getting border line political) there was a different attitude about schools and schooling (and none of this "zero tolerance crap' that expects a level of perfection from kids that adults couldn't meet!)
There is change too, in teachers.
when i was a kid, teaching, like nursing (and even being a doctor or lawyer) was considered (or at least presented to us) as a vocation.. something you were called to. not a job, but a way of life.
there were other vocations (religious life was one vocation we were always stressed to consider!) --some people had jobs, but lucky people had a calling .
and this didn't mean forgoing financial rewards (no one thought doctors were poor!) but it was a different attitude.
many of my teachers were nuns, but not all of them.. and some were quite well off, but taught because it filled a need in them. (the art teacher came to our school in a car with a driver! she didn't have to teach.. she wanted to--
that idea, that you would teach for the love of teaching, for the love of your subject, for the love of children was a factor.
I know there are still teacher out there who teach because they too, have a vocation. (god knows they don't chose to teach to get rich!) but for many, (or so it seems) it is a good civil service job.. good hours, summers off...good pension. (a very different set of reasons to become a teacher.)
(my ex became a teacher (in 'title 1" schools as a way to avoid the draft. he was a good teacher.. but it was a job for him. (and he couldn't wait to quit!)
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While looking for something else, I googled across a dictionary of prefixes, affixes, and combining forms gotten from Merriam-Webster's: (caution) PDF.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Thank you VERY much for that. I ran across a problem with the word "dissolve" last week. The source I'm using now indicates that "solv" is the root, meaning "loosen", and "dis" is the prefix, meaning "opposite". Of course that makes no sense. My Webster's Collegiate Dictionaries at school do not list any but the one meaning for that prefix. Interestingly, my home copy has all six meanings.
Anyway, I recognized a need for an authoritative and thorough list. This certainly fits that bill. Thank you!
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You're welcome. Glad I could help. (LOL, I just noticed it was a spelling bee company which makes sense.) The prefix dis-, like many in Latin and other inflected languages, has many meanings. In this case, it's one of separation.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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AHD has a pretty good rundown of the various meanings of the prefix dis-. They don't seem to have separation per se.
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hey don't seem to have separation per se.
I'll go with apart or asunder. I am not a lexicographer, nor do I play one on TV.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Etymological fallacies aside, I suppose [f]ree from will do.
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