Language Arts Canadian Lead Primary School
Setting up your elements
I have a specific setup in my practice consisting of a large whiteboard and magnetic tiles. These have been developed over time to give me the flexibility to construct any word in the English language. This helps to reinforce the idea of the elements and how they interact to create words.
Please bear in mind: what you see below is a SCOPE not a SEQUENCE.
The movable quality of these tiles allows students to practise forming and deconstructing words before committing them to writing.
There are many commercial products available to help you establish your setup, or you could simply make them yourself. Minimally, I like to have this at my disposal:
- The individual letters of the alphabet
- Common consonant and vowel digraphs
- A working list of prefixes
- A working list of bound bases
- A working list of suffixes
- Blank tiles for improvisation
KEY PRINCIPLE
The Language Arts approach encourages the use of a moveable set of elements to show not only how words can be blended, but also how they can be segmented in to meaningful units.
The Elements Set Up Video (9 minutes)
Your morphemes
Lyn Stone
You’ve seen my list. What prefixes, bases and suffixes would you add? Please post your answer below.