Do you have children who spell the word ‘jumped’ as ‘jumpt’, and ‘wanted’ as ‘wantid’?
This is because they are listening to the sounds at the ends of words. After all, we tell them to listen to sounds when they spell. Sometimes, it is very helpful to bring a bit of morphology into the teaching of spelling.
What children need to learn is that the suffix ‘–ed’ indicates that a verb is in the past tense. It can be pronounced three different ways:
- In the word ‘lifted’, ‘–ed’ spells ‘id’.
- In the word ‘jumped’, ‘–ed’ spells /t/.
- 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 that focuses primarily on morphology, which helps children to recognise and understand the structures 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.