Generate- Sort- Connect - Elaborate

 This is an example of the generate, sort, and connect part.

My students in my skills class are needing word work to help break down vocabulary for meaning. I had my kids generate lists of prefixes on their desks with whiteboard markers. From there they partnered up with another student and compared their lists. I asked them to look at words that had similar roots following the prefix. They wrote "roots" on a large sheet of paper, chose 3-4 four of the ones they discovered coming off of branches from these.

Once this was done, I asked them to generate a list of words using these roots. They branched off of the roots with as many examples as possible of real words they could come up with by using our original list of prefixes and adding any suffixes they could think of.

At the end of this, I counted up each partnerships real words and gave them a prize.

Then I asked them to connect words that had similar prefixes with one color and similar suffixes with another color (look at the picture in green and orange to see a good example).

 This is an example of elaborating to create words.

Once they have connected all of their words with similar roots, they study them to try to discern what each piece means. If you look at the picture of the definition of roots, you can see how they did this.

This is a word students made up by understanding three different parts of words.

I then asked them to make up a non-real word using a prefix, a root, and a suffix. They then wrote out a definition to this non-real word in order to show their understanding of how these three pieces work together to create meaning and change parts of speech.

This lesson was important to my students and I because they need vocabulary building strategies and an understanding of parts of speech.