Morphology: Adding -ed suffix to a silent e word transcript

Elaine Stanley:

Our second lesson that we're going to introduce to you is adding an -ed suffix. Now for this, for adding -ed, there are three separate applications or lessons in our progression. Today we're showing the second one for adding -ed, and it's when you add the suffix to a silent e or a split digraph word, and this would be taught in Phase 13 of our progression.

Just to give you some background information on what happens before this phase. We first introduce the -ed suffix in Phase 11 when we explain what it means. When you add -ed to a word, it means past tense or something that's already happened. We show how -ed is just added to words where you don't need to do anything to the word, you just add it on the end. As in ‘jump’, if I add the -ed, I make ‘jumped’. It could be yesterday or it could be last week. I've already jumped.

We also learn in that phase, in Phase 11, that -ed can make three different sounds. It can say /ed/, /d/ or /t/: /ed/ as in ‘rested’; /d/ as in ‘sailed’; and /t/ like this one as in ‘jumped’. They learn, even though it's different sounds it might have, it's always that consistent spelling which carries the consistent meaning.

Now we're up to this lesson, our second lesson on -ed in Phase 13. We're learning to add the -ed suffix to the silent e or split digraph word. You can see in this phase that -ed and
-ing are mentioned together in the same phase. That's because they've both been introduced separately in previous phases, but the rules for adding -ed and -ing to a silent e or a split digraph word are the same. If students can cope with it, you can actually do them both together in the same lesson. Completely up to you as the classroom teacher, you might decide to split those into two different lessons.

In this phase in the progression, students are learning different vowel teams as part of their phonics instruction. They've already learned about the split digraph or the silent e in Phase 9. They'd been really familiar with that, and now they're just learning to add the suffix.

Here's our lesson plan. It follows the same format: introduce the morpheme, apply it at the word level for reading and spelling, and then sentence level, and then do your check for understanding to make sure students have understood. We'll put the link here for you for our -ed lesson and worksheet that goes with it.

Slides: https://www.literacyhub.edu.au/search/morphology-lesson-slides-ed-suffix-plus-split-digraph-words/

Worksheet: https://www.literacyhub.edu.au/search/morphology-lesson-student-worksheet-ed-suffix-plus-split-digraph-words/

I would introduce this lesson by saying:

Teacher:

We've already learned that an -ed suffix can have three sounds. It can say /ed/, /d/ or /t/, and it's added to the end of a verb to show past tense or something that's already happened.

Today we're learning how to add -ed to a silent e word. If I've got a word like bake, and I want to say I've already baked something like, ‘Yesterday, I baked a pie’, what I have to do is take the silent e off the end of bake and then I add my -ed suffix.

Elaine Stanley:

You can explain to students, if you don't do that, it's going to say ‘backeed’, so you have to take that e away so that the vowel stays long and it says baked.

Then it's an ‘I do’.

Teacher:

I'm going to add -ed to these words now on my whiteboard. My first word is use. I want to show that I've already used something. I know it's a silent e word. Before I add my suffix, I need to take away my silent e and then I add my -ed suffix. Then I've got used and I might say, ‘I used my pen to write a note.’

Elaine Stanley:

Then I would do the same, demonstrate in the same way with hope and make hoped, and shave and make shaved and have a sentence to demonstrate each one. Then students are going to join in.

Teacher:

We are going to read some silent e words now and then add an -ed suffix to show that something has already happened. Let's read our first word together. Now remember it's a silent e word.

Teacher and student:

/t/, /ī/, /m/. Time.

Teacher:

What do we need to show the past tense of this word?

Student:

Take away the e and then add -ed.

Teacher:

All right, can you do that now on your whiteboard and you can chin it when you're ready. I can see you've taken away that silent e and then added your suffix. Can you tell me a sentence with this word in it?

Student:

On sports day, we timed how fast we ran.

Teacher:

Sports day's already happened and on that day you timed how fast people ran.

Elaine Stanley:

Then we would do the same with vote to make voted, and skate to make skated. Then we move on to sentence reading, so I would demonstrate one in an ‘I do’ slide. We would decode this sentence and we get ‘Mum smiled when she tasted the yummy muffin.’ Then again, I would introduce that level of questioning.

Teacher:

Kerrie, can you tell me one word in this sentence that shows past tense?

Student:

Smiled.

Teacher:

How do we know this has already happened?

Student:

Because the -ed suffix has been added to the end.

Teacher:

That's right, and we had to take away the silent e and then add the -ed. This word tells us that Mum has already smiled and we know she smiled when she tasted that yummy muffin. Lucky Mum.

We're going to write a sentence now and add an -ed suffix to some silent e words.

Elaine Stanley:

Again, we would say the sentence, students repeat, and then they're going to write it. Kerrie's just going to do that for us as I talk. Our sentence is: I smiled and waved as I left school.

As students are doing it, we would break each word down, break the sentence down into each word. When we get to our word with the suffix added, we're going to say, ‘Smiled. What's our base word? Smile. Let's spell that first.’ We would do that. ‘Now what do you need to do to add the suffix?’ And students would know take away the silent e and add the suffix -ed and we would do it bit by bit together.

Teacher:

You can chin your sentence. Now what I would like you to do is just circle any past tense words in your sentence.

Elaine Stanley:

Then we would say, ‘How do we know that they're past tense?’ Because they've got the -ed added. ‘What did we have to do to the word?’ Take away the e and add the -ed.

Again, at this point in the lesson, it's time to introduce our slide for our review that we're going to have for -ed. Now in Phase 11, when students did their first lesson around -ed, they would've learned that question/response that we use every time we see it, so this would be it.

Teacher:

What's the suffix?

Student:

/ed/, /d/ or /t/.

Teacher:

What does it mean?

Student:

Past tense. Something has already happened.

Teacher:

Your word is jump. Add the suffix.

Student:

Jumped.

Teacher:

What does that mean?

Student:

Someone has already jumped.

Elaine Stanley:

Right, now in this second lesson, we're learning another application. I would say:

Teacher:

Okay, you need your whiteboards now for this next word I'm going to give you. Your word is smile. Can you write that one for me? We have to do something to that word.

Elaine Stanley:

I would even give them a clue if they needed about it being a silent e to add the suffix.

Teacher:

Can you do that now to show it's already happened?

Student:

I took away the e and added -ed.

Teacher:

Great. Beautiful.

Elaine Stanley:

We would be checking everyone's work and I'd be assisting where I need to.

This would then be in your review whenever you do your morphology review.

Teacher:

What's the suffix?

Student:

/ed/, /d/, /t/.

Teacher:

What does it mean?

Student:

Past tense. Something has already happened.

Teacher:

Your word is jump. Add the suffix.

Student:

Jumped.

Teacher:

What does it mean?

Student:

Someone has already jumped.

Elaine Stanley:

All right. Then you can include some extra slides with the different type of words. I might say:

Teacher:

Today your word is melt. Add the suffix.

Student:

Melted.

Teacher:

What does that mean?

Student:

Something has already melted.

Teacher:

All right. Now you need your whiteboard for this one because it's a silent e plus suffix. Today your word is save. Add the suffix to show it's already happened.

Student:

I'll take away the e and add -ed.

Teacher:

All right, and chin it when you're ready. How do we know that word has already happened?

Student:

Because it's got the suffix -ed.

Teacher:

What did you have to do to that word?

Student:

I took away the e and added -ed.

Teacher:

Beautiful.

Elaine Stanley:

One thing to note with adding -ed is that some words have an irregular past tense, so they don't always follow the rule of -ed. You can either teach those as a separate lesson to your students to show it doesn't always follow the rule or the generalisation, or students really love it when you just pop some into a lesson and you say, ‘Your word is “write”. Show me the past tense.’ They go, ‘Oh, you're trying to trick us and it's not “writed”, it is “wrote”.’ You can just pop some in there for them if you want to.