Morphology demonstration: Adding un- prefix transcript

Elaine Stanley:

Our last lesson that we're going to show today is one of our prefixes. This is our first one in our progression and it's adding un- to the beginning of a word. We learn this one in Phase 15 of our progression and we're learning that when un- is added to the beginning of a word, it means ‘not’, and sometimes it means ‘the opposite of’.

Here's our lesson structure; it’s exactly the same. The only thing that's different is the colour of the slide for un-. The green shows our prefixes and the purple colour shows our suffixes, so students know straight away which one's which.

Again, I would introduce this lesson by saying:

Teacher:

When we add an un- prefix to a word, we change the meaning of the word to mean ‘not’, or ‘opposite of’

If I start with the word happy and I add un- to the beginning, then it changes the meaning to not happy. Unhappy means not happy.

Elaine Stanley:

Then we would go through the same process. I would add un- to those base words and I would unpack whether it means ‘not’, or ‘opposite of’ for each one of those. Then students would join in. With the first word zip, they're going to add un- to the beginning and we would talk about how it means the opposite of zip something up, you unzip it. For each word, we will do that.

Again, we will read a sentence, we'll look at the words with the prefix, and we'll talk about how it changes the meaning in the sentence. We would dictate a sentence. For this one it might be, ‘It was unsafe to unlock the gate.’ We would talk about how the addition of un- changes the meaning of the words in the sentence.

Then this is our review slide. I would say:

Teacher:

What's this prefix?

Student:

un-.

Teacher:

What does it mean?

Student:

‘Not’ or ‘opposite of’.

Teacher:

Your word is happy, add the prefix.

Student:

Unhappy.

Teacher:

What does that mean?

Student:

Not happy.

Teacher:

Okay.

Elaine Stanley:

Then we would do that every time we see the slide. Again, you could have an extra slide with just some words. I might say:

Teacher:

Today your word is do. Add the prefix.

Student:

Undo.

Teacher:

And what does it mean?

Student:

The opposite of do. So, undo your shoes.

Teacher:

Great.