Introducing the 'e' Drop Rule

Khadijah Williams: Good morning y'all.

Students: Good morning.

Khadijah Williams: So our focus for today is suffixes, okay? Vowel suffixes and consonant suffixes, okay?

Narrator: Atlanta teacher Khadija Williams is working with her second graders on suffixes. Today's lesson focuses on the e-drop rule, which tackles the tricky question of what to do when a suffix that begins with a vowel gets added to a magic 'e' word. She kicks off the lesson with a listening game that lets students practice isolating a base word from its suffix.

Khadijah Williams: First we're going to start off with a listening game. Okay? I'm going to say a word, you repeat the word, and then I want the root or the base word. Got me?

Students: Yes.

Khadijah Williams: Okay, cool. Diving.

Students: Diving. Dive.

Khadijah Williams: Very good. Teacher.

Students: Teacher. Teach.

Khadijah Williams: Awesome. Joyful.

Students: Joyful. Joy.

Khadijah Williams: Awesome. Swimmer.

Students: Swimmer. Swim.

Khadijah Williams: Very good. All right. Next, we're going to go ahead and drill our deck. Okay? I want the short sound and then I want the long sound. Okay? Short sound.

Students: /ă/

Khadijah Williams: Long sound.

Students: /ā/

Khadijah Williams: Very good. Short sound.

Students: /ĕ/

Khadijah Williams: Long sound.

Students: /ē/

Narrator: Now Ms. Williams reviews the suffixes students will use to practice the 'e' drop rule later in the lesson.

Khadijah Williams: All right. Now we have our suffixes, okay? 'e', 'r', /er/.

Students: 'e', 'r', /er/.

Khadijah Williams: Someone ...

Students: Someone, something, or more.

Khadijah Williams: Very good. "Vowel suffix."

Students: "Vowel suffix."

Khadijah Williams: Teacher.

Students: Teacher. Marker.

Khadijah Williams: Bigger. 

Students: Bigger.

Khadijah Williams: Very good. Suffix I-N-G?

Students: Suffix I-N-G.

Khadijah Williams: /ing/.

Students: /ing/.

Khadijah Williams: "Happening now."

Students: "Happening now."

Khadijah Williams: "Vowel suffix."

Students: "Vowel suffix."

Khadijah Williams: Running.

Students: Running.

Khadijah Williams: Jumping.

Students: Jumping.

Khadijah Williams: Very good.

Narrator: For students to know whether or not to use the 'e' drop rule, they first have to identify that the base word is a magic 'e' word.

Khadijah Williams: All right. So we have bake plus suffix E-D, right? So our root word or our base word is bake, right? What do we notice about our root word or base word? Amina.

Amina: Adding 'a', consonant 'e'.

Khadijah Williams: 'A', consonant 'e'. Very good. So it has a magic 'e'. So that 'e' is jumping over that consonant, tapping the 'a' on its head, and it's saying, "say your name." Very good.

Narrator: The next step is to look at the suffix itself. If the suffix starts with a consonant like suffix F-U-L or L-E-S-S, we add it to the end of the word. The way adding F-U-L to care becomes careful and adding L-E-S-S to tire becomes tireless. But if the suffix starts with a vowel, like with suffix E-D or suffix I-N-G, the magic 'e' drops off. For instance, when we add E-D to the word name, the 'e' drops and gets replaced by E-D and name becomes named. Similarly, when we add I-N-G to make, the 'e' drops and gets replaced by I-N-G and make becomes making.

Khadijah Williams: Now let's look at the first letter of that suffix. Can someone tell me if that's ... or we can all just shout out ... is that a vowel suffix or a consonant suffix?

Students: Vowel suffix.

Khadijah Williams: A vowel suffix. Very good. So when 'e' sees a vowel, 'e' goes away. So we're going to have to 'e' drop.

Students: 'E' drop.

Khadijah Williams: Very good. So our new word is going to be baked. Very good. Now remember, suffixes change the meaning of a word, right? So I can say, "I will bake a cake for my birthday." What does baked mean? That it what?

Students: In the past.

Khadijah Williams: In the past. It already happened. Very good. Baked. Very good. Next word, we have bake plus suffix '-s'. So already know that bake is a magic 'e' word, correct? So we have suffix '-s' and there's only one letter. So is that a consonant suffix or vowel suffix? Robert.

Robert: Constant suffix.

Khadijah Williams: A constant suffix. Very good. So when 'e' sees a consonant, 'e' stays. Are we going to 'e' drop?

Students: No.

Khadijah Williams: No, we're not going to 'e' drop. So bake plus suffix '-s' ...

Students: Bakes.

Khadijah Williams: Becomes bakes. Baked. Very good.

Narrator: Ms. Williams models a few more words before the students will get to practice for themselves.

Khadijah Williams: What do you notice? Is '-less' a consonant suffix or a vowel suffix?

Student: Constant suffix.

Khadijah Williams: A consonant suffix. Very good. So when 'e' sees a consonant suffix, 'e' stays, right? So hope plus '-less' equals ...

Students: Hopeless.

Khadijah Williams: Very good. What do you notice about shake, Paris?

Paris: They got a magic 'e'.

Khadijah Williams: It has a magic 'e'. Very good. So that 'e' is jumping over that consonant and making the vowel say its name. Very good. What do we notice about suffix I-N-G? Koyuki?

Koyuki: It's a vowel suffix.

Khadijah Williams: It's a vowel suffix. Very good. Very good. So we're going to have to what?

Students: 'E' Drop.

Khadijah Williams: Very good. So shake plus suffix I-N-G becomes ...

Students: Shaking. Shaking.

Khadijah Williams: Shaking. Very good. So it's kind of like that magic 'e' is hiding, right?

Students: Yes.

Khadijah Williams: Right. Very good. All right. Now we're going to go ahead and begin our dictation portion of our lesson. Okay. Under sounds, the first sound, I want the suffix that means in the past. Madison?

Madison: E-D.

Khadijah Williams: Suffix E-D. Very good. In the past.

Narrator: Ms. Williams uses the sound dictation section of her lesson to review suffixes one more time before moving on to word dictation.

Khadijah Williams: So for our words, okay? We're going to set them up like equations. Okay? On that first blank line, I want you to write the base word, okay? And on that second line, I want you to write either the consonant suffix or the vowel suffix. Okay? All right. Number one, the base word or the root word is hope. Hope. Hope. Think about how that 'o' is saying its name. Hope. All right. On that second line, I want you to write the suffix that means full of. Full of. Kaya?

Kaya: F-U-L.

Khadijah Williams: F-U-L. Very good. So we have "hope" plus '-ful' equals something. Now, we know that hope has a magic 'e', right? So we have to look at that suffix. Is that a consonant suffix or a vowel suffix?

Students: Consonant suffix.

Khadijah Williams: A constant suffix. So is 'e' going to stay or is 'e' going to go away?

Students: Stay.

Khadijah Williams: It's going to stay. Very good. So on your last line, you should have what?

Students: Hopeful.

Khadijah Williams: Hopeful. Very good. Hopeful. And the magic 'e' stays. Very good. And you can just put a maker on the macron over the 'o' so we know it's making its long sound. Very good. Number two, the root word is going to be very familiar. I want you to write hope. Hope. All right. On that second line, write the suffix that means happening now. Happening now. Hope is a magic 'e' word, right? Now we have to look at suffix I-N-G. Is suffix I-N-G a vowel suffix or a consonant suffix?

Student: Vowel suffix.

Khadijah Williams: A vowel suffix. Right. So what are we going to have to do? So is 'e' going to stay or ...

Students: Drop.

Khadijah Williams: 'E' drop. Very good. 'E' has to go away, right?

Students: Yes.

Khadijah Williams: So how are we going to write that though? Can we spell it together?

Together: 'H', 'o', 'p', 'i', 'n', 'g'.

Khadijah Williams: Very good. Because that 'e' had to go away, right? That 'e' had to go away. So our new word is hoping. Very good.

Narrator: The last step for students is reading back what they've written.

Together: Read what we wrote. It's time to read what we wrote. It's time to read what we wrote. Uh huh!

Khadijah Williams: Very good.

Students: Hopeful.

Khadijah Williams: Hopeful.

Students: Hoping.

Khadijah Williams: Is it hopping or hoping?

Students: Hoping.

Khadijah Williams: Hoping.

Students: "Smiled." Baked.

Khadijah Williams: Everyone did such a great job today. I think we all need to kiss our brains. We learned so much today. We're learning how to read new words, read more words, write new words, write more words, and I'm very, very proud of our work today. Very good.

Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale; the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation; the AFT; the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation; and anonymous donors. Special thanks to Hope-Hill Elementary, Reading is Essential for All People, and Atlanta Public Schools. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel @RUTeaching. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington D.C., the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.

Khadijah Williams: My name is Khadijah Williams, and this is Reading Universe.