3.11 Dictating Words with Suffixes

Spelling words with suffixes can be tricky for students. When we do dictation (or spelling practice), we want students to clearly hear the base word, identify it, and then accurately add the correct suffix. This helps build both spelling and morphological awareness.

During your daily phonics instruction, you can support students by guiding them through these simple steps when you dictate words with suffixes:

• Say the word and have students repeat it.
• Say, "What is the base word?"
• Tell students to write the base word and then make it __________. (plural, past tense, etc.)
• Students should write the base word and then add the suffix to make the new word.
• Check together.
• After you've dictated all the words, have your students read back all of the words they wrote.

Say,

Today we're going to use suffixes in our dictation words. Remember, a suffix is a word part that we add to the end of a base word, and it has its own meaning. Our first word is worker. What is our word? [worker]

Say,

What is our base word? [work] Write work.

After students have time to write, say,

Now take work and make it someone who works. What is our word? [worker] Change work to worker.

Dictating words with suffixes using these steps can be a helpful scaffold for students. Once students become more comfortable writing words with suffixes, you can let them do it independently.

Dictation Paper

Use these dictation papers to have students practice spelling sounds, phrases, and sentences with the suffix pattern they've been learning.

Dictation Paper

Phrase and Sentence Dictation Paper