Morphology/Phonics

Last week, we started our study of morphemes using the Functional Morphology Curriculum from the U of M. Morphemes are the smallest unit of meaninful language, and include prefixes, base and root words, and affixes, many of which are derived from Greek and Latin, which are an integral part of the English language. We're starting off slowly with familiar morphemes such as un-, re-, pre-, and mis-. The program builds in complexity through grade five to prepare them for independent understanding of the new vocabulary they'll need as they move into middle and high school.

Also last week, we completed diagnostic assessments and met with specialists to plan for how we will use our "WIN" time for literacy. As a whole, our students can use continued phonics practice to build on the work they did in K-2 and extend it to grade 3-level vocabulary and writing.

Some students will be meeting with Stephanie Stang and Amy Wilwerding to receive intervention students. The remaining students will stay in our classroom, but work towards progressively more individualized skill-building.

As a whole-class group, we will begin with Advanced Functional Phonics skill digraphs sh, ch, th, wh, ph, and ng. We will also build in opportunities for building reading fluency using texts which highlight each new phonics skill.