The list of words underneath for the weeks are just suggestions. I usually have students study root words, prefix and suffixes. Then students give me words that they have come up with during the week of homework. I pick a verity of words that can range from very easy to extremely hard. I do this because I want to see if students are able to apply what they have learned to unknown words. This is a skill that all 4th graders need to have.
How Do You Grade Your Spelling Tests?
4 all of them right
3 all of the roots correct and spelled correct in the harder words that are phonetically (notice how that is misspelled, lol) spelled.
2 50/50
1 no root words spelled correct.
Big words for Big Kids
By Patricia M. Cunningham
This year we will be working in school on the words listed below. I will not have a set day for spelling tests because we will be working on these root words in class too and sometimes we have a holiday or cannot get to our spelling every day. The goal for students is to be able to use the root words to write unknown words. The spelling test will include these words but also have unknown words with these roots. If you want to have some fun with these words with your child then see how many words they can write from one of the root words. Let's create lifelong spellers together!
Thank you for your support.
Keziah
Please read the philosophy behind this type of spelling below.
Lesson 1
right sit hit bright tight bit rights sitter hits brightest tighter bite
Lesson 2
be being sing singers sting stingers tiger tigers bright brighten brightness
Lesson 3
eat eating act acting mate mating inmate mean meant magnet magnetic
Lesson 4
eat eaten eating name named magnet magnetize demagnetize tame tamed detain detainee
Lesson 5
rose roses low lower slow slower lose loser power powerless
Lesson 6
full fully fuller low lowly pull pulley power powerful powerfully
Lesson 7
throw threw write wrote grow grew growth view review weigh weight overweight
Lesson 8
tied untie untied retied unite united reunite diet dieter weight weighed underweight
Lesson 9
act react trace retrace creates creatures cute cuter rescue rescuer cater caterer
Lesson 10
act react reaction race racer train trainer trainee create creator recreation
Lesson 11
use reuse sale resale seal reseal sealer sleep asleep please pleasures
Lesson 12
leap leaped seal sealed pedal pedaled sleep alseep disease diseased displeased
Lesson 13
act react actresses eat eaters set reset seat reseat create creates
Lesson 14
act actors action react reactions race racist nice nicer nicest nose nosier
Philosophy
behind this type of spelling:Big Words for Big Kids by Patricia Cunningham
Pick up any newspaper or magazine, read the first few sentences of any article, and notice the big words-words that have eight or more letters:
The SAT denounced as biased and ineffective by many consumers, is still the in most American schools. College admissions officers often downplay the significance of the exam in the application process, but then brag about their schools' scores in recruitment brochures.
Historically, as a strike deadline approaches, the labor negotiators go underground and stop talking to the media. Fear of having the talks derailed by leaks causes both sides to stop talking and keep bargaining.
The first thing that strikes you in looking at these big words is that they are the "meaning carrying" words. Without them, you wouldn't know very much. The second thing you notice is that these words are relatively low-frequency words. You could read many articles and pages in books before once again encountering recruitment,historically, and derailed.
Starting at about the fourth-grade level, most of what we read contains a high parentage of big, relatively unfamiliar, low frequency words. Because these big words contain most of the meaning in sentences, we cannot comprehend what we read unless we can pronounce and access meaning for these words. All good readers are able to quickly pronounce and associate meaning with words they have rarely ever read before. How does this happen? How did you pronounce and make meaning for words such as admissions,derailed, and underground the first time you encountered them in your reading?
Linguists, who study how language works, tell us that in English, morphemes are the key to unlocking the pronunciation, spelling, and meaning for big words. Morphemes are roots, prefixes, and suffixes which combine in a variety of ways to make up big words. The word admission is simply the word admit-with the spelling changes that always occur when sion is added to a word ending in t. The first time you saw admissions, your brain probably accessed similar words such as permission, omission, and emission. Using these other similar words, you quickly pronounced admission. Since you were probably aware that when you permit something, you give your permission, when you omit something, you have omission, and the fumes that your car emits are called emissions. You probably also recognized the relationship between the word you had read many times-admit-and this new word admissions. Similarly, pronouncing and making meaning for derailed was not difficult if your brain thought of similar words such as deported and declassified. Underground is compound word-its pronunciation and meaning are obvious by thinking of the pronunciation and meaning of the two root words, under and ground.
Morphemes-roots, prefixes, and suffixes-are the keys to unlocking the pronunciation, spelling, and meaning for big words. When you see a big word you have never encountered before in your reading, your brain thinks of similar big words and uses the understanding it has about how these
big words work to quickly pronounce and access meaning for the new word. But what if your brain doesn’t have very many big words stored there?
What if you know some big words, but you have never realized how they were related to your smaller words? The lack of big words they can quickly access and associate meaning for renders many children from fourth grade up helpless when they encounter new big words.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a wimp is a “timid or ineffectual person.”When you “wimp out,” you withdraw from or avoid an undertaking. I spent time with this dictionary over the months in which I created Big Words for Big Kids. I learned new meanings for old words, discovered new words, of “wimp” while searching for something else and was immediately struck with the image of many of the “big kids” I had taught. These big kids-mostly boys-were fearless about many things that terrified me, but they were terrified of any word with more than eight letters. Just the sight of one of these big words could cause one of my “almost-men boys” to put down the book and “give up without a fight.” I even
coined a word for this fear- morphophobia! Morphemes are the prefixes, suffixes, and roots- the meaningful chunks-which make up most big words. Many of the preteens I taught suffered from morphophobia- the irrational fear and dread of big words.
At the time, I determined that many of my students, even many of my average readers, suffered from morphophobia. The terms“wimp” and “wimp out” did not exist, or, at least, I was not aware of them. But when I chanced to read the definitions of wimp-while on my way to find a precise definition of wizard- I knew immediately that when it came to big words, my big kids were wimps. Not normally timid or ineffectual, they
were when it came to big words, and they wimped out-skipped right over the word or fled the scene!
A wizard, according to my dictionary, is a person noted for his or her remarkable powers or exceptional ability within a certain sphere. Word wizards heave remarkable powers and exceptional abilities to analyze words. As I pondered these definitions of wimps and wizards, I realized my real
purpose in writing this book-to turn word wimps into word wizards. When encountering a new big word, word wizards do not “wimp out” and skip
over the word, hoping no one will notice. Word wizards can pronounce, spell and figure out a probable meaning for new big words, all through the magic of morphemes-prefixes, suffixes, and roots!
How Do You Grade Your Spelling Tests?
4 all of them right
3 all of the roots correct and spelled correct in the harder words that are phonetically (notice how that is misspelled, lol) spelled.
2 50/50
1 no root words spelled correct.
Big words for Big Kids
By Patricia M. Cunningham
This year we will be working in school on the words listed below. I will not have a set day for spelling tests because we will be working on these root words in class too and sometimes we have a holiday or cannot get to our spelling every day. The goal for students is to be able to use the root words to write unknown words. The spelling test will include these words but also have unknown words with these roots. If you want to have some fun with these words with your child then see how many words they can write from one of the root words. Let's create lifelong spellers together!
Thank you for your support.
Keziah
Please read the philosophy behind this type of spelling below.
Lesson 1
right sit hit bright tight bit rights sitter hits brightest tighter bite
Lesson 2
be being sing singers sting stingers tiger tigers bright brighten brightness
Lesson 3
eat eating act acting mate mating inmate mean meant magnet magnetic
Lesson 4
eat eaten eating name named magnet magnetize demagnetize tame tamed detain detainee
Lesson 5
rose roses low lower slow slower lose loser power powerless
Lesson 6
full fully fuller low lowly pull pulley power powerful powerfully
Lesson 7
throw threw write wrote grow grew growth view review weigh weight overweight
Lesson 8
tied untie untied retied unite united reunite diet dieter weight weighed underweight
Lesson 9
act react trace retrace creates creatures cute cuter rescue rescuer cater caterer
Lesson 10
act react reaction race racer train trainer trainee create creator recreation
Lesson 11
use reuse sale resale seal reseal sealer sleep asleep please pleasures
Lesson 12
leap leaped seal sealed pedal pedaled sleep alseep disease diseased displeased
Lesson 13
act react actresses eat eaters set reset seat reseat create creates
Lesson 14
act actors action react reactions race racist nice nicer nicest nose nosier
Philosophy
behind this type of spelling:Big Words for Big Kids by Patricia Cunningham
Pick up any newspaper or magazine, read the first few sentences of any article, and notice the big words-words that have eight or more letters:
The SAT denounced as biased and ineffective by many consumers, is still the in most American schools. College admissions officers often downplay the significance of the exam in the application process, but then brag about their schools' scores in recruitment brochures.
Historically, as a strike deadline approaches, the labor negotiators go underground and stop talking to the media. Fear of having the talks derailed by leaks causes both sides to stop talking and keep bargaining.
The first thing that strikes you in looking at these big words is that they are the "meaning carrying" words. Without them, you wouldn't know very much. The second thing you notice is that these words are relatively low-frequency words. You could read many articles and pages in books before once again encountering recruitment,historically, and derailed.
Starting at about the fourth-grade level, most of what we read contains a high parentage of big, relatively unfamiliar, low frequency words. Because these big words contain most of the meaning in sentences, we cannot comprehend what we read unless we can pronounce and access meaning for these words. All good readers are able to quickly pronounce and associate meaning with words they have rarely ever read before. How does this happen? How did you pronounce and make meaning for words such as admissions,derailed, and underground the first time you encountered them in your reading?
Linguists, who study how language works, tell us that in English, morphemes are the key to unlocking the pronunciation, spelling, and meaning for big words. Morphemes are roots, prefixes, and suffixes which combine in a variety of ways to make up big words. The word admission is simply the word admit-with the spelling changes that always occur when sion is added to a word ending in t. The first time you saw admissions, your brain probably accessed similar words such as permission, omission, and emission. Using these other similar words, you quickly pronounced admission. Since you were probably aware that when you permit something, you give your permission, when you omit something, you have omission, and the fumes that your car emits are called emissions. You probably also recognized the relationship between the word you had read many times-admit-and this new word admissions. Similarly, pronouncing and making meaning for derailed was not difficult if your brain thought of similar words such as deported and declassified. Underground is compound word-its pronunciation and meaning are obvious by thinking of the pronunciation and meaning of the two root words, under and ground.
Morphemes-roots, prefixes, and suffixes-are the keys to unlocking the pronunciation, spelling, and meaning for big words. When you see a big word you have never encountered before in your reading, your brain thinks of similar big words and uses the understanding it has about how these
big words work to quickly pronounce and access meaning for the new word. But what if your brain doesn’t have very many big words stored there?
What if you know some big words, but you have never realized how they were related to your smaller words? The lack of big words they can quickly access and associate meaning for renders many children from fourth grade up helpless when they encounter new big words.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a wimp is a “timid or ineffectual person.”When you “wimp out,” you withdraw from or avoid an undertaking. I spent time with this dictionary over the months in which I created Big Words for Big Kids. I learned new meanings for old words, discovered new words, of “wimp” while searching for something else and was immediately struck with the image of many of the “big kids” I had taught. These big kids-mostly boys-were fearless about many things that terrified me, but they were terrified of any word with more than eight letters. Just the sight of one of these big words could cause one of my “almost-men boys” to put down the book and “give up without a fight.” I even
coined a word for this fear- morphophobia! Morphemes are the prefixes, suffixes, and roots- the meaningful chunks-which make up most big words. Many of the preteens I taught suffered from morphophobia- the irrational fear and dread of big words.
At the time, I determined that many of my students, even many of my average readers, suffered from morphophobia. The terms“wimp” and “wimp out” did not exist, or, at least, I was not aware of them. But when I chanced to read the definitions of wimp-while on my way to find a precise definition of wizard- I knew immediately that when it came to big words, my big kids were wimps. Not normally timid or ineffectual, they
were when it came to big words, and they wimped out-skipped right over the word or fled the scene!
A wizard, according to my dictionary, is a person noted for his or her remarkable powers or exceptional ability within a certain sphere. Word wizards heave remarkable powers and exceptional abilities to analyze words. As I pondered these definitions of wimps and wizards, I realized my real
purpose in writing this book-to turn word wimps into word wizards. When encountering a new big word, word wizards do not “wimp out” and skip
over the word, hoping no one will notice. Word wizards can pronounce, spell and figure out a probable meaning for new big words, all through the magic of morphemes-prefixes, suffixes, and roots!