You’ll be familiar with suffixes from the work you’ve done in SoundWorks. We explained that if children are used to understanding words in terms of root word + suffix, this makes reading and spelling a good deal easier (see Handbook, page 207). Children are probably not yet ready to be taught this explicitly, but you can feed in the idea gently by continuing the exercises you began in Units 12 and 13  in SoundWorks.

What to do

What we suggest are many short exercises on suffixes that you fit into other lessons  whenever you can. They can be done in odd moments while you’re still working on Unit 3 above. They can also be practised whenever you have five minutes to spare - whatever else you are teaching. These short suffix exercises are unlikely to clash with other parts of the course.

 
1. The suffix 'ed'

2.  The suffix ‘ing’

Spend at least one session with the suffix ing. Before you begin, prepare the pack of word cards: pick out a number of ar words that will take the suffix ing (e.g. parking snarling) and a number that won’t (e.g. dark hard scarf ). Take care to keep within your child’s spoken vocabulary.

What to do

Carry on like this with all the words you selected, dividing them into words that will take ing and words that will not. The act of deciding is useful here as it helps children think about the way the words are used.

Finally, let your child choose a few of the ing words to put in his exercise book. Each word is written fairly large in two colours: green for the word, red for the ing. Underneath, he writes it in normal writing with a pen or pencil, and below this he writes it in a sentence to bring out the meaning.

3.  Other suffixes

If you have taught any additional suffixes, described in the section on Suffixes, spend at least one session with each of the ones you have taught (if the possible words allow this, of course). Your child puts the words in his exercise book in the usual way: word in green, suffix in colour, and a sentence below. Some possible words are provided in the Suffix pack (copymaster D21).  

What next

This completes the work on the digraph ar. You can change to something quite different now if you wish. Or continue with the digraphs ou and or, following the same steps as you did for ar. Either is fine.

It is worth giving a bit of thought to the other skills that are practised at the same time as you teach the digraphs. These are summarised below. If you feel that developing any of these skills is particularly useful for your child, you might like to continue them for a while. Perhaps you are making good progress improving his sentences? If so, it’s worth doing a lot more of this, little and often, until real progress is achieved. The same goes for improving a child’s vocabulary, or thinking of ideas to make a story. 

Focus on children’s strengths as well as their weaknesses. If a child shows promise in a particular area, nurture this interest and encourage him further. Can he think up even better sentences? Learn even more amazing words? Produce even longer and more interesting pieces of creative writing? There should be no limit to what your child is expected to achieve. Many children who find reading and writing difficult have lively and imaginative minds. So don’t miss any opportunities to stretch them!