A Spelling Activity to Learn Inflectional Endings

Are you teaching your student to read inflectional endings? To help your student learn how to read inflectional ending words like gliding, sitting, walked… etc., teach him to understand inflectional ending spelling rules. Once a student understands the spelling rules, he is more likely to accurately read inflectional ending words in texts.

When spelling inflectional ending words, encourage your student to ask some questions…

Say the teacher asks the student to spell a word like “sitting.” From here, the student must ask a few questions to get the spelling right. The teacher says something like, “Our first spelling word is sitting. Ava and Kennedy were sitting on the grass at the park. Sitting. Take off ing. What’s left?” The student responds with, “sit.” The student writes “sit” on k-2 appropriate paper.

Next, the teacher asks, “Is the first vowel long or short?” With this question, you’re teaching your student to think about that first vowel in sitting. The student should respond with, “short.”

Next, the student has to think about doubling the consonant. The word sitting goes from sit to sitting: the t is doubled. Why is that? Since the first vowel is short, the consonant gets doubled. So the teacher asks, “Do you double the consonant?” The student responds with, “Yes.” The student changes sit to sitt.

The teacher reminds the student that the word is sitting. “The spelling word is sitting. Finish the ending.” The student changes sitt to sitting.

Eventually, you want your student to ask these questions and go through this process on his own. However, your student will need a lot of practice with the teacher before he becomes independent. Slowly guide him toward more and more independence.

There are several variations of these sorts of exercises.

The above is a good activity for words like running, jogging, standing (note that in a word like standing there are already 2 consonants so there is no need to double), hopping, letting… etc.

With a word like hoping, the first vowel is long, so the student does not double the consonant.

Make sure you tailor the activity to the type of word you’re teaching.

Teaching kids spelling rules also improves their reading ability.

Reading and spelling are linked. If a child is having trouble reading a word type, teach him the spelling rule explicitly. Weave the rule into spelling activities at the end of your lesson. Inflectional ending words are often tricky for struggling readers. Be sure to incorporate an inflectional ending wordlist into your daily spelling activities once your student is ready.

A sample short vowel inflectional ending spelling list

This list is appropriate for students who are new to inflectional endings. That’s why the list is limited to short vowel words and /ing/ inflectional endings.

1. running
2. getting
3. hopping
4. hugging
5. letting
6. wagging
7. sitting

A sample short and long vowel inflectional ending spelling list

This list is appropriate for students who know short vowels and silent e words. Make sure the student drops the e for silent e word types. For example, hope changes to hoping: the e is dropped.

1. hoping
2. setting
3. baking
4. popping
5. jogging
6. sliding
7. sagging

Reading Elephant offers printable phonics books in our shop.