Word Study – Find My Rule

My class recently completed a scavenger hunt looking for words that ended in the suffix –ed. Once we had gathered a number of words, we analyzed them.  Students came to the conclusion that in order to add –ed to the end of a word sometimes a spelling change is needed. Students concluded that some words need a double consonant, some may need the letter “e” dropped, and others may need nothing no change at all.  Simply add it to the end of the word. After practice and much modeling, my students completed a Find My Rule. They wrote 3-5 words that followed the same pattern. Students then quizzed their partner, and they had to decide what the rule was.

Example:
praised
scared
spiked

The rule: Drop the “e” and and –ed.