Evidence-Based Interventions: Affixes

Friends. I am behind. Almost 3 years ago I started this blog series “Evidence-Based Interventions.”  I wrote the first post on Context Clues and then stopped. I guess having two more babies (3 under 4) slowed me down!

I’m so happy to say that I am finally starting it back up with the strategy of teaching Affixes, one of my favorites. I don’t know about you, but I need this series. Actually, we are all required to seek out and perform the very best intervention, supported with sound evidence from systematic research in relation to an individual student.

ASHA’s position statement on EBP: 

• It is the position of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association that audiologists and speech-language pathologists incorporate the principles of evidence-based practice in clinical decision making to provide high quality clinical care. The term evidence-based practice refers to an approach in which current, high-quality research evidence is integrated with practitioner expertise and client preferences and values into the process of making clinical decisions.

There is often a lot of insecurity and even fear surrounding those two little words “Evidence-Based.” It’s as if we’re waiting for that parent or administrator to charge into our room, shake their finger at us and demand we provide proof that what we are doing works. And we really should know, to some degree.

However, ASHA also makes it clear that our job is to “interpret best current evidence from systematic research in relation to an individual.”  This means that even the best, highly evidenced interventions won’t work for ever single student on our caseload. It is our job to take into consideration “preferences, environment, culture, and values regarding health and well-being.”

So, please keep that in mind as I begin this series. I hope you benefit as much as I will be!

Okay, so let’s talk about AFFIXES.

What does the research say?

• The logic behind teaching affixes is that it enables students to determine the meaning of unknown words. Stahl (1999).
• “While teaching roots and affixes may help students make sense of unfamiliar words, supplying students with long lists of “word parts” can sometimes be overwhelming and unproductive.” Marzano (2004)
• Instead, we can focus on teaching the most frequently occurring affixes in the English Language and get “more bang for our buck” so to speak. White, Sowell, and Yanagihara (1989) identified the most common prefixes based on a study of words in The American Heritage Word Frequency Book. They found that for prefixes, just a small handful of them account for a large percentage of words. More than half (51%) of the total is explained by the top three prefixes, un-, re-, and in- “not”.
• These researchers then also identified the most common suffixes. Here they say: “It is plain . . . that the distribution of suffixes, too, is not uniform. The first 10 suffixes listed comprise 85% of the sample.

References:

• Carroll, J. B., Davies, P., & Richman, B. (1971). The American heritage word frequency book. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Marzano, R. J. (2004). Building background knowledge for academic achievement: Research on what works in schools. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
• Stahl, S.A. (1999). Vocabulary development. Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books
• White, T.G., Sowell, J., & Yanagihara, A. (1989). Teaching elementary students to use word part clues. The Reading Teacher, 42, 302-308

Here’s what I gather from the above references. It is beneficial that we teach our kids prefixes and suffixes. Going through life, they will need strategies to be able to figure out what new words mean. This is where affixes come in. However, affixes are not all created equal. To best serve our students, we need to be teaching them the most commonly occurring prefixes and suffixes.

Here’s how I’ve been doing it. *These pages are taken from my Evidence-Based Intervention Binder (Vocabulary Edition) but you could create your own intervention from it. This is by far not the only way to teach them but perhaps you can get a few ideas from the many pictures I’m about to post!

 

1. First and foremost, I require my students to tell me what a “affix” is, which also includes defining “prefix” and “suffix.” We often use this type of vocabulary all over the place but don’t take the time to fully explain it to our students. I use the “mirror” strategy of Whole Brain Teaching to require my students to repeat after me. After we do this a few times, I have them try to say it by themselves. We don’t move on to the next step (which might seem a little extreme) until they can tell me what an affix is.

2. Next, I TEACH specific prefixes and suffixes. I focus on the 20 most common ones and we go over these using all sorts of things such as flashcards, games, etc. to get them to know these. I’m also not against sending this list home with my students and bribing them with a reward if they can name them all when they come back. 9 out of 10 times, it works.

During this time I also teach what an affix does, which is change the meaning of the word slightly.  I describe them like puzzle pieces in which you usually know what the root word means, but adding a prefix at the beginning or a suffix at the end changes the meaning of that word slightly.

3. After thoroughly teaching them about prefixes and suffixes, we do lots of practice on each one. I’ve found that focusing on one or two affixes at a time but giving multiple root words really helps establish understanding of the affix, instead of trying to teach 5-10 affixes in one session.

4. Finally, after thoroughly teaching and practicing these, I assess their knowledge.

Will affixes be taught in one 30-minute session? No, I’m sorry they won’t, especially with some of our more needy kids. Consistent and thorough teaching is what we’re going for here, which might spread over multiple sessions and weeks. However, I’ve found that teaching strategies, rather than simply vocabulary words, increases vocabulary more in the long run. Here’s the link to the Evidence-Based Intervention Binder if you’re interested in learning more about it!

I hope this post gave you some ideas on teaching this important strategy in your groups! Have something to add? Please post a comment below so we can all benefit!