Lesson Plan
Inflection Perfection!
Students will be able to identify and explain the purpose of common inflections (suffixes like -s, -ed, -ing) in changing the meaning or grammatical function of words.
Understanding inflections helps students read with greater comprehension, spell words correctly, and express their ideas more precisely in writing. It's a key building block for advanced language skills!
Audience
4th Grade Students
Time
30 minutes
Approach
Interactive slides, guided practice, and an investigative worksheet.
Materials
Whiteboard or projector, Markers or pens, Inflection Intro Slides, Suffix Superstars Script, Inflection Investigation Worksheet, and Inflection Challenge Answer Key
Prep
Prepare Materials
10 minutes
- Review the Inflection Intro Slides and practice the Suffix Superstars Script.
- Print copies of the Inflection Investigation Worksheet for each student.
- Have the Inflection Challenge Answer Key ready for quick checking.
- Ensure projector/whiteboard is ready for display.
- Review all generated materials as needed.
Step 1
Warm-Up: Word Detectives
5 minutes
- Display a few base words (e.g., 'jump', 'cat', 'play') and ask students to brainstorm how they can change these words without changing their core meaning too much (e.g., 'jumping', 'jumped', 'cats').
- Introduce the term 'inflection' as a small change at the end of a word that tells us more about it (when it happened, how many, etc.).
Step 2
Slide into Suffixes
10 minutes
- Present the Inflection Intro Slides to explain what inflections are, focusing on common suffixes like -s, -ed, and -ing.
- Use the Suffix Superstars Script to guide the discussion, providing examples and checking for understanding.
- Engage students with interactive questions about how suffixes change tense, number, or action.
Step 3
Inflection Investigation
10 minutes
- Distribute the Inflection Investigation Worksheet.
- Explain that students will be working individually or in pairs to identify inflections and determine how they change base words.
- Circulate to offer support and answer questions.
Step 4
Share and Reflect
5 minutes
- Bring the class back together to review answers using the Inflection Challenge Answer Key.
- Discuss any challenging words or interesting observations.
- Ask students to share one new thing they learned about words or inflections.
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Slide Deck
Word Wizards: What's an Inflection?
Ever notice how words change a little bit?
- Jump becomes Jumping
- Cat becomes Cats
- Walk becomes Walked
These tiny changes have a big job!
Welcome students and get them ready to think about how words change. Start with a simple question to activate prior knowledge.
Meet the Inflection!
An inflection is a small ending added to a word.
It changes the word's meaning slightly, but keeps its main idea.
Think of it like a mini-makeover for a word!
Introduce the term 'inflection' and its basic purpose. Use simple language and clear examples.
Inflection -s: More Than One!
What does adding -s usually do?
- Dog -> Dogs (many dogs)
- Book -> Books (many books)
- Apple -> Apples (many apples)
It tells us there's more than one! (Plural)
Focus on -s for plurals. Ask students for examples.
Inflection -ed: It Already Happened!
What does adding -ed usually do?
- Play -> Played (happened in the past)
- Walk -> Walked (happened in the past)
- Laugh -> Laughed (happened in the past)
It tells us something already happened! (Past Tense)
Move to -ed for past tense. Emphasize that it tells 'when'.
Inflection -ing: Happening Right Now!
What does adding -ing usually do?
- Run -> Running (is happening now)
- Sing -> Singing (is happening now)
- Read -> Reading (is happening now)
It tells us something is still happening! (Present Progressive)
Introduce -ing for ongoing actions. Connect it to 'now' or 'happening'.
Why Do Inflections Matter?
Inflections make our sentences clear!
- They tell us how many.
- They tell us when.
- They help us understand the full story!
Imagine if we just said "He run fast" instead of "He runs fast" or "He ran fast." It would be confusing!
Review the main points and challenge students to think about why inflections are useful.
Worksheet
Inflection Investigation Worksheet
Name: ____________________________
Date: ____________________________
Part 1: Spot the Inflection!
Read each word. Circle the inflection (the ending) and then write the base word.
- playing
- Inflection: _________
- Base Word: _________
- jumped
- Inflection: _________
- Base Word: _________
- books
- Inflection: _________
- Base Word: _________
- singing
- Inflection: _________
- Base Word: _________
- talked
- Inflection: _________
- Base Word: _________
Part 2: How Does it Change?
For each word, write the base word, the inflection, and explain how the inflection changes the meaning of the base word.
- running
- Base Word: _________
- Inflection: _________
- How it changes the word: ____________________________________________________________________
- cleaned
- Base Word: _________
- Inflection: _________
- How it changes the word: ____________________________________________________________________
- trees
- Base Word: _________
- Inflection: _________
- How it changes the word: ____________________________________________________________________
- smiling
- Base Word: _________
- Inflection: _________
- How it changes the word: ____________________________________________________________________
Part 3: Write Your Own!
Choose two base words. Add an inflection to each, and write a sentence using your new word.
- Base Word: _________
- New Word (with inflection): _________
- Sentence: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Base Word: _________
- New Word (with inflection): _________
- Sentence: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Answer Key
Inflection Challenge Answer Key
Part 1: Spot the Inflection!
- playing
- Inflection: -ing
- Base Word: play
- Thought Process: The base word is 'play'. Adding '-ing' indicates an ongoing action. Therefore, '-ing' is the inflection.
- jumped
- Inflection: -ed
- Base Word: jump
- Thought Process: The base word is 'jump'. Adding '-ed' indicates a past action. Therefore, '-ed' is the inflection.
- books
- Inflection: -s
- Base Word: book
- Thought Process: The base word is 'book'. Adding '-s' indicates more than one. Therefore, '-s' is the inflection.
- singing
- Inflection: -ing
- Base Word: sing
- Thought Process: The base word is 'sing'. Adding '-ing' indicates an ongoing action. Therefore, '-ing' is the inflection.
- talked
- Inflection: -ed
- Base Word: talk
- Thought Process: The base word is 'talk'. Adding '-ed' indicates a past action. Therefore, '-ed' is the inflection.
Part 2: How Does it Change?
- running
- Base Word: run
- Inflection: -ing
- How it changes the word: The inflection '-ing' shows that the action of running is happening right now or is ongoing.
- Thought Process: 'Run' is the action. '-ing' changes it to an action in progress.
- cleaned
- Base Word: clean
- Inflection: -ed
- How it changes the word: The inflection '-ed' shows that the action of cleaning happened in the past.
- Thought Process: 'Clean' is the action. '-ed' changes it to an action that has already finished.
- trees
- Base Word: tree
- Inflection: -s
- How it changes the word: The inflection '-s' shows that there is more than one tree; it makes the word plural.
- Thought Process: 'Tree' is one. '-s' indicates multiple trees.
- smiling
- Base Word: smile
- Inflection: -ing
- How it changes the word: The inflection '-ing' shows that the action of smiling is happening currently or is continuous.
- Thought Process: 'Smile' is the action. '-ing' changes it to an action that is ongoing.
Part 3: Write Your Own!
(Answers will vary, but here are examples)
- Base Word: walk
- New Word (with inflection): walks
- Sentence: My dog walks very slowly when it's hot outside.
- Thought Process: I chose 'walk' and added '-s' to show the present tense action of a singular subject, 'dog'.
- Base Word: paint
- New Word (with inflection): painted
- Sentence: We painted a beautiful picture yesterday for art class.
- Thought Process: I chose 'paint' and added '-ed' to show the action happened in the past.
Script
Suffix Superstars Script
Warm-Up: Word Detectives (5 minutes)
Teacher: "Good morning, word detectives! Today, we're going on an adventure to discover how words can change their super powers just by adding a tiny little ending. Who's ready?"
Teacher: "Let's start with a few words. Look at the word 'jump.' What are some ways we could change 'jump' to tell us something a little different, without changing the main idea of jumping? Think about when it happens, or who is doing it."
(Pause for student responses. Guide them to 'jumping', 'jumped', 'jumps'.)
Teacher: "Excellent! You noticed that we added tiny bits to the end of 'jump' to give us more information. These tiny bits are what we call inflections!"
Slide into Suffixes (10 minutes) - Using Inflection Intro Slides
Teacher: (Display Slide 1: 'Word Wizards: What's an Inflection?')
"As you can see on the slide, we're talking about those small changes at the end of words. Like 'jump' becoming 'jumping' or 'cat' becoming 'cats'. These changes are super important for making our language clear."
Teacher: (Display Slide 2: 'Meet the Inflection!')
"An inflection is like a small costume change for a word. The word is still the same character, but its costume tells us something new about it. It's a small ending that we add to a base word. The base word is the original word, like 'play' or 'cat.'"
Teacher: (Display Slide 3: 'Inflection -s: More Than One!')
"Let's look at one of the most common inflections: -s. If I have one dog, and then I get another, I now have two...? (Pause for 'dogs') Right! The '-s' tells us there's more than one. It makes words plural! Can anyone give me another example of a word where adding '-s' means 'more than one'?"
(Allow 1-2 student examples.)
Teacher: (Display Slide 4: 'Inflection -ed: It Already Happened!')
"Now, how about -ed? If I 'play' with my friends today, and yesterday I...? (Pause for 'played') Yes! The '-ed' tells us the action already happened. It puts the word in the past tense. Who can think of an action word where '-ed' tells us it happened in the past?"
(Allow 1-2 student examples.)
Teacher: (Display Slide 5: 'Inflection -ing: Happening Right Now!')
"And finally, -ing. If I 'run' right now, I am...? (Pause for 'running') Exactly! The '-ing' tells us the action is happening right now or is still ongoing. It's like the word is in the middle of doing something. What's something you are 'doing' right now, using an '-ing' word?"
(Allow 1-2 student examples.)
Teacher: (Display Slide 6: 'Why Do Inflections Matter?')
"So, why do we bother with these tiny endings? Why can't we just say 'I walk to school yesterday' instead of 'I walked to school yesterday'? What would be confusing about that?"
(Guide discussion to understand that inflections provide clarity about number and tense.)
"They help us understand exactly when something happened, or if there's more than one of something. They make our sentences complete and clear, like superstars!"
Inflection Investigation (10 minutes)
Teacher: "Alright, word detectives! Now it's your turn to investigate. I'm going to hand out the Inflection Investigation Worksheet. Your job is to find the inflections, figure out the base words, and explain how the inflection changes the meaning."
"You can work on this by yourself or with a partner next to you. If you get stuck, remember our slides and think about what each ending told us. I'll be walking around to help out."
(Distribute worksheets and circulate, providing individual support as needed. Encourage students to refer to the slides or discuss with their partners.)
Share and Reflect (5 minutes)
Teacher: "Time to bring it back together, everyone! Let's review some of our answers from the Inflection Investigation Worksheet. We'll use our Inflection Challenge Answer Key to check our work."
(Go through a few answers from Part 1 and Part 2, asking students to share their responses and explanations. Use the answer key to confirm.)
Teacher: "Great job, everyone! Before we finish, I want everyone to think about one new thing you learned about words or inflections today. Turn to a partner and share your thought!"
(Allow 1 minute for quick sharing.)
Teacher: "Excellent! You're all becoming Inflection Superstars! Remember these tiny but mighty endings as you read and write. They're everywhere!"