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Lesson · Grade 4 · English Language Arts

Prefixes and Suffixes: Reading a Long Word in Parts

  • Grade 4
  • English Language Arts
  • 1 min 20 s
  • British Columbia
  • BC4-EN-11

A short text about a robot has three long words (unhelpful, careless and reprogram), and each one is pulled apart into its base word and its prefix or suffix. Students learn what un-, re-, -ful and -less mean in these words, then read the text again with every part in colour, and the video ends on the strategy: find the base word first, then add any prefix or suffix.

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In one sentence

The question this lesson answers

What can you do when a long word is hard to read?

Read this short text about a robot.

Transcript

What the lesson says

What can you do when a long word is hard to read?

Read this short text about a robot.

Three words are long, but each one is built from parts.

Start with unhelpful, and find the base word: help.

The prefix un comes first, and here it means not.

The suffix ful comes last, and here it means full of.

Read it part by part: un, help, ful.

So unhelpful means not helpful.

In careless, the suffix less means without.

So careless means without care.

In reprogram, the prefix re means again.

So reprogram means program again.

Now read the text again, part by part.

To read a long word, find the base word first, then add any prefix or suffix.

Curriculum

Where this fits

British Columbia, Grade 4

English Language Arts, Strategies and processes: reading strategiesBC4-EN-11

Previous: Using Context Clues for a New WordNext: Making an Inference: Reading Between the Lines

The outcomes and strands follow the British Columbia curriculum.

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