Top-Down Word Study - Grr

I’ve just spent a bit of time perusing a word study curriculum by Benchmark Education Company that our local school district is using. The basic content seems generally fine. 3rd grade is focused primarily on spelling patterns. 4th too, though it gets more into prefixes, suffixes, and homographs/phones. Then 5th grade really tackles learning suffixes, prefixes, and Greek and Latin roots. This content overlaps with materials I’ve been using with 3rd to 5th grade teachers, and also ties into the Common Core. But there is a fundamental problem that runs throughout this curriculum. It tells students what the morphemes are doing. Aside from providing belittling scripts for teachers to use, those scripts are completely top-down, not allowing students to discover the unconscious knowledge that they already have about words, and not allowing them to discover the patterns that emerge if they analyze a set of word data (say, if they are not native English speakers – they can still discover the patterns). For example, it says,

“Write the suffix –ion on the chalkboard. Explain to students that today they will be working with the suffix –ion. Say: This suffix appears in many words and refers to an “action or process” or “the result of an action or process.” Adding –ion to a base word usually changes it from a verb to a noun.”

Students are simply told what this suffix does, when they could discover that, as well as the fact that it attaches to verbs to make nouns. With the top-down model, such suffixes and their functions just become things to memorize. The discovery, the critical thinking is missing. But the sense of empowerment that comes when students understand that these grammatical distinctions are not handed down from on high but come from within cannot be underestimated. When we teach about language, guiding students to discover the spelling patterns, the parts of speech categories, the complex systematicity that they already make use of everyday in their language, the effects can be huge.

The good news is that we can accomplish the same goals that Benchmark aspires to (“Engaging students in word study gives them strategies for analyzing multisyllabic words and a deeper understanding of prefixes, suffixes, and root words. Explicit instruction in word-solving strategies helps students read and spell quickly and accurately. It also encourages comprehension”) without even spending much more time – and with big payoffs. I think a lot of teachers already encourage this kind of introspection from students without even thinking about it, but it’s just irritating that the curriculum materials themselves are so “teachy.”