Flip It Word Parts

Transcript: Flip It Word Parts is a fun, interactive vocabulary lesson idea where students combine roots and prefixes to build and define new words. Students start with two slips of paper. One slip has two prefixes (front and back); the other slip has two root words (front and back). Students put the two pieces of paper together and flip them over until they have formed four words. For example: re/spect, in/spect, in/vert, re/vert. Then they take those four words and use context clues to put them into a cloze paragraph. They use context clues or a dictionary to help them. Students examine the prefixes and the roots to decipher meaning. For example, re means back or again and spect means look. You can also use Flip It to explore suffixes and parts of speech. Add -ly for adverbs or –ion or –ment for nouns. Talk about verb tenses with –ed and –ing. Here’s an option for differentiation: Vary the level of difficulty of the word parts. At the start of the lesson, distribute the differentiated word parts to students based on their level of readiness. Each student has one slip of paper. Half of the students have a slip with prefixes front and back and the other half have a slip of paper with two root words front and back. Then have the students find a partner who has a matching slip of paper with the corresponding word parts to create four real words. Next the pairs will work on a cloze paragraph that aligns with their reading level. Students can even create their own Flip It combinations. Flip It Word Parts is a fun way to build vocabulary and eventually read at a higher level.