What it is. The preposition is part of the word. *Derive* alone is not the item; *derive from* is.
Why our test works. A wrong preposition is not heard as awkward the way a wrong collocation is — it is heard as an ERROR, and it is the single most common one in the writing of a child who speaks another language at home. It cannot be reasoned out: *comply with* and *conform to* follow no rule that distinguishes them. So the test is deliberately about the pair, never about the verb alone, and a child who is unsure must look it up rather than choose the preposition that sounds nearest.
Leans on. Grade 5 taught collocation. This is the same problem, harder to hide.
Watch for. Never let a child write the verb without its preposition on a vocabulary card. *Derive* on its own is not the thing being learned and storing it that way is what causes the error later.
Use 8 school words in sentences of your own, and choose which version suits who is reading. The worked example is built on The word derives from Latin., ringing derive from. The class reads Writing Book 6, p.63 — our own page, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds. Before anything new, sixty seconds of retrieval on U9 set 1, U14 set 1: ask, take the answers from boards rather than hands so you see all thirty, and do not re-teach — note who has lost it and carry on.
Then you do one yourself, on screen, one click per piece: the word derive from alone first, and you wait — let them look at it before you give them the meaning. Then come from arrives beside it, and you point from one to the other with your hand. Then the sentence underneath: The word derives from Latin.. Three clicks, three things said. Do not let the whole slide arrive at once — a slide that arrives whole gives the answer before the question is asked.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class rewrites two everyday sentences into school-word, then judges one case where the everyday version is BETTER. Discuss in pairs using the frames. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on their notebooks instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They open Writing Book 6 to page 63 and read it with you. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone through the five steps — match, choose, frame, write their own. The frames stay on screen while they write: You may use the frame for two of your three. Try the third without it. Say both halves of that — the frame is there if they need it, and it is better writing without it. Walk and note who used it; that is your group for tomorrow, not a mark against them today.
You close on the exit direction — Say one sentence using derive from. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: The verb without its preposition is only half learned.
Never let a child write the verb without its preposition on a vocabulary card. *Derive* on its own is not the thing being learned and storing it that way is what causes the error later.