What it is. Word parts are what you use on a word nobody has taught you.
Why our test works. This is the last vocabulary lesson of the strand and its real subject is what happens AFTER we stop teaching. A child who can decompose *macroeconomic* or *autoimmune* from parts they own has a method that outlasts every word list we gave them. The test is framed around getting a WORKING meaning — good enough to keep reading — because that, not precision, is what unblocks a difficult text in real time.
Leans on. Grade 7 met affixes. Grade 8 uses them on words we never taught.
Watch for. Then check it. A working meaning is a hypothesis, and the habit we want is guess-then-verify, not guess.
Use 12 school words in sentences of your own, and choose which version suits who is reading. The worked example is built on Hyperactive behavior., ringing hyper-. The class reads Writing Book 8, p.76 — 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.
Then you do one yourself, on screen, one click per piece: the word hyper- alone first, and you wait — let them look at it before you give them the meaning. Then too much / above arrives beside it, and you point from one to the other with your hand. Then the sentence underneath: Hyperactive behavior.. 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 8 to page 76 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: Only one of yours may use the frame. Choose which one needs 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 hyper-. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: Then check it. A working meaning is a guess until it is verified.
Then check it. A working meaning is a hypothesis, and the habit we want is guess-then-verify, not guess.