Which instructional method can support students in mastering words with the inflected -ed ending?

The selection of sorting and categorizing words based on their endings as the method to support students in mastering words with the inflected -ed ending is a highly effective approach. This method encourages students to move beyond rote memorization and instead engage in active learning. By identifying patterns in word endings, students can generalize their knowledge to new words that share the same inflectional ending.

Through this practice, students become more adept at recognizing the rules associated with verb tenses, particularly the transformation from present to past tense signaled by the addition of -ed. As they sort through different words, they also reinforce their understanding of phonetic and morphological structures, thus enhancing their overall vocabulary skills.

Engaging with words in a sorting activity fosters critical thinking and promotes deeper cognitive processing compared to other methods, such as simply reading stories focused on past tense or conducting spelling tests, which may emphasize memorization rather than comprehension. Diagramming verb tenses offers some visual assistance but doesn’t provide the same level of interaction with word forms. Hence, sorting and categorizing proves to be the most effective method for mastering the inflectional ending –ed.