Virginia SOL 3.RV.1.C
The Standard
Determine the meaning of complex words using frequently occurring root words and inflectional affixes (e.g. -s, -ing, -ed).
Virginia Standards of Learning for English · Vocabulary Development and Word Analysis
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students separate a familiar base word from endings such as -s, -ing, and -ed. They combine the base meaning with the ending’s job, then check the sentence to explain the whole word.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given words such as plants, planted, and planting, a student identifies plant as the base and explains how each ending changes the meaning. The student uses context to decide whether -s marks a plural noun or a present-tense verb.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may call every final s an ending, so they split bus into bu and s. They may think -s always means more than one, missing its job in runs. They may overlook spelling changes in stopped or carried and choose the wrong base word.
How to Assess It
- Give this exit ticket: “The gardener planted seeds yesterday.” Students circle the base word in planted, underline the ending, and explain the word’s meaning.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs word tiles for jump, plant, -s, -ing, and -ed, then have them build words and explain each meaning.
Ask students to write how the meaning changes across “dogs bark,” “a dog barks,” and “the dog barked.”
Play Base Word Detective: display an inflected word, and teams earn points for naming the base, ending, and whole-word meaning.
Use a lunch menu or class notice to find words ending in -s, -ing, or -ed and explain them in context.
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Related Standards
- 1.RV.1.E
Determine the meaning of an unknown word using frequently occurring root words and inflectional affixes (e.g. -s, -ing, -ed).
- 4.RV.1.C
The 4th Grade version of this standard.
- 2.RV.1.C
Determine the meaning of an unknown word using frequently occurring root words and inflectional affixes (e.g. -s, -ing, - ed).
- 5.RV.1.C
Determine the meaning of complex words using frequently occurring root words and inflectional affixes (e.g., -s, -ing,-ed).
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