To help students learn to read difficult words that end in -ed or -ing we taught them to first look at the root or base word and then add the ending. For example, when reading spotted we told them to cover the ending and read the base word "spot," then add the ending. We hope this strategy helps them read more words correctly during independent reading.
The past few days the students have been word detectives. Anytime they found an -ed word in their reading they wrote it down and sorted it by the sound of -ed. I was very impressed with all of the words they found. Great job!