Affix and Anecdotes

Affix

An affix is a morpheme attached to a word which
may be a prefix (disappear, uninspiring) or a
suffix (reading, likeness).

Anecdotes

These are short accounts usually of an event or
something that happened to the teller or writer or
someone known to them. From the earliest stage
young children enjoy telling others about significant
events: what they did yesterday; what
happened when their pet or favourite toy was
lost; what the squirrels were doing in the park last
Saturday. Often what they relate is chronologically
ordered and this helps them develop a sense
of the narrative form (Mallett, 1997). Reading
and listening to literature is a strong context for
the sharing of pertinent anecdotes. We value all
the connections children make in their talk and
writing between what they read and events and
situations in their lives. The teacher’s skill lies in
his or her constructive and imaginative response
to children’s anecdotes. A number of children in
a Year 6 class were responding to the teacher’s
reading of Anthony Browne’s picture book The
Tunnel (Puffin, 1989) by sharing anecdotes about
sibling relationships. The teacher focused the
discussion by asking the children how their experiences
were similar to and different from those
of the children in the book. This nudged the
anecdotes into a higher gear and, as often
happens, the anecdotes were developed into a
satisfying written piece.
When children write journals or diaries in or
out of school they draw on anecdotes. These
‘vignettes’ from real life are more interesting
when writers include their own attitudes, opinions
and response. Here we can hardly have a
better model than the writing in Anne Frank’s
Diary (Puffin, 1997).