Vocabulary Through Morphemes: Suffixes, Prefixes, and Roots for Intermediate Grades

Approved by Florida and other states

Written by Susan Ebbers

NEW!! Consumable second edition!!
Order from Sopris West (Cambium)

Sample pages:

Research Base and Curriculum Overview

Set includes Lesson Planbook, Practice and Assessment Masters, and Instructional CD, with permission to copy for single classroom use. The CD is the main teaching component.

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Curriculum Goals, Usage, and Pacing:

Become linguistically aware and word conscious
Chunk words into their meaningful morphemes: prefix, root, suffix
Learn the meaning of the most common prefixes and roots
Explore word clues revealed through the meaning of the prefix or root
Develop academic language through word roots, analogies, word families, synonyms, and antonyms
Improve spelling skills, fluency, vocabulary, and ultimately, comprehension
Analyze the derivational suffixes and the role they play in function (i.e., most words ending in -ity are abstract nouns, as in purity, simplicity, masculinity)
Analyze the structure of academic and specialized content vocabulary

Curriculum Components and Design:

Book: The actual teaching content is found on the CD, located in the back of the book. The book contains the plans for each lesson and provides thumbnails of the content located on the CD, as well as thumbnails of the reproducible blackline practice pages, along with answer keys. Each lesson plan in this book is structured to contain standards-based objectives, a warm-up activity, teaching suggestions, and practice or assessment ideas.
Instructional Pages on Compact Disk (CD): rich in content, containing each new morpheme in context. Formatted in large font for overhead transparency use. Mac or PC ready. The CD is the key component.
Additional Practice on Reproducible Pages: for extra application and extension, as well as assessment.

Suggested Pacing:

10 or 15 minutes a day for ~165 school days (~20 for intensive instruction)
Teach a lesson one day (82 lessons total) and provide the practice page the next day as warm-up work
Occasionally, apply skills with the suggested games and activities
Use the assessments provided and monitor progress as needed

Note:

Keep in mind the notions of developing word consciousness and constructing networks of related words. Try not to get caught up in memorizing meanings, especially for abstract suffixes, because they don't always "fit" and then what shall we do?? Instead, provide opportunities for your students to practice using morphemic cues, along with context clues, to solve unknown vocabulary. Above all, keep it playful and exploratory.

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Teacher Feedback

Grades 4/5: I have been using your book, Vocabulary Through Morphemes, this year. My class has transformed into a classroom of word wizards! I spoke to you briefly at the CORE Conference in S.F. this year. I have basically extended the use of the book providing more exposure to the words and meanings with fluency drills, and using lessons as our spelling program in my 4/5 combination classroom. Thank You! -- Pam Smedley, Sierra Schools, California

Middle School: I have loved being able to use Vocabulary through Morphemes both with my "gifted and talented" students and my reading intervention class. With different instructional guidelines, both 6th grade groups have been able to successfully build their vocabulary and understanding of affixes and roots. I have also REALLY appreciated having this type of pre-organized and ready to use instructional material. -- Karen Romney, Clover Middle School

High School Summer School: I'm teaching summer school and I'm using your book Vocabulary Through Morphemes. It is absolutely wonderful. I love that I am able to to tie my knowledge of Language! with your curriculum. It supports the instructor and I see that the students seem to be challenged but excited about learning the content as well. They really got a kick out of the introduction and the history of the English language. -- Grace Kevorkian, Pasadena High

High School: I love this book! Now I have a step-by-step plan to follow, and the short segments are so easy to use and not time-consuming. It really is a user-friendly book! I wish that I had had it last year! Thank you so much for developing the materials. They really are a gift to teachers everywhere! -- Lisetta Wallace, Intervention Reading Teacher, Tracy High