I’m Marie Vee, of Mountain Laurel Literacy, and I’m so grateful to be here today to talk about teaching morphology, word roots, and affixes to students of all levels.
I’m a K-12 reading specialist with almost 20 years of classroom and intervention experience, and I’ve taught reading and writing to students at all levels. I’m certified in structured literacy and passionate about all things language.
Okay, let’s talk morphology. First, what is it? From a reading standpoint, morphology is the study of meaningful units of language (morphemes) and how they can be combined to make words. For example, the word “cat” has one morpheme. But “cats” has two—the base word (cat) and the suffix -s. “Hopelessly” has three—the base word (hope) and the two suffixes -less and -ly.
Morphological Awareness is Critical
Morphological awareness is a thing, a real thing that can be explicitly taught and practiced, and it helps students expand their vocabulary and become better readers, spellers, and word detectives.
The 95 Percent Group defines morphological awareness as “the knowledge of word structure, including the formation of words from roots, prefixes, and suffixes—an understanding of how words can be broken down into the smallest units of meaning.”
Louisa Moats, in her book Speech to Print (2020), says “With systematic teaching, morphological awareness develops in tandem with phonological and orthographic awareness beginning in first grade.” The key takeaway from that quote is “with systematic teaching.” We can’t just hope that kids will discover morphology on their own and become aware through osmosis–we have to teach those skills explicitly.
How Can I Teach Morphology to Younger Students?
Hopefully your students have had at least some morphology instruction embedded into whatever core literacy program(s) they’ve been exposed to, but depending on what level you teach, your kids are most likely coming to you with widely varied levels of morphological knowledge. But it’s never too late to start, and every little bit counts, so read on for strategies and resources you can use to help implement morphology instruction into your classroom.
For students as young as grades 1 and 2, morphology instruction with basic, common suffixes can begin along with your regular program of phonics and word study. Suffixes like -s/-es, -ing, -ed, and -er/-est are good places to begin, because they’re very common and can be learned as word chunks. Once students know -ing always makes the /ing/ sound, and that -es sounds like /iz/, this unlocks a lot of words for them.
Often primary teachers assume that just because a student can decode words like “dish” and “take,” they will automatically recognize base word/suffix combinations like “dishes” and “taking.” It’s true that some students will make this jump intuitively and with little or no instruction, but the majority of kids will need at least some explicit instruction and practice recognizing, reading, and spelling base word/suffix combinations. For your struggling readers, those below benchmark on whatever ongoing assessment(s) you use, higher levels of explicitness and more frequency of instruction will need to occur for them to build proficiency with skills like this.
Word sorts are a great way to help students build this knowledge, and they can be used with so many different kinds of words at so many different levels, so they’re really versatile and easy to differentiate. My free morphology resource has three word sorts appropriate for primary or intermediate students, depending on your kids’ needs and their level of proficiency: s/es, ing/er/est, and sounds of -ed.
A great way to do these kinds of activities is to print one sort for each student (all sorts print on a single page) and have them underline base words and circle affixes FIRST. Then they cut the cards apart and sort them under the column headings, which are included. This prevents you from having to cut apart 25 sets of cards. The cards then can be stored in a way that works best in your classroom–if your kids have word study notebooks, they can glue the cards in there for future reference, or you can have them work in groups to make posters to hang on the wall.
Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t include the importance of phonics coding for activities like this. If your students know how to code syllable types and mark vowels, blends, digraphs, etc. (check out the pics), that’s a really useful strategy to incorporate here as well.
How Can I Teach Morphology to Older Students?
For older students (upper intermediate or middle school), utilizing word sorts with more advanced concepts works extremely well. In my free morphology resource, I’ve included a sort for sion/tion as /shun/ and tion as /chun/ (see pics below). For this activity, use the same procedure as outlined above, though some of the words will not have a base word to underline (i.e., “motion”). But students can still circle the affix on those words, then sort into columns.
For older middle schoolers and high schoolers, the ways to teach morphology embedded with vocabulary are about as varied as the words themselves. However, I really like teaching vocabulary with Greek and Latin roots–it requires no memorizing of definitions; allows students to immerse themselves in bases, roots, and affixes simultaneously; and it provides students with the tools to intuitively figure out (or at least get a strong idea) of what words mean in context while they’re engaging in authentic reading tasks.
I’m a big fan of graphic organizers, and although there are many out there you can use for roots, I’ve found a version of word webs to be one that’s worked well for me (see pic below). My free morphology resource includes two typed, completed examples, as well as some blank word webs you can use with any root. It’s hard to find a one-size-fits-all graphic organizer for this task, but the blanks I’m providing can easily be added to if your students find more words than they have blanks. Also, once students become proficient with this strategy, I’ve had success having them free-hand a web on their own, or with guidance as a whole-class activity.
For further reading, I highly recommend Louisa Moats’ article, “How Spelling Supports Reading,” from American Educator. You can download it free here: https://www.aft.org/ae/winter2005-2006/moats
For some additional resources for teaching morphology and vocabulary, check out the following:
My blog post on how to use linear arrays for teaching shades of meaning for synonyms and antonym spectrums here.
https://www.etymonline.com/ – Online etymology resource that is extremely detailed, useful for students and adults alike.
My Greek and Latin word roots units with embedded affixes (designed for secondary students) in my shop here.
https://www.neilramsden.co.uk/spelling/matrix/ – Neil Ramsden’s word matrix generator, which takes a lot of the leg work out of building words with morphemes. Useful, and free.
Now go have fun with morphemes!
