Rasinski, T., Padak, N., Newton, E., & Newton, T. (2008).



Word Roots and Vocabulary Instruction (Part 2). May, 2018In my earlier post on this subject (see - Nov 2017), I made the case that since the human brain has the ability to detect patterns, we should take advantage of the morphological patterns (words that contain meaning word patterns largely derived from Latin and Greek) that are present in English words in order to build students’ meaning vocabularies. In this post I would like to share a simple idea for teaching word roots to students.The word educator is derived from three morphological roots: ex (simplified to e) that means “out of,” duc which means “to lead,” and or which means “one who.” As educators our job is to lead our students out of darkness and into the light of knowledge. How can we shed light on morphological roots? One simple say is to make them visible to students through a classroom display or chart. Once a week or every two weeks choose a root to focus on with your students. Then, on a large display chart write the root, it’s meaning, and then list English words that contain that root. Here’s an example you can use during the month of May for Mothers’ Day. Mater and Matr are Latin roots that mean “mother.” Early in the week, put that information on the top of a chart, and then brainstorm with students (take the lead if they cannot think of any) English words that contain these roots and describe how they refer to mother. Here’s a possible display you can use this month.center0Mater/MatrMotherMaternity: motherhood.Maternal: pertaining to or of a mother.Matriarch: A ruler who is a mother.Matrimony: The state of marriage where a woman is to become a mother.Matron: A dignified mother.Alma Mater: Literally means “kind mother.” The college from which one graduates. 00Mater/MatrMotherMaternity: motherhood.Maternal: pertaining to or of a mother.Matriarch: A ruler who is a mother.Matrimony: The state of marriage where a woman is to become a mother.Matron: A dignified mother.Alma Mater: Literally means “kind mother.” The college from which one graduates. Then throughout the week find ways to weave these words into your instructional conversations with your students. Challenge your students to use these words in their own classroom talk and writing. In June you may wish to celebrate Fathers and Fathers’ Day by making a similar chart, but this time use the word root Pater/Patr which means “father.” It only takes a few minutes to make a word root display and draw students’ attention to it throughout the week. In doing so you will not only be expanding students’ vocabularies, you will also be developing in them a propensity (pro forward; pend to incline or hang – an inclination) to look for meaningful patterns in words in order to discover their meanings. And isn’t this what vocabulary instruction should be all about? For more information about vocabulary instruction using word roots seeRasinski, T., Padak, N., Newton, E., & Newton, T. (2008). Greek and Latin Roots - Keys to Building Vocabulary. Huntington Beach, CA: Shell Education/Teacher Created Materials. Also see many Building Vocabulary Resources at ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download