Morpheme Monday Lesson 11: aqua, hydra, terra, astra
To Teachers The blog is designed for grades 3-4 and up but would be appropriate for any students in the upper grades who are not familiar with the morpheme being introduced. The main purpose of the blog is to develop students’ knowledge of bases (roots), prefixes, and suffixes so they can use these elements to derive the meanings of unfamiliar...
Morpheme Monday Lesson 10: Suffixes -er, -or
To Teachers The blog is designed for grades 3-4 and up but would be appropriate for any students in the upper grades who are not familiar with the morpheme(s) being introduced. The main purpose of the blog is to develop students’ knowledge of bases (roots), prefixes, and suffixes so they can use these elements to derive the meanings of unfamiliar...
Morpheme Monday Lesson 9: Dinosaur Words dino, saur, cera, tops, don, pachy, raptor, velo (veloci)
To Teachers The blog is designed for grades 3-4 and up but would be appropriate for any students in the upper grades who are not familiar with the morpheme(s) being introduced. The main purpose of the blog is to develop students’ knowledge of bases (roots), prefixes, and suffixes so they can use these elements to derive the meanings of unfamiliar...
Morpheme Monday Lesson 8: Number and Size Morphemes deci-, dec(a)-, centi-, milli-, kilo-, multi-, poly-, mega-, mini-, micro-, hemi-, semi
To Teachers This blog is designed for grades 3-4 and up but would be appropriate for any students in the upper grades who are not familiar with the morpheme(s) being introduced. The main purpose of the blog is to develop students’ knowledge of bases (roots), prefixes, and suffixes so they can use these elements to derive the meanings of...
Morpheme Monday Lesson 7: Numbers 1-5, ped-, pod- Bipeds Versus Quadrupeds
To Teachers The blog is designed for grades 3-4 and up but would be appropriate for any students in the upper grades who are not familiar with the morpheme(s) being introduced. The main purpose of the blog is to develop students’ knowledge of bases (roots), prefixes, and suffixes so they can use these elements to derive the meanings of unfamiliar...
Morpheme Monday Lesson 6: Suffix -ate
To the Teacher The blog is designed for grades 3-4 and up but would be appropriate for any students in the upper grades who are not familiar with the morpheme being introduced. The main purpose of the blog is to develop students' knowledge of bases (roots), prefixes, and suffixes so they can use these elements to derive the meanings of unfamiliar...
Monday Morpheme Lesson 5: struct, -ion (-tion, -sion ) The Great Molasses Flood
To the Teacher This week's lesson introduces the concept of bound morphemes, with struct being used as an example. The suffix -ion (-tion, -sion) is also introduced. Both elements are embedded in the article, "The Great Molasses Flood." To the Student Morphemes are meaningful parts of words. Base morphemes are the main parts of the word. They...
Morpheme Monday Lessons: Lesson 4 auto
Morpheme Monday Lessons is a weekly blog that develops morphemic analysis. The blog is designed for grades 3-4 and up but would be appropriate for any students in the upper grades who are not familiar with the morphemes being introduced. Past blogs are posted on buildingliteracy.org under the heading "The Building Literacy Blog" so that you can...
Morpheme Monday Lesson 3: Suffixes -er, -or, -ist
To the Teacher Suffixation is a major process in the formation of words. Although prefixes are easier to learn, suffixes are more numerous. The suffixes -er, -or, and -ist are introduced first because they have a high frequency and easy-to-understand meanings. Of the three suffixes, -er is the most frequent. (In the exercises that follow, words...
Morpheme Monday 1: equi (equa), nox (noct)
Note to the Teacher This is the first post in a blog entitled "Morpheme Mondays." In the blog I will provide discussions of morphemes and supply related activities. I will attempt to make the discussions relevant and engaging. The blog is designed for grades 3-4 and up but would be appropriate for any students in the upper grades who are not...
Impact of Covid on Reading Achievement: Five Years Later
Despite extensive efforts by educators, reading achievement nation-wide lags behind pre-pandemic levels. A study that included nearly 12 million students who took the i-Ready Diagnostic for Reading assessment during the 2024-2025 school year revealed that fewer students in grades 1-4 are reaching grade-level (Table 1.1) (Curriculum Associates,...
Morphology: A Key Foundational Skill
Morphology: A Key Foundational Skill Initially, students are taught to use phonological information to read words. This works well for words such as hat and pet, which have spellings that are easily translated into sounds, but it doesn’t work as well for words, such as does or...
Achieving Equity with an Exemplary Literacy Program
Better Start Literacy The Better Start Literacy Approach has been highly successful in developing the literacy of year 1 (kindergarten) students with low language in New Zealand. Students provided with Better Start outperformed students taught with the schools’ typical approach. Key elements in the program were a focus on phonemic awareness,...
Morpheme Monday Lesson 2: Word Sums
Morpheme Monday Lessons is a weekly blog that develops morphemic analysis. The blog is designed for grades 3-4 and up but would be appropriate for any students in the upper grades who are not familiar with the morphemes being introduced. Past blogs are posted on buildingliteracy.org under the heading "The Building Literacy Blog" so that you can...