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 view previous Morpheme Monday Lessons posts.
Note to the Teacher
In general, the lessons and exercises in Morpheme Monday Lessons will follow a scope and sequence based on complexity and utility. However, the lessons will also be based on current topics of interest. This week, the morpheme auto is presented in preparation for reading about a significant change in major league umpiring: the introduction of ABS (Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System), which is being used to check the accuracy of the human umpire’s calling of balls and strikes. The morpheme auto is known as a combining form. Combining forms are similar to affixes but are more flexible. Two affixes cannot be combined to form a word, but two combining forms can as in biology (bio+ology). Words can also be formed when an affix is joined with a combining form as in carditis (card+itis). Rather than get entangled in technicalities, it might be best to treat auto as a prefix or simply call it a morpheme or word form.
For Students
Morphemes in Baseball
To understand a change that is now happening in major league baseball, it helps if you know the morpheme auto. Auto means “self’ or “by oneself.” An autobiography (auto+bio (o)+ graph+ y) is a biography written by oneself. When on autopilot (auto+pilot), a plane flies by itself. Cameras have autofocus (auto+foucus). They can focus by themselves. Humans don’t need to do anything. Autocrats (auto+crat+s) are people who rule by themselves. They don’t ask the people who elected them what they want. After automobiles (auto+mobile+s) were invented, people didn’t have to walk or pedal bicycles. They were carried by cars. Something that is automatic (auto+mat+ic) works by itself. It doesn’t need a human. Automatic outdoor lights turn on by themselves when it gets dark and turn off when it gets light. Something that has been made to work automatically is said to be automated. For instance, some indoor light switches have been automated. You don’t have to flick a light switch when you enter a dark room. The light goes on automatically. It turns off automatically when you leave the room. Read the following article, which contains a lot of auto words. Then answer the questions that follow.
Robots in the Big Leagues
Robots have come to major league baseball this year. The robots aren’t pitching or catching or hitting. They are working as umpires. They aren’t umpiring the whole game, only small parts of it. They are helping the home plate umpire. Being a home plate umpire is a tough job. Telling whether a pitch is a ball or a strike as it blazes over the plate at speeds that sometimes reach 100 miles an hour takes excellent eyesight and quick thinking. Sometimes umpires get it wrong. But now players can challenge an umpire’s call. All the player has to do is to tap his cap. Then the ABS checks the call. ABS stands for Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System. Using autofocus, a camera automatically records every pitch and can detect whether the pitch is in the strike zone. Teams are given two challenges. If their challenge is wrong–if the human umpire’s call is correct–they lose a challenge. If their challenge is correct, then the human umpire’s call is overturned. And the team keeps their challenge. Only pitchers, catchers, and batters can challenge. Mangers and fielders cannot.
In a way, umpires used to be autocrats. They only depended on themselves to decide whether a pitch was a ball or a strike. They had complete autonomy. They were in charge. No one else could change their calls. Now they have to go by the automatic recording of the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System whenever a pitch is challenged. Chances are in time to come calling balls and strikes will become completely automated in the major leagues. There will be no human umpires calling balls and strikes.
Understandings
1. Who can make a challenge?
a. only the pitchers and the other players on the batter’s team
b. only the managers
c. only the pitcher, catcher, or hitter
2. How many challenges does a team get?
a. only two, even if their challenges result in an overturned call
b. more than two if their challenges result in overturned calls
c. only two, no matter what happens
3. See how the boldfaced word autonomy is used in the article. Based on how it is used, what does it mean?
a] free from taking orders from others or following their commands
b) having help from people when help was needed
c] having to follow a long list of rules that were sometimes confusing
Words
Fill in the blanks with the following words. One word is extra.
autofocus, autonomy, automated, autopilot, autocrat, autobiography
1. After writing about others, the author decided to write her own ___________________ .
2. Today’s cameras have ___________________ so it’s easier to take pictures that are clear.
3. In many stores, the checkouts have been __________________ so cashiers are no longer needed.
4. When an ___________________ took over the government, the people no longer had a say in how their country should be run.
5. When an autocratic boss took over, the workers lost much of their ___________________
Answers
Understandings
1. c
2. b
3. a
The word autonomy, which is boldfaced is made up three morphemes: auto+nom+y. The morpheme auto means “self.” The base nom means “law or way of doing things.” It means “my self’s way of doing things” or “free from taking orders from others or following their commands.”
Words
1. autobiography, 2, autofocus 3, automated 4. autocrat 5. autonomy