MORPHOLOGY
Continuing our series on COR Instruction, where we highlight the activities explored in the HOT ROD activity books (Higher Order Thinking through the Reading of Decodables), this month’s topic is Morphology.
One of the main features of HOT ROD books is a focus on providing decoding practice within a meaningful context, utilizing key vocabulary and other concepts that can also be used to address COR skills like morphological awareness.
While phonemes represent the smallest units of sound, morphemes represent the smallest units of meaning. English is a morphophonemic language, which means that the phonemes and the morphological structure work together to affect how words are pronounced.
In her chapter on “Morphology for Reading, Spelling, and Vocabulary,” in Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers (Third Edition), Louisa Moats talks about the power of morphological awareness for building vocabulary. The ability to recognize morphemes enhances a student's ability to make reasonable inferences about a word's meaning in context. That recognition and understanding help to “anchor a word in memory.” In addition, we remember words best when we understand their relationship to other words.
It's never too early to start teaching morphology. Children as young as kindergarten benefit from learning basic suffixes such as -s, -ed, and -ing. Many older students working on a Scope and Sequence that starts with closed syllables (short vowel sounds) can handle word sums like the one below from the Gods and Gifts Activity Book: 50+ Activities and Games for Decoding, Reading Comprehension, Writing, and Speech. The word matrix examples in this blog were all created using the Mini-Matrix Maker at www.neilramsden.co.uk/spelling/matrix.
About the Word Matrix
The Word Matrix is a concept explored by Peter Bowers in Teaching How the Written Word Works: Using Morphological Problem-Solving to Develop Students’ Language Skills & Engagement with the Written Word. This is how word sums work:
1. A Word Matrix helps us explore word structure by organizing elements like prefixes, base elements, and suffixes into columns.
2. Prefixes are in the left column. Base elements are in the middle column. Suffixes are in the right columns.
3. A Word Sum is created by using one element from one column at a time to construct a word. You do not have to use an element from every column, but do not skip over columns.
4. Students create words using the Word Sums and then use those words to complete a variety of activities.
In the example above from the Gods and Gifts Activity Book, students work with basic syllable types. Etymology is also an important part of the Morphological Problem-Solving process. For that reason, the activity book also explores the etymology of Prometheus, Epimetheus, & Pandora, main characters in the Greek Creation Myth. More advanced students (those working beyond closed syllable types) study the origin of these names and the meanings of those Greek combining forms. Students who are not ready to tackle reading those words still benefit from the discussion of those names. One of the strategies that makes the HOT ROD books unique is the emphasis on Pair and Share reading. A rich background context is read by a reading partner, allowing struggling readers to build world knowledge even as they learn basic decoding skills.
References:
Bowers, P. (2009). Teaching how the written word works: Using morphological problem-solving to develop students’ language skills & engagement with the written word. Ontario, Canada: Peter Bowers
Eggleston, R. L., Marks, R. A., Sun, X., Yu, L., Zhang, K., Nickerson, N., Hu, X., Caruso, V., & Kovelman, I. (2024). Lexical morphology as a source of risk and resilience for learning to read with dyslexia: An fNIRS investigation. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. https://doi.org/23814764000300140072
Farrell, L.M., & Cushen-Whte, N. (2018). Structured literacy instruction. In J.R. Birsh & S. Carreker (Eds.) Multisensory teaching of basic language skills (4th ed., pp. 35-72). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Moats, L.C. (2020). Speech to print: Language Essentials for Teachers. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Ramsden, N. Mini-Matrix Maker -https://www.neilramsden.co.uk/spelling/matrix/
