Structured Literacy in the Science Classroom - Part 2 (Morphology)

Image Courtesy of Pixabay

The Sharpened Vision of the International Dyslexia Association promotes Structured Literacy in every classroom everywhere and around the world, but how does that apply to subjects like science for the upper grades? 

It's challenging to envision a high school chemistry teacher dedicating time to work on decoding or phonics, so how do those educators incorporate Structured Literacy into their curriculum without sacrificing precious instructional time?

One avenue for promoting Structured Literacy and the Science of Reading in every classroom is through the development of morphological awareness. 

Earlier this month, at the end of my Structured Literacy Symposium on Vocabulary and Background Knowledge for California's Tri-County Branch of IDA, one of the participants shared a personal story from her years of teaching experience.

When she was a middle school general education science teacher, she had little understanding of Structured Literacy. Even so, she was actively incorporating a Structured Literacy approach. When an unfamiliar word appeared in the science lesson, rather than asking students to memorize the textbook definition, she broke down the word into morphological units and initiated a discussion about connecting base elements, prefixes, suffixes, and Greek combining forms to terms already familiar to the class. 

By connecting unknown words to known words, she drew on what students already understood about the word. This practice aligns with the strategy of utilizing background knowledge to create student-friendly definitions, as outlined in Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction by Beck, McKeown, and Kucan. 

In my August BLOG post, I shared their three Tiers of Vocabulary - not to be confused with the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support in the diagram below. Please read that blog post for more information about Tiers of Vocabulary.

Using morphological awareness to teach vocabulary in upper-grade science classes is a logical choice that supports both the curriculum and Structured Literacy.  Many scientific terms originate from Greek and Latin. This emphasis also aligns well with a Structured Literacy approach, as illustrated in the Infographic below.

 (courtesy of the IDA at https://dyslexiaida.org/infographics/) 

Examining the "Who" section of the infographic, general education classroom teachers can effectively utilize morphology instruction with both average-performing students and those who may require additional support. Specialists, such as reading teachers and speech-language pathologists, can also do a deeper dive into that same vocabulary when they meet with students in small groups or 1:1 for Tier 3 support.

Examining the "What" section of the Infomap, morphological awareness requires critical thinking and fosters growth in both vocabulary and background knowledge.

"How" a teacher approaches the teaching of morphology may incorporate several elements of both direct/systematic and mastery-oriented strategies.

As an example, when teaching a word like subaquatic, which may not be automatically generalizable to other subjects, focus on the morphemes that do appear across subject areas and are related to words the student already understands. These types of conversations are engaging, require students to draw on background experience, and incorporate morphological problem-solving. After introducing the word, introduce the parts.

SUB = UNDER: submarine, subtract, substitute, submit, suburban.

AQUA = WATER: aquarium, Aqua Man

TIC = A suffix that turns a word into an adjective that describes a quality or characteristic: fantastic, aromatic

Then, encourage students to think of other words containing those elements. If they watch crime shows, they may be interested to know that an unsub is an "unknown subject" or an unidentified perpetrator. Although the word "subaquatic" may not transfer easily across topic areas, the word "subject" certainly does.

A visit to etmonline.com reveals that ject means to throw. Sub+ject therefore means to throw under, bind under, or that which lies beneath. That meaning makes sense when thinking about the king's subjects, or how a younger brother might subject his older brother to a barrage of silly jokes. It takes a bit more imagination to consider math as a subject that lies beneath, but in that context, it might make sense to think of the student throwing themself under, or submitting to a course of study.

Once you have a list of "sub" words, make a matrix like the one below, created with Mini Matrix Maker at 

www.neil.ramsden.co.uk/spelling/matrix.

After exploring the Word Sums, students can create sentences or answer questions based on the shades of meaning of the various words.

Last week, I explored the subject of Structured Literacy in the Science Classroom with a look at Haiku and Syllable Structure. Check it out for more ideas on how to use Structured Literacy in the science classroom.

Sign up for my newsletter to receive activities for my ongoing COR (Components of Reading) series HERE.