Using Narratives to Teach Morphology through Structured Word Inquiry

Structured Word Inquiry is a process used to engage learners in the scientific investigation of word parts and their morphology, etymology, and phonology. It looks at how those elements work together for both meaning and spelling, as well as how they are connected to other words.

The basic idea behind SWI is that English is a highly structured language when you understand the history of words and their underlying meaning. For instance, SWI treats homophones like to, too, two as terms that have important spelling variations to help signal meaning. Rather than being irregular, the word two makes sense when looking at related words like twin and twice. 

Peter Bowers Ph.D. is the founder of WordWorks Literacy Centre in Ontario. He coined the phrase Structured Word Inquiry (SWI). For more information about SWI, watch his  TedX Youth Talk entitled "Make Spelling Joyful Through Scientific Inquiry." He gives tips for "cultivating curiosity" for spelling in students by focusing more on meaning and less on sound.  It's 18 minutes long, and he recommends it as an introduction to the big picture of SWI.

Peter's 2009 book - Teaching How the Written Word Works: Using Morphological Problem-Solving to Develop Students' Language Skills & Engagement with the Written Word may be found HERE. I used his book as a reference when I was creating my SWI activities for my activity books. Peter is giving several workshops this fall, and many of them are online. Check out Peter Bowers Workshops.  You may also want to check out his latest Newsletter with tons of great information including a link to a free chapter of the children's book Is English Nuts.

In my most recent set of narrative-based interventions found in my Gods and Gifts Activity Book, I expanded the section on morphology to include activities for Structured Word Inquiry. My HOT ROD Decodable Books and the accompanying activity books focus on using narratives to improve decoding, reading comprehension, writing, and speech. One of the ways I do that is by looking at the underlying building blocks of language, like morphology. 

Teaching morphology using Structured Word Inquiry and word sums was a natural addition. The mini-matrix above uses the base element spect - "to see, look, observe." I created it using Neil Ramsden's Mini Matrix-Maker, found at https://www.neilramsden.co.uk/spelling/matrix/. It is fun to note that my decodable book Gods and Gifts, Three Greek Myths Retold, is based on Greek Mythology, so exploring Latin and Greek influences was a fun addition.

Although I previously included activities for morphology and base elements in my award-winning Hank the Tank Activity Book, I did not include specific Structured Word Inquiry activities. Therefore, I recently created a free supplemental activity for students online using Boom Cards. You can sign up for a free Boom  Card membership at https://wow.boomlearning.com  

Created with Mini Matrix Maker, at www.neilramsden.co.un/spelling/matrix

To preview my FREE SWI activity for tract, go HERE. If you explore the word matrix activity, you will better understand how you might apply SWI and word sums to words your students encounter in stories. For a small fee, I also have a matching game based on tract HERE.  To explore all 15 of the online games connected to Hank the Tank, see the Hank the Tank Bundle. Many activities are free, including digital digraph flash cards and Sount Tracks. That resource has moveable letter pieces for tracking sound changes in words and non-words.

Watch for my next Activity Book coming this fall, which is based on The Raven Remix: A Mashup of Poe Titles. The decodable book will be available in paperback and hardcover on October 15 and is available for pre-order now as an ebook on Amazon. If you order the book, please leave a review!

Sign up for my newsletter HERE and receive a free copy of my first decodable book, No Gift for Man. Don't miss any of the fun-filled activities coming up for A Year of AWE: Authentic Writing Experiences. The September writing activity is Museum Fun.

Gods and Gifts Has Arrived

 

Gods and Gifts: Three Greek Myths Retold has arrived just in time for the start of the school year! It is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, and ebook formats. It is also available at Barnes and Noble, or you may order it through your local bookstore and Ingrams. Watch this blog for details about the audio book. Information about the Gods and Gifts Activity Book may be found HERE. 

When Zeus asks Prometheus and his brother, Epimetheus, to fill the world with living creatures, Epimetheus gives all the gifts to the animals. Unfortunately, there is no gift left for man. Prometheus wants something special for the humans, so he sneaks up to Mount Olympus to steal fire from the gods! Zeus gets his revenge on Prometheus by chaining him to a rock. Then he sets out to punish humans for accepting the forbidden gift. 

This humorous version of the Greek creation myth is told in three parts and features the first three stories of Level 1 of the HOT ROD series of decodable books: No Gift for Man, The Bandit, and The Box. For younger children, check out these full-color illustrated picture books on the website.

Gods and Gifts incorporates these three picture books as chapters of a larger story for older children with black and white illustrations. Because it is designed for grades 4-9, the book also includes background information about early humans and their use of fire as well as a comparison to the creation stories of the Classical Maya and other indigenous people. The background information may be read independently by students in sixth grade and up. It may be read aloud to younger students and struggling readers to provide context and background knowledge. Using the strategy of Pair and Share reading, young and struggling students have more access to rich vocabulary, complex sentence structure, and higher-level concepts.

Each chapter of Gods and Gifts is written at Level 1 of the HOT ROD Scope and Sequence. What makes these chapters decodable is the strict focus on phonics concepts, syllable patterns, and vowel sounds that the student has already learned. Although HOT ROD books may be used with any reading program, they are designed to align with Orton-Gillingham instruction based on the Science of Reading.

Level 1 addresses closed syllables (short vowel sounds). Initial (frog, spin, drop) and final (past, last) consonant blends are also used. Long words following this pattern are also incorporated, but have been broken down into syllables (fan-tas-tic). Read more about the Scope and Sequence of the series on my website for https://www.wordtravelpress.com/. Go to the TAB for resources and scroll down to Scope and Sequence. While on the website, check out my Level 2 book - Hank the Tank. The Hank Activity Book was recently named a Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist.  

Be sure to explore the numerous FREE activities on my COR Instruction page. It's a preview for some of the many engaging activities you will find in my Gods and Gifts Activity Book coming later this month.  If you enjoy Gods and Gifts, please leave a review on Amazon.

Sign up for my newsletter HERE and receive a free PDF copy of my first decodable book, No Gift for Man, in full color. It is also the first chapter of my black and white decodable book for older kids - Gods and Gifts: Three Greek Myths Retold. Don't miss any of the fun-filled activities coming up for A Year of AWE: Authentic Writing Experiences.