Morphology (3-5)

Morphology is a powerful tool for improving spelling, decreasing cognitive load, and for unlocking meanings rather than simply decoding sounds; this is important especially for readers working with multisyllabic words. Rather than activities always having a clear correct or incorrect answer, students will be asked to use their newly gained morphemic knowledge to explore word meanings and the use of words in context. 

In Functional Morphology, students will grow their word reading, spelling and meaning making skills through daily instruction and practice. Rather than instruction building from simple to complex as in the Functional Phonics scope and sequence, morphology instruction is built based on the common layers of language making up English (Anglo-Saxon, Latin & Greek.)

Sample lessons

ASSESSMENTS

Morphology includes a formative assessment for each lesson in which students use morphemic knowledge to spell words, identify meaning and use words with focal morphemes in context. 

Each assessment has 3 parts: 

Part 1-Spelling of morphemes and words: The instructor will dictate a word including the focal morpheme of the lesson as well as a sentence. Students are asked to spell the word.

Part 2-Multiple choice: Students will read two multiple choice questions and select the best appropriate answer from the a-d options. The questions range from identifying the meaning of a specific morpheme to identifying the best word or definition choice for the given questions.

Part 3-Morpheme usage: Students will write a sentence response to the provided questions. Students are asked to use the bolded, morpheme containing word in their response with proper spelling and grammatical usage.