What is morphology?

Morphology is the study of morphemes - units of meaning (base words, roots, and affixes).

Why should we teach morphology?

The English language is morphophonemic, meaning it relies both on morphemes (units of meaning) and on phonemes (units of sound) to determine spelling. In a purely phonetic language, each sound would be mapped to a consistent spelling pattern. This does make spelling easier, but when a reader encounters a new word, they have no immediate access to its meaning. For example, “music” and “musician.” By preserving “music” within “musician” a reader may assume the word “musician” has something to do with music, although they no longer hear /k/ and instead hear /sh/ while reading the word aloud. A phonetic spelling of the word would leave us perhaps with “musishan,” but would be of no help in associating meaning. 

In order for older students to be successful readers and spellers, they need to learn about the morphemes that make up English. This includes the Latin and Greek roots, Latin and Greek prefixes and suffixes, and Native English prefixes and suffixes.

Two Styles of Spelling

English is composed of two styles of spelling: Anglo Saxon (or Native English) and Latin. Most everyday words and all one syllable words follow the rules for the Anglo Saxon style of spelling -- the result is young children mostly encounter the Anglo Saxon set of words. In Literacy Essentials, students are exposed to the Latin side of English in grades 2 and 3. However, it is in grades 4 through 6 that students are now swimming in academic vocabulary independently and need help navigating encoding and decoding.  Across our nation, it is the fourth graders who are expected to independently read to learn, and yet their literacy time is cut, with systematic spelling and reading instruction cast to the side to make room for content knowledge. The solution is not necessarily to give more time to literacy instruction, it is to use the small amount of time available in the most efficient way possible.

Spelling Integrated with Vocabulary Instruction

The bottom line is this: students need to continue to practice spelling. However, to tap into meaning, students need to access morphology and etymology. When reading, they need to use their K-3 skills to break the word into syllables and sound out the word. This will help them to arrive at the pronunciation -- but if they say the word and they do not have it in their lexicon already, they will need to access the meaning another way. In grades 4-6 they need to see the morphemes (prefixes, roots, and suffixes) and not only be able to reach the meaning, but potentially even the origin and its cultural implications.

It is a tall order to hope your entire class enjoys enquiring about words, and takes the time to explore meaning and usage. However, when the teacher intentionally finds the words in each lesson that are important to spell and read, that give extra understanding to the main idea of the lesson, and that will build connections the entire class can make together, then the culture of the room becomes one that has an enthusiasm for language and learning. A growing interest in words allows reading fluency to continue to improve, which keeps students reading on grade level. It also means independent writing is not riddled with spelling mistakes.

Morphology Student Notebooks

The student notebooks provide a place for students to store their roots, affixes, spelling words, and definitions, as well as an index to review English orthography. The notebook is a graphic organization of key information, a reference tool for students to use, as well a place to practice spelling. Students need to sort words and have meaningful interactions with them in order to add them to their lexicon -- this is a place to do just that.