Introduction
Students engage in “word analysis” and “word study” by breaking down words into the smallest units possible of meaning, called morphemes. Each morpheme contributes to the understanding of the entire word. Students’ understanding of morphemes can help them identify the meanings of words and build their vocabulary. The Institute for Educational Science’s Practice Guide recommends that students receive explicit vocabulary instruction. This includes strategies for acquiring new vocabulary. Analyzing words is an essential foundational reading skill that is vital for students to be college- and career-ready.
Teaching word analysis skills meets several Common Core State Standards for Literacy, including:
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10 Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
Teaching word analysis
When creating your lesson plan for word analysis strategies, consider the tools and methods that students can use to understand them. Also, give students opportunities to practice these tools and methods. You should also think about how to differentiate instruction and use technology tools to engage students from diverse backgrounds.
Clear and varied models are key to distinguishing word analysis techniques. This is in keeping with the Universal Design for Learning principles. You can model how to analyze a word by breaking it into its sub-parts and studying each one separately. Then, you will put the parts back together to make sense of the word.
This helps you to see that patterns can be found in prefixes when studying vocabulary in a particular content area (e.g., science) that will help you understand the meaning of the words in that context. Take this example:
- Science: Biology, biodegradables, biome, and biosphere
- Mathematics: quadruple, quadrant, quadrilateral, quadratic
- Geography: disassemble, disarmament, disband, disadvantage
These strategies should teach students how to track the word parts and words they have learned. Students should be taught how to use visual diagrams, worksheets, and graphic organizers offline and online to store and visualize new vocabulary and to understand the relationship between them.
Word analysis in practice
Students will improve their vocabulary analysis skills if they are given the opportunity to practice it repeatedly. Students can be engaged individually, in pairs, or in small groups, depending on their abilities and needs. You might consider how you can modify these games and activities to help struggling students.
- Mix-and-match using roots, suffixes, and prefixes
- To find prefixes or suffixes in words, use a word search in science, mathematics, and social studies texts
- Use Boggle or Scrabble tiles to create and re-form words
- Students hold up cards with root words and suffixes to create words.
- Inventing words by creating and defining nonsense words using suffixes and prefixes
Pre-teaching words, reviewing vocabulary words, and reviewing new words are all ways to incorporate word study into your classroom reading program. Encourage students to use their word analysis skills and create glossaries from high-interest texts that contain prefixes or suffixes.
Multimedia and embedded supports can be used to support diverse learners and encourage vocabulary development.
In the classroom
It can feel a lot like trying to find the answers to a puzzle by searching for meaning in unfamiliar words. This analogy was used by Mr. Chen in his unit on Ancient India. He thematically tied vocabulary acquisition to archeological excavations of the sites his students were learning. Particularly, Mr. Chen offered strategies to help struggling readers with unfamiliar terms in the social sciences text. This aligns with the CCSS literacy standards.
His instruction was focused on teaching word analysis. He introduced a word students would see many times during their reading, terracotta. Then he led them through an analysis of its roots and parts. Students were able to identify Terra- as it relates to dirt or the earth by listing other words that sound similar to the prefix terra-.
Mr. Chen has several technology tools at his disposal that will help his students struggle. He will use Harappa on his interactive whiteboard to show how to search audio, text, and photographs. To help students understand the parts of words, he will encourage them to use online reference tools such as Visual Thesaurus and Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. The classroom wiki was originally created to share and record words. It has been a popular place for students.
Prewriting resources for teachers
This article is based on the POWERUP WHAT WORKS website. It includes the Word Analysis Instructional Strategy Guide. Power Up is an easy-to-use website for teachers that don’t require registration or login. The Instructional Strategy guide on Word Analysis provides a quick overview of word analysis, along with a slide show. It also includes evidence-based teaching strategies to differentiate instruction through technology. Another case story and videos are included. Links to resources will assist you in using technology to support word analysis instruction are provided. For helpful ideas and materials on using word analysis resources, if you are responsible for professional development, please visit the PD Support Materials.