Thunder and Lightning and This and That

Greetings! Some news:

Today, EDVIEW360 published a brief article I wrote on the importance of integrating phonics and phonological awareness lessons with morphological awareness lessons when teaching children to read.  Based on growing evidence from empirical studies, I suggest beginning to teach morphological concepts at a younger age than previously thought. Begin in primary grades, after children learn basic closed-syllable  short-vowel phonics patterns, when children are learning to spell and read. Let's not wait until grade four, but rather plan lessons in first grade and beyond to dovetail orthography with morphology. Carpe diem!  See my article about this topic -- and many other good articles -- at EDVIEW360. 

Go to  Thunder and Lightning: Sound and Meaning in a Morphophonemic Language

Next week, Wednesday May 8 at 4pm Central Time, I will provide a webinar on these same topics. Sign up at EdView360 at this link:  Building Reading Skills in Grades 1-4

A few months ago, EDVIEW360 recorded my podcast on helping children learn to read. Listen to the podcast at Boosting Beginning Reading (and listen to other podcasts by many and varied experts in the field).

Plus, Silvereye Learning Resources is --even as we speak -- preparing to publish a new Third Edition of my morphology curriculum, Vocabulary Through Morphemes: Suffixes, Prefixes, and Roots for Intermediate and Secondary Grades. Cover art coming soon! I am pleased to announce that this curriculum has been in widespread use for more than two decades and will soon be back in publication again.

Also, Voyager Sopris Learning has recently (2024) published a new full-color Second Edition of my interactive decodable beginner books, Power Readers (K-2) and Supercharged Readers (more advanced decodable books).  The black-and-white first editions are also still available for purchase. The new edition of Supercharged Readers includes 5 additional chapter books with a greater focus on morphological knowledge. All the new books are now in color, with even more coaching tips provided in small font at the bottom of each page. To see samples or to order, go to  Power Readers and to Supercharged Readers.

Cheers to all,

Susan

A Little Word Play

Hello out there. Here’s an idea for those few extra moments in the classroom. It’s a quick verbal exercise for elementary and secondary grades. Engage free thinking to seek connections across words. Generate streams of morphological word families. Morphological reasoning is a Metalinguistic Activity.

Pandemic. Epidemic. Hyperglutaminemic. Endemic.  

What’s the common element across these words? What is —emic all about in these words? What is -emic telling us? Something pertaining to health, a medical term.

 

Perhaps that line of reasoning leads to another morphological stream, for pan.

Pandemic, pandemonium, panacea, panoramic. What’s common? What is pan telling us? As a Greek word-forming element, pan means ‘all’ — in simplistic terms. Look here at Etymonline. Or go here.

And what about that naughty Pandora? How does she fit in? Or how about Pangaea?

Free thinking exercises take only moments in the classroom. Use that free minute to good effect. Make it quick and meta-interesting! Cogitate. Bring word relationships up to the surface of the mind. Stir up the waters. Take a dive, make a quick splash.  It need not be a full lesson in morphology or vocabulary. A little bit of word streaming goes a long way in terms of word consciousness and metalinguistic awareness.

We want kids to make connections when they encounter an unknown word on the street. Or — fingers crossed — in a book.

Even younger students can get into the act.  Make it a fun physical game. Perhaps begin with the timely word thank and toss a nerf ball to a child, who might respond with “Thanksgiving.” 

What else comes to mind?  Someone might shout  “thankful” —  tossing the ball to another. The game goes on. 

Or try snow. Snowflake. Snowstorm. What else?

If someone shouts out a word that perhaps doesn’t seem to exist, that’s cool. Reward for creativity! Make it a word in your classroom. Example:

Zuri, feeling metaphorical, says “snowbites!”  When prompted, she explains, “It’s when, like, when icy snowflakes blow in the wind. It feels like little bites or bee stings on my face.” (Yup. That’s a real deal.)

Owen responds to Zuri with a more concrete notion. He says, “Snowbites could mean eating snow, like when my little brother took a bite yesterday!” (Leaving aside the pros and cons of eating snow.)

Could Zuri’s word have two meanings? Sure, why not! That’s polysemy. It’s a common occurrence in language.

No wrong answers. Only associations. Only the fun of finding relationships, making connections.

Need help thinking of words? Check out the many morphology websites online. Some are listed in the Vocabulogic blog footer. Or start at Reading Rockets. They’ve posted a handy list of affixes and roots / morphemes. 

Looking ahead, think of words connected with seasonal festivities. For one holiday idea, go to Vocabulary.com’s Wordshop. Check out the word play in Happy versus Merry.

Bye for now. Best Wishes and Peace on Earth to all.

PS. After 20 years in print and two editions, my morphology curriculum Vocabulary Through Morphemes is no longer available, except a few copies at Amazon. Maybe this type of blog post will help fill the gap. Or contact me if you want to buy it directly from me in some format.  smebbers@gmail.com  

Update: Silvereye Learning Resources will be publishing a new 3rd edition of Vocabulary Through Morphemes. More to come on that in future months.

PPS. Happy news. My publisher Voyager Sopris just produced a second edition of my interactive beginner reading series, 28 Power Readers and 37 Supercharged Readers.  Sixty-five books, in color! The Supercharged Readers series in particular has a greater focus on morphology, including five new advanced books with multiple chapters.