Morphological Awareness as a Help With Comprehension

1. Morphological Awareness as a Help With Comprehension The Response To Intervention Best Practices Institute Presented by Sally Grimes, Ed.M. www.grimesreadinginstitute.com sallygrimes@comcast.net October 16, 2012

2. Agenda • Background and The Reading Process • Morphological Awareness – Its Role in Reading Activities and Resources to Use “Tomorrow”

3. Source: Neuman, Susan B. and Dickinson, David K., “Handbook of Early Literacy Research”

4. Why Do Students Struggle? Contributing Factors • Neurological • “Wiring” • Genes • Environmental • Lack of early language experience • Inadequate instruction

5. One Size Never Fits All!

6. Reading Comprehension is Interaction Between Reader Language Competency Cognitive Processing Schemata Working Memory Metacognition Motivation Print ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ Level of text Book and Print Features Structure of Text Sentence Complexity Vocabulary/Language Content Linda Crumrine, 01

7. Morphological Awareness A morpheme (prefix, a suffix, root or base) is the smallest unit of meaning. Good readers analyze a word’s parts to find chunks of meaning. Latin and Greek roots are the basis of a host of words e.g. “struct” forms the basis of construction, instruct, reconstruct, destruct etc. Despite the scarcity of studies and the equivocal nature of the findings that do exist, most experts recommend some teaching of morphemic analysis. (Baumann, Font, Edward, & Boland, 2005;Carlisle, 2007; Graves, 2006; Stahl & Nagy, 2006) “Word parts are too valuable a resource to ignore.” Stahl & Nagy, 2006

8. Language Components • Phonology – The sound system of a language… Was it taught? Was it learned? What “holes” exist? • Morphology - the study of the smallest meaningful units of speech (morphemes: affixes, roots, “ed” “s” etc.) Very motivating to defeated students (See Vocabulogic) • Syntax – underlying grammatical structure (HARD for ELL’s) • Semantics - the ways in which a language conveys meaning • Pragmatics – the social side of language…accent, tone, body language • Etymology – the origins of the language…Fun!

9. What is Vocabulary Development? The ability….. to understand (receptive language) & to use (expressive language) words to acquire & convey meaning.

10. Research Has Found That… Vocabulary size in kindergarten is an effective predictor of reading comprehension in the middle elementary years. By the end of grade two, students in the bottom 25% have the same size vocabulary as an average kindergartener. For them to catch up, they must acquire words even faster than the average learner. (Scarborough,1998, 2001)

11. Morphological Awareness is Key – Especially for Older Strugglers “There is considerable evidence that words, both spoken and written, are remembered in relation to other words and that word meanings are not stored in our memory as isolated wholes that resemble entries in a dictionary.” Moats, 2000 Because struggling readers do not read widely, a huge gap in word knowledge distinguishes them from their proficient peers. Baker, Simmons, Kame’enui, ‘95

12. Research Findings • Vocabulary Development is both important and ignored. (Gough and Tunmer, 1986) • We need to focus on root word growth. (Lorge and Chall, Beck and McKeown, 1990 & others) • This can mean only 600 root word meanings a year; children can acquire about 1200 a year K-8.(Biemiller & Slonim, 2000, Anglin,’93) • A child needs to know at least 4000 meanings of words by the end of grade 1 to progress at an average rate. (Biemiller) • Words known by average 2nd grader: 5000-6000 • The Oxford English Dictionary , the most complete lexicon, lists 290,000 know English words • The average college educated adult recognized the meaning of 50,000-80,000 words when reading.

13. Stages of Word Knowledge 1. Never saw it before 2. Heard it, but doesn’t know what it means 3. Recognizes it in context as having something to do with _________ 4. Knows it well & can use it correctly. Dale & O’Rourke, 1971, Beck, 1994 Adapted from Isabel Beck’s Bringing Words to Life

14. When students encounter unknown words, they can use their knowledge of word parts - prefixes and suffixes to determine meaning. TRY IT! international transatlantic joyful impossible fearless invisible disappear unexpected Using Word Parts

15. Morphemes – The Smallest Unit of Meaning There is some evidence to suggest that the human brain may use a coding system to process words & may not register multisyllabic words in their entirety: “Words may be analyzed by access codes into units, consisting of their bases or stems with prefixes and suffices stripped.” Corson, 1985

16. “There is considerable evidence that words, both spoken and written, are remembered in relation to other words and that word meanings are not stored in our memory as isolated wholes that resemble entries in a dictionary.” “Each word is part of a network of related meanings…one of the ways word family networks are constructed in memory is by their morphological relationships.” Moats, 2000

17. Basic Terms • root form: inspector, thermal • base word: unlikely • prefix: re-, un-, dis- • suffix: -able, -ive, -ly • Derivation - a word formed from an existing word, root, or affix: electric, electricity Susan Ebbers 2005

18. Latin: Some CommonRoots Susan Ebbers 2005

19. 20 Most Frequent Prefixes in School Texts Susan Ebbers 2005

20. Prefixes: Meaning and Connotation Susan Ebbers 2005

21. Derivational Suffixes Derivational suffixes change the part of speech • words ending with –tion are often nouns • words ending with –ive are often adjectives • words ending with –ish are often adjectives • words ending with –ity are often nouns Others: -ment, -ous, -ness Susan Ebbers 2005

22. Cognates Connect English and Spanish through Latin Origins Romance Languages (e.g., Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, etc.) share the same Latin roots Morta: Roman goddess of death Example: The Latin root for the word death is mort. The French spell it morte and the Spanish, muerte. In English, we have a whole network of related words: mortal, immortal, mortality, mortician, mortuary, postmortem, etc. Ebbers, 2004 Susan Ebbers 2005

23. Greek Combining Forms Susan Ebbers 2005

24. Counting in Greek and Latin Susan Ebbers 2005

25. Sixty percent of the words in English texts are of Latin and Greek origin. Bear et al., 1996; Henry, 1997 Susan Ebbers 2005

26. Content-Specific Greek Terms Anatomy and Medical Terms esophagus, thyroid, diagnosis, psoriasis, dyslexia Studies and Sciences biology, seismology, morphology, geochronometry Animals and Plants arachnid, amphibian, chlorophyll, dinosaur, nectar Theatre and the Arts charisma, drama, chorus, muse, symphony, acoustics Susan Ebbers 2005

27. grammar school grammar books rules of grammar grammatical grammatically ungrammatical ungrammatically grammatology photograph polygraph mimeograph phonograph telegraph paragraph gram, graph to write, written Greek photographer cartographer geographer cryptographer autobiographer xylographer paleographer biographer grammar graph telegram mammogram histogram anagram cryptogram monogram electrocardiogram graphite grapheme graphologist graphic graphically gram Susan Ebbers 2005

28. Look Inside the Word and Look Outside • pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis • Look inside the word for known word parts: prefixes, roots or combining forms, suffixes. • Use the analogy strategy—“I don’t know this word, but I know pneumonia and I know volcano, so by analogy, this word might have something to do with lungs and heat.” • Look outside the word at context clues, visuals • The coal miners, coughing and wheezing, suffered from pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Susan Ebbers 2005

29. SO MANY SYNONYMS ANGLO-SAXON, FRENCH, LATIN, and GREEK See also Bryson, 1990; Lederer, 1991; King, 2000 Susan Ebbers 2005

30. ENGLISH: A RICH VOCABULARY SO MANY SHADES OF MEANING Susan Ebbers 2005

31. miasmic rainy turbulent gusty wet windy wet breezy stormy blustery weather sultry freezing humid snowy cold hot nippy frigid sweltering sizzling Coyne

32. Meteorology

33. Let’s Prevent “The Matthew Effect”: Unrewarding Reading Experiences That Multiply Over Time and More Feelings of Inadequacy. Stanovich, 1986

34. Hypothetical “Matthew Effects” Average Progression Poor Reader 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Grades Author unknown

35. Special Resources • www.colorincolorado.org • www.corelearn.com • www.Interventioncentral.org • www.scoe.org (Kevin Feldman, Kate Kinsella) • Vocabulogic (Susan Ebbers) • WGBH: Martha Speaks • www.wordshift.com • www.leilenshelton.com • www.fcrr.org

36. Supplemental Curricula • Writing: Project Read (Language Circle); Step Up To Writing (Cambium); John Collins Writing Program; Expressive Writing (Haynes & Jennings) Landmark School); PLANS (Laud & Patel); Powerful Writing Strategies for All Students-Graham & Harris (Brookes) • Vocabulary: Elements of Vocabulary (Beck); Keys to Literacy (Sedita); Vocabulary Through Morphemes (Ebbers);; Daily Oral Vocabulary Exercises (Ebbers & Carroll); Academic Vocabulary for English Learners (Cambium) • Comprehension: Elements of Comprehension (Beck): Collaborative Strategic Reading (Vaughn); Keys to Literacy(Sedita); Ready To Read (Farrell & Matthews)

37. Miscellaneous Ideas • Learning by Design, RAVE-O, Rewards (These Address Multiple Aspects of Reading Instruction) • Bringing Words to Life (Beck et al) • Vocabulary Handbook (Diamond and Gutlohn) • Next STEPS in Literacy Instruction: Connecting Assessments to Effective Interventions (Smartt and Glaser) – Teacher Friendly Means of Driving Instruction-Based on DIBELS and AIMSweb) • LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) Prof. Dev. • TRE (Teaching Reading Essentials) Prof. Dev.

38. Resources For Videos, Webinars, Articles, etc. www.fcrr.org www.dibels@uoregon.edu www.aimsweb.comwww.cast.org (for UDL)www.interdys.orgwww.cec.orgwww.pals.virginia.edu www.centeroninstruction.orgwww.rtinetwork.org www.progressmonitor.orgwww.scoe.org www.readingrockets.orgwww.vocabulogic.org www.adlit.orgwww.colorincolorado.org www.ncld.org wwwneuhaus.orgwww.lingui.org www.rti4success.orgwww.nasdse.org www.meadowscenter.org www.keystoliteracy.com www.betterhighschools.orgwww.middleschoolmatters.org

39. Merci Danke Gratias ευχαριστώ /efharisto/ THANK YOU Susan Ebbers 2005

40. Thank You! Sally Grimes, Ed.M. – The Grimes Reading Institute – Consultation and Professional Development in Literacy sallygrimes@comcast.net www.grimesreadinginstitute.com 508-776-2553 (cell) / 978-546-2144 (office)