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In 2018, I couldn’t define explicit phonics instruction. In 2020, I knew about phonics but I still couldn’t have told you what morphology meant. I share this because if you are in the same situation, I want you to know that you aren’t alone. Many of us were done a disserve because we were never explicitly taught how to teach phonics or morphology. And it can feel overwhelming to try to learn everything you never knew you didn’t know.
I recommend taking baby steps. One blog post at a time, one research article at a time, one instructional practice changed at a time. Today, I want to share with you some resources that I have found indispensable for teaching morphology. Choose one thing from this list and commit to using it. Even one small change can lead to greater returns for our students.
Before we get started with those resources, let’s talk shop about what morphology even is. Morphology is the study of morphemes. A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language. For example, the word construction has 3 meaning parts: 1. “con” meaning together 2. “struct” meaning to build and 3. -(t)ion meaning “the act of.” But the word Savannah is only 1 morpheme: I cannot break it down into any smaller, meaningful units.
At the primary level, we spend a lot of time teaching children sound-symbol correspondences. We teach students how to take the sounds they hear in a word (phonemes) and then connect them to the symbols that represent those sounds (graphemes).
But once we get in upper elementary, there’s a little bit of a shift. English is what we call a morphophonemic language, which means we must deal with both the phonetic layer (where we teach children those sound-symbol correspondences) and the morpheme layer. Both layers have an impact on the spelling of words.
Now let’s get into the resources that will help you to better understand and teach morphology.
Please do not think you have to remember the definition of every prefix, suffix, and root. I certainly don’t. I’ve created this 3 page freebie so that you can have the definitions right in front of you. I recommend printing off the pages and putting them either in a binder you have close by or with your lesson plans.
Although these pages were intended as teacher background, you know your kids. If you have a group of children who would benefit from having these inside of a notebook, go for it. You could have them highlight the morpheme and its definition each time you teach them a new one.
The world lost a great man with an incredible mind when we lost William Van Cleave in 2021. Gone before his time, we are left with the incredible legacy he built.
My favorite book of his is Everything You Want to Know & Exactly Where to Find It. This book is not one that you read from beginning to end, but should instead be used as a reference guide. I received this spiral-bound masterpiece when I went through my original Orton-Gillingham training, and never cracked it open until I needed to learn more about morphology.
While this blog post is focused on my must-have morphology resources, this book happens to be so much more than that. The best part is probably the expansive word lists for different concepts. From beginning digraphs all the way through Latin connectives and affixes, this book is a treasure trove for teachers. Pull it out when teaching a new skill to get a little bit of background knowledge and words to use for the unit.
If I could only bring 10 professional development books with me for the rest of my life, this one would be in the stack.
Why do the little kids seem to get all the fun stuff? From games to manipulatives, it’s like once children enter 3rd grade we aren’t allowed to do all the fun things anymore. I’m on a mission to bring engagement back into the classroom, because we all know when kids are engaged, that’s where the real learning happens.
Dry-erase notecards* are a fantastic tool (and they’re pretty affordable too!) for helping children decode and encode multisyllabic words. Each notecard represents a single syllable or meaning part. I will put words on the board, and then we use the notecards to practice splitting them up. When we split the word into individual syllables, it allows children to decide what sounds the vowels are representing, which can be much more difficult when the syllables all blend together.
These notecards are SO helpful in allowing children to see that big words are actually just made up of smaller word parts they probably already know. Click here to visit a blog post that goes more in-depth with decoding multisyllabic words.
Speaking of fun, who else wishes there were more games for our older kiddos? Games (as long as they are well-designed), give our students the chance to practice a skill in a more engaging way. When you’re sitting in a classroom for 7 hours a day, games can give your brain the reset you need to make it until that final bell.
I recently created slides and ladders games for all the affixes I teach. This bundle includes 129 different slides and ladders games. Each game has the same rules for game play, so all you have to do is teach the rules once, and then you can change out the game each time you teach a different morpheme.
Sound Decks have become ubiquitous as of late, especially with the success and prominence of UFLI. But our sound decks shouldn’t stop once children have basic sound-symbol correspondences.
A sound deck is like an alphabet deck you would show to kindergarteners. In kindergarten, we often flash all of the letters to our students and ask them to tell us the sound the letter represents. Sound decks include the letters, but they also include additional graphemes (like ch, sh, ai, ee, oi, etc.). The purpose of a sound deck is to help children achieve automaticity at the sound level. If they can effortlessly read the graphemes in isolation, it will ultimately help them become more proficient at the word levels.
Morphology Sound Decks take it to another level (and I just so happen to have some digital ones you can use FOR FREE!). Instead of having individual graphemes on each slide, you have morphemes (like -form-, un-, re-, -less, etc.).
After you teach a particular morpheme, you add that card to your slide deck. When children see the morpheme, they must read the meaning part, then tell you the meaning. For example, if they saw -form-, they would read it and tell you that it means to “to shape.”
One of the benefits of morphology is that it helps children to understand the meaning of unfamiliar words when they come across them. If a child knows that “struct” means “to build,” then they are more likely to understand words like deconstruct, infrastructure, restructure, etc. Just think how much easier it would be if they could both automatically recognize the morpheme AND the meaning of it!
Interactive notebooks have been one of the foundations of my instruction for years now. I love using them so much I’ve actually made them for alphabet knowledge, basic phonics, and morphology. So whether I’m working with a kindergartener or a 5th grader, they all have their interactive notebooks.
With morphology interactive notebooks, we’re not focused on sound-symbol correspondences like we are in the primary grades. It’s not so much can you spell the meaning parts (although we do want that), but can you understand a word with those parts. Morphology is all about meaning, and my interactive morphology notebooks give children that first guided practice while working through meaning.
Review decks offer cumulative review for students. Providing students with enough practice to reach automaticity is key. If we only show our children how to read, spell, and understand particular morphemes for a week and then never show them again, we risk leaving out a large population of our students that need more exposure and practice.
I created my digital morphology review decks for this purpose. You can easily add or delete slides based on targeted prefix, suffixes, and roots. In total, I’ve created 26 PowerPoints with 2,562 words total. You simply flash the words and have students read them. Periodically, you would ask them questions, like what the particular word or specific morpheme mean.
If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed with the idea of planning morphology instruction, pick one thing. Look through this list of resources I’ve provided and ask yourself which one you can pick and use consistently. Is it dry erase notecards to practice splitting up words? Perhaps using the interactive notebooks for guided practice? Whatever you choose, stick with it consistently. Then, slowly fold in other practices as you feel comfortable.
You’ve got this, friend.
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Savannah Campbell is a K-5 reading specialist. She has taught her entire 12-year teaching career at the school she went to as a child. She holds two master’s degrees in education from the College of William and Mary. Savannah is both Orton-Gillingham and LETRS trained. Her greatest hope in life is to allow all children to live the life they want by helping them to become literate individuals.
Savannah Campbell is a K-5 reading specialist. She has taught her entire 12-year teaching career at the school she went to as a child. She holds two master’s degrees in education from the College of William and Mary. Savannah is both Orton-Gillingham and LETRS trained. Her greatest hope in life is to allow all children to live the life they want by helping them to become literate individuals.
Feeling overwhelmed with all the terminology out there? Want to know the key terms all teachers need to teach phonics? In this FREE Rules of English cheat sheet, you get a 5 page pdf that takes you through the most important terms for understanding English—you’ll learn about digraphs, blends, syllable types, syllable divisions, and move. Grab today and take the stress out of your phonics prep!
