by Michelle Yzquierdo
Picture this: Your tenth grade student is reading her biology textbook. She’s navigating dense paragraphs about cellular processes when she hits the word “photosynthesis” and stops cold. “I don’t know this word,” she mutters, and skips ahead. You’ve seen this pattern many times: students shutting down the moment they encounter unfamiliar academic vocabulary.
So what do you do? Spend the necessary instructional time pre-teaching all the academic vocabulary words? Have students dutifully copy definitions? Maybe even make flashcards? Furthermore, you have 150 students across five classes, reading anywhere from third-grade to college level, and the gaps in academic language and vocabulary are as diverse as your students. How do you differentiate vocabulary instruction for that range?
Read more: The Vocabulary Hack That Changes Everything: Why Morpheme Instruction WorksWhy Traditional Vocabulary Instruction Is Not Always the Best Option
At one high school I am currently with, only 5% of students were reaching mastery in reading on state assessments. When I dug into the data with teachers, the barrier showed up again and again: vocabulary. Students could decode words phonetically, but they didn’t know what the words meant. And without meaning, there’s no comprehension. This isn’t unique to one school: By the time students reach high school, the vocabulary gap between students from high- and low-income backgrounds can be as large as 30,000 words. That gap doesn’t close with traditional instruction—it widens. We keep trying the same approaches:
Vocabulary lists? Students memorize for the test and forget immediately.
Context clues? Research shows context clues only help about 10% of the time with academic vocabulary. Not enough.
Pre-teaching everything? We spend precious instructional time defining words, but how many actually stick? Pre-teaching has its place, but is there something more sustainable?
Giving definitions via notes? Passive. Students copy without internalizing.
“Look it up”? They look it up, copy the definition, and still don’t understand what it means in context.
Students need a strategy for independence. They need to learn how academic English actually works. We need to stop fishing for them and teach them to fish. Enter morpheme instruction.
The Strategy That Changes the Game for Our Kids
Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in language. Every word is built from morphemes, like LEGO blocks that snap together to create meaning. There are three types:
| Roots carry the core meaning (struct = build, port = carry) |
| Prefixes attach to the beginning and modify meaning (re- = again, pre- = before) |
| Suffixes attach to the end and change the part of speech (-tion = act of, -able = can be) |
Let’s look at an example that might challenge students: reconstruction.
Break it into morphemes:
- re- (again) + struct (build) + -tion (act of)
- Literal meaning: “the act of building again”
Suddenly, a complex historical term isn’t mysterious. It’s logical. Once students see how this works, they can’t unsee it.
Here’s the math that changes everything: 30 morphemes unlock approximately 10,000+ academic words. That is not a typo! Teach students thirty morphemes (as opposed to 10,000 vocabulary words) and they can decode the majority of academic vocabulary they’ll encounter across all content areas. This isn’t magic; this is linguistics!
About 80% of academic English vocabulary comes from Latin and Greek roots, and those roots combine in predictable patterns. Students who understand morphemes can independently decode 60-80% of unfamiliar academic words. The strategy is especially powerful for adolescent learners in grades 6-12 and has been shown to be one of the most effective vocabulary interventions for English learners.
But here’s why this is not just another vocabulary strategy but has the potential to be THE vocabulary strategy.
For struggling readers, it gives them a concrete decoding strategy beyond phonics. They’re not guessing from context or just asking for help. They’re breaking down words systematically.
For multilingual learners (MLs), it leverages their home language as an asset. Spanish speakers already know hundreds of these roots as cognates. We’re showing them they have thousands of academic words in their linguistic toolkit already.
For on-level students, it accelerates vocabulary acquisition exponentially. Instead of learning one word at a time, they’re learning word families and patterns.
For advanced students, it unlocks increasingly complex texts independently. They can tackle college-level reading without constant dictionary breaks.
One strategy. Differentiated by design.
This is the equity piece that matters: morpheme instruction doesn’t “dumb down” content for struggling learners. It teaches students the system that native speakers from academically-rich backgrounds absorb implicitly. We’re not giving students easier words. We’re giving them the tools to tackle harder words themselves.
Here’s where morpheme instruction gets really powerful. It’s not just for English class. Academic vocabulary is academic vocabulary, whether you’re reading a history textbook or a biology lab report. Small amounts of time spent on morphemes in any core class can yield huge dividends of understanding for students.
The Spanish Cognate Superpower Add-On
Here’s where this gets especially powerful for our MLs, particularly Spanish speakers. If you have Spanish speakers in your classroom (and statistically, you probably do) morpheme instruction is a game-changer.
Why? Because Spanish and English share Latin roots. Your Spanish-speaking students already know hundreds of these morphemes. We just need to show them.
| English | Spanish | Roots |
| structure | estructura | struct |
| geography | geografía | geo + graph |
| biology | biología | bio + logy |
| transportation | transporte | trans + port |
When I show Spanish-speaking students these connections, the lightbulb moment is visible. “Wait—I already know this?” “Yes!” I respond. “We’re not asking you to learn new words from scratch. We’re unlocking what you already have.”
This is what it means to honor students’ home languages as assets, not deficits. Their bilingualism isn’t something to “overcome”—it’s truly a superpower for accessing academic English!
I included a few activities related to morphemes in Pathways to Greatness for ELL Newcomers, and included several pages of Latin and Greek morphemes you can reference or provide to your students (pages 181 – 189). I’ve since watched morpheme instruction transform outcomes for struggling native English speakers, students from low-income backgrounds with limited vocabulary exposure, students receiving special education services who need explicit and systematic instruction, and advanced students who want to read increasingly complex texts. The entry points might be different, but the tool is the same. ” That’s equity! Building vocabulary for our students happens strategically, and not by watering down content, but by teaching students how academic language actually works.
Getting Started Tomorrow
Morpheme instruction isn’t an add-on. It’s a lens shift. You’re not teaching more vocabulary. You’re teaching vocabulary differently.
Here’s your Week 1 action plan:
Monday: Introduce the Concept (10 minutes)
Sounds like: “I’m going to teach you a trick about how English works. Once you see it, you’ll never be able to unsee it.”
Show them one example. I recommend construction:
- con- (together)
- struct (build)
- -tion (act of)
- “The act of building together”
Ask them to brainstorm other words with struct in them.
Sounds like: “What other words have struct in them?” (Structure. Instruct. Destruction. Infrastructure). You just unlocked five words by learning one morpheme. You’re going to use this trick and become word experts. When you hit a word you don’t know, you’re not going to skip it or ask me. You’re going to break it down.”
Tuesday through Friday: Start with Five Morphemes
Focus on the highest-impact five from your content area vocabulary such as:
- pre- (before)
- re- (again)
- un- (not)
- struct (build)
- port (carry)
Each day, do the Word Surgery protocol with two to three words from your content. Model it. Have students practice. Celebrate when they decode a word independently!
Week 2: Build the Routine
Introduce “Morpheme of the Week”. Start your morpheme word wall. Add two to three more morphemes. By now, you’ll start seeing students use the strategy without prompting. That’s when you know it’s working.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Don’t overwhelm with all thirty morphemes at once. Start small. Build gradually. Quality over quantity.
- Don’t skip the “why.” Students need to understand this is a strategy for independence, not just another thing to memorize for a quiz.
- Don’t assume they’ll see connections automatically. Make morpheme connections explicit. Model your thinking process aloud: “Oh, look—transportation. I see trans (across) and port (carry). Carrying across distances. That makes sense!”
- Don’t only do this during “vocabulary time.” Embed it in everyday instruction. Every time you encounter an unfamiliar academic word, break it down. Make it a habit, not an event.
The beauty of this approach is that it doesn’t require expensive programs, complicated lesson plans, or hours of prep time. It requires thirty morphemes and a commitment to teaching students how language works. It requires believing that all of our students—struggling readers, MLs, students from poverty, students with IEPs—can access academic language when we give them the right tools. Start with five morphemes this week and watch the magic.
Your students might just surprise you—and themselves.
References
Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Paul H. Brookes Publishing.
Kieffer, M. J., & Lesaux, N. K. (2012). Direct and indirect roles of morphological awareness in the English reading comprehension of native English, Spanish, English as a second language, and monolingual English-speaking students. Language Learning, 62(4), 1170-1204.
Nagy, W. E., & Anderson, R. C. (1984). How many words are there in printed school English? Reading Research Quarterly, 19(3), 304-330.
Nagy, W. E., Anderson, R. C., & Herman, P. A. (1987). Learning word meanings from context during normal reading. American Educational Research Journal, 24(2), 237-270.
Rasinski, T., Padak, N., Newton, R. M., & Newton, E. (2011). The Latin-Greek connection: Building vocabulary through morphological study. The Reading Teacher, 65(2), 133-141. https://doi.org/10.1002/TRTR.01015
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