I am one of those rare nerdy students that love etymology. I think it’s fascinating to learn where words come from, why they mean what they mean, how certain parts of words make it different parts of speech, and the list goes on. One of my favorite things is figuring out where the words come from based on their root words. I took Latin in high school and treasured those moments when, looking at a Latin word, I went “oh! that’s where our word comes from!” I think many children find that fascinating as well which is why I’m glad the article included root words from Latin and Greek derivations.
I thought it was interesting how the article mentioned that some people thought that an effective way to teach vocabulary was through explicit instruction. I agree with the other group of individuals who think that vocabulary needs to be taught meaningfully through relevant text choices. I also think it is important to teach students the strategies to learn. I feel that many teachers hold information such as strategy from their students. Growing up, I often felt that my teachers had some hidden knowledge for how to do what they do and that I wasn’t entitled to that knowledge because it was just for teachers so that they had something over us. However, it’s my job as a teacher to create my students into active learners. I’m not there to impart some fabulous higher knowledge into their spongy brains; I’m there to facilitate their learning. Without teaching them these strategies, they become mindless robots to simply memorize and regurgitate what I’ve told them.
I like that the article included a chart of high, medium, and low frequency morphemes for prefixes and suffixes…and those pre- and suffix meanings. I had never seen one of those charts before but it lays the information out in a useful manner that is easy to read. The suffixes that change the words’ parts of speech reminded me of the School House Rock song for adverbs which harmonizes that you can even make adjectives out of other parts of speech by adding an ending like -ick, or -ish, or -il. I never realized there was a name for those types of endings: derivational morphemes. So cool!
