Language Comprehension Interventions

Morphology interventions help students learn about the meanings of word parts. If your student is having trouble identifying the meanings of words based on word parts (including prefixes, roots, and affixes), you should teach them about morphology. This page includes intervention strategies that you can use to develop your student's understanding of morphology. As you read, consider which of these interventions best align with your student's strengths and needs in the whole-learner domains.

If you are intervening to support your students' ability to learn about word morphology, you should start by explicitly teaching the skill. This sounds like:

• Explain the Skill/Concept. Define morphology, and explain activity. ("Morphology is the study of words. When we engage with morphological analysis, we are looking at the meanings of different word parts." "Today, we will be learning how to look at word parts to understand the meaning of the whole word.")
• Model Skill with Examples. Think aloud about how you use morphological analysis to understand a word.  ("First, I see a word and try to break it into its parts. Then, I determine what each part means. Finally, I put the parts back together to understand the meaning of the word. When I see the word reread, I see that it has a prefix (re) and a base (read). We've learned that 're' means again, so I can use this knowledge to know that reread means 'to read again.'")
• Model Skill with Non-Examples. Think aloud about reading words you don't know without using morphological analysis. ("If I see a word I don't know in a book and skip right over it, I might be missing some important meaning. For example, if an assignment tells me that I need to reread the paragraph, but I've already read it once, I might skip this direction, and I might not read it again. It's important to stop and figure out word meanings when we read in order to use them when we read, speak, and write.")
• Practice the Skill. Engage in one or more of the activities below to practice the skill with your student, providing feedback as necessary. ("Now you try; I'm going to show you how to use morphological analysis to understand a word's meaning...")

Activity A: How Do They Differ?
How Do They Differ is a strategy that teaches how affixes change word meanings. Use this strategy for students who have trouble attending to prefixes and suffixes when they read, or who have difficulty understanding words that have affixes. Provide students with base words that can be joined to contrasting affixes (e.g., -ful and –less). Have students write each base word with the suffixes. Have students read each group of words, and then ask them what the words mean: How does adding –ful affect the word’s meaning? How does adding –less affect the word's meaning?

How Do They Differ in Action
Show students base words, and then add affixes. Discuss how the affixes change the words' meanings.

Teacher: "Here is the word help. Watch what happens when I add the suffix -ful. Helpful. Now, I'll add the suffix -less. Helpless. How did adding these suffixes change the definition of the word, help?"

Student: "If you add -ful, it means something good. Someone who is trying to help someone else. If you add -less, if means that the person can't do anything. The word has a negative connotation."

Teacher: "So, what happens when we add affixes to base words?"

Student: "They change the meaning of the word." 

Activity B: Teach the Affix
Teach the Affix is a strategy that shows students how affixes change the meaning of multiple words. This activity can be used for students who struggle to see word parts within words, specifically prefixes and suffixes. In this strategy, a teacher selects two affixes and multiple base words. The teacher shows the students cards with the affixes written on them and cards with each of the base words. The teacher then moves the cards to make new words and asks the students to read them. For example, one should teach the prefix dis- in the following way:

1. Read and discuss a group of root words to be practiced: regard, obedient, own, satisfy.
2. Explain the meaning of the prefix (dis = not, reverse), and discuss how the prefix changes the meaning of the root word.
3. Attach the prefix dis- to each root word, discuss, and have students try to derive word meanings (i.e., disregard, disobedient, disown, dissatisfy).
4. Use the prefixed words in sentences.
5. Have students practice deriving the meanings of additional words with the target prefix (e.g., dishonest, dislocate, disbelief, disassemble).

Teach the Affix in Action
Show students two affix cards and five base-word cards. Move the cards to make new words, and have students read them, and discuss the meaning of the new word.

As you read the lesson below, consider how the teacher explicitly teaches students about prefixes that mean not. 

Prefixes that Mean "Not" Reading PDF

O'Connor, R. (2014). Teaching word recognition: Effective strategies for students with learning difficulties (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

Activity C: Read & Write the New Word
Read and Write the New Word is a strategy that teaches students to put word parts together to form whole words, as well to break down whole words into their parts. This activity can be used for students who struggle to understand to see word parts, especially more difficult base words and affixes, within words.
As you read the PDF below, notice how the authors emphasize asking questions to reinforce previously learned concepts and move the student toward independent application of this skill.

Read and Write PDF

O'Connor, R. (2014). Teaching word recognition: Effective strategies for students with learning difficulties (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

Read and Write the New Word in Action

Provide students with a worksheet that contains words broken into their parts and written in whole form. Have students add each part to form a whole word, and break down each whole word into its parts. Discuss how each word part contributes to the meaning of the word. 

Teacher: "On your sheet, you will see that I've broken words down into parts. Put these parts back together to write a whole word. On the next section, break down the whole word into its parts. Then, think about how each word part contributes to the whole word's meaning." 

Activity D: Combining Rules
Combining Rules allows students to put two morphemes together to form new words. This strategy can be used for students who have learned several affixes but still have difficulty understand the meaning of more difficult base words (or morphemes). As you read the PDF below, notice the type of morphemes and affixes that the students are using.

Combining Rules PDF

O'Connor, R. (2014). Teaching word recognition: Effective strategies for students with learning difficulties (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

Combining Rules in Action

Give students a worksheet that contains multiple bases and multiple affixes. Allow students to write new words using different combinations of affixes and bases. Then, discuss how the word meanings have changes based on the new combinations.

Teacher: "On your sheet, you will see bases on the left and affixes on the right. Your task is to combine these bases and affixes to make new words. Then, think about how the word meanings have changed based on the new combinations."

Activity E: Greek & Latin Roots
Greek and Latin roots interventions allow students to use their knowledge of root words to understand the meaning of new vocabulary words. This strategy can be used for students who have mastered the previous interventions but continue to need practice with content-area vocabulary. 

For more information about Greek and Latin roots, click here. 

Greek and Latin Roots in Action
Teacher writes a Greek or Latin root on the board, such as 'rupt.' Students generate words that use this root. Add any additional words that students missed. Practice writing sentences using these words.

Teacher: "Roots are valuable as patterns to learn new vocabulary words. Thousands of words more than half of the words in the dictionary come from Latin roots. Each root has a specific meaning; we change the meaning by adding prefixes and suffixes. Today, we are going to discuss the Latin root 'rupt.' I'd like you to call out words you know that use this root."

Students: "rupture" "interrupt" "disrupt" "erupt"

Teacher: "Excellent. Rupt is also used in abrupt, disruptive, and corrupt. What do you think the root 'rupt' means?"

Students: "To break?"

Teacher: "That's right to break or burst. Let's go through these words and see how each relates to breaking or bursting." (Teacher and students go through each word.) "Now, let's practice writing sentences using these words." (Students write and share out sentences.) "Excellent work exploring the root 'rupt' today. Now, I've got a special challenge: See how many times you can use words with this root in the next 24 hours! Tomorrow, we'll come back and report on our use of the root word 'rupt'!"

O'Connor, R. (2014). Teaching word recognition: Effective strategies for students with learning difficulties (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

Think about the following scenario, which takes place after a teacher has explicitly taught students about morphology and has given them multiple opportunities to practice: 
     Teacher: "Can you find the affix and base word in the word impossible?" 
     Student: "It's all one word, impossible. What do you mean find the affix and base word?" 

In such a case, what might you do? 

When you are planning your lessons, you should anticipate that your students will make errors throughout the activity. Here are a series of prompts that you can use to respond to errors. Keep in mind that all students are different, and some students might respond better to different types of feedback than others.

If your student struggles to meet your objective, there are various techniques that you might try to adjust the activity so as best to meet your student's needs.