Make It Make Sense: Understanding Words Through Morphology
Introducing Make It Make Sense: Morphology
English is a morphophonemic language which means it is a balance of sound and meaning.
One of the key ways to strengthen vocabulary skills is by learning the meaning of morphemes!
When you learn the sounds of the phonograms, you can apply those sounds to many words. For example, once you know B says /b/, you know the beginning sound to
Boy
Bus
Butter
Beautiful
Likewise, when you learn the meaning of a morpheme, you can apply that knowledge to many words! Learning just one morpheme — like geo, meaning earth — opens the door to understanding new words such as:
Geography (the study of the Earth’s surface)
Geode (a rock formation with crystals inside, formed in the earth)
Geometric (relating to shapes and figures, often measured from the earth’s surface)
Geology (the science of the earth’s structure and history)
When students can identify the morpheme geo, they begin to see patterns and make the meaningful connection that all of these words have something to do with the earth. These connections help infer word meanings and support orthographic mapping — the process by which words become stored in long-term memory for fluent reading and vocabulary growth.
Make It Make Sense: Morphology not only introduces students to morphology concepts like prefixes, suffixes, and roots, but it also serves as a visual guide to over 50 of the most common English morphemes. It empowers students to access the knowledge they need to quickly grow their own vocabulary!
With engaging photos and common examples, students can quickly look up the meaning of different morphemes they may want to know more about!
Free Morpheme Worksheets
Students can practice their morpheme knowledge by using our free, downloadable activities! These activities allow students to practice matching definitions to morphemes, discover the meaning of words by relying on the morphemes in those words, and see how words change when new morphemes are added to words.
Watch students engage with new vocabulary through Make It Make Sense: Morphology!
