Vocabulary

Tree Root Words

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Common Word Roots

Root	Meaning	Example	Definition
agri	field	agronomy	field-crop production and soil management
anthropo	man	anthropology	the study of man
astro	star	astronaut	one who travels in interplanetary space
bio	life	biology	the study of life
cardio	heart	cardiac	pertaining to the heart
cede	go	precede	to go before
chromo	color	chromatology	the science of colors
demos	people	democracy	government by the people
derma	skin	epidermis	the outer layer of skin
dyna	power	dynamic	characterized by power and energy
geo	earth	geology	the study of the earth
helio	sun	heliotrope	any plant that turns toward the sun
hydro	water	hydroponics	growing of plants in water reinforced with nutrients
hypno	sleep	hypnosis	a state of sleep induced by suggestion
ject	throw	eject	to throw out
magni	great, big	magnify	to enlarge, to make bigger
man(u)	hand	manuscript	written by hand
mono	one	monoplane	airplane with one wing
ortho	straight	orthodox	right, true, straight opinion
pod	foot	pseudopod	false foot
psycho	mind	psychology	study of the mind in any of its aspects
pyro	fire	pyrometer	an instrument for measuring temperatures
script	write	manuscript	hand written
terra	earth	terrace	a raised platform of earth
thermo	heat	thermometer	instrument for measuring heat
zoo	animal	zoology	the study of animals

Common Prefixes

ante-	before	antebellum	before the war
anti-	against	antifreeze	liquid used to guard against freezing
auto-	self	automatic	self-acting or self-regulating
bene-	good	benefit	an act of kindness; a gift
circum-	around	circumscribe	to draw a line around; to encircle
contra-	against	contradict	to speak against
de-	reverse, remove	defoliate	remove the leaves from a tree
dis-	apart	dislocate	to unlodge
dys-	bad	dysfunctional	not functioning
ecto-	outside	ectoparasite	parasite living on the exterior of animals
endo-	within	endogamy	marriage within the tribe
ex-	out	excavate	to dig out
equi-	equal	equidistant	equal distance
extra-	beyond	extraterrestrial	beyond the earth
hyper-	over	hypertension	high blood pressure
hypo-	under	hypotension	low blood pressure
in-	in	interim	in between
inter-	between	intervene	come between
intra-	within	intramural	within bounds of a school
intro-	in, into	introspect	to look within, as one's own mind
macro-	large	macroscopic	large enough to be observed by the naked eye
mal-	bad	maladjusted	badly adjusted
micro-	small	microscopic	so small that one needs a microscope to observe
multi-	many	multimillionaire	one having two or more million dollars
neo-	new	neolithic	new stone age
non-	not	nonconformist	one who does not conform
pan-	all	pantheon	a temple dedicated to all gods
poly-	many	polygonal	having many sides
post-	after	postgraduate	after graduating
pre-	before	precede	to go before
pro-	for	proponent	a supporter
proto-	first	prototype	first or original model
pseudo-	false	pseudonym	false name; esp., an author's pen-name
re-, red-	back again	rejuvenate	to make young
re-, red-	together	reconnect	to put together again
retro-	backward	retrospect	a looking back on things
semi-	half	semicircle	half a circle
sub-	under	submerge	to put under water
super-	above	superfine	extra fine
tele-	far	telescope	seeing or viewing afar
trans-	across	transalpine	across the Alps

Number prefixes

uni- one	tetra- four	oct- eight
mono- one	quint- five	nov- nine
bi- two	pent- five	dec- ten
duo- two	sex- six	lat- side
di- two	hex- six	ped- foot
tri- three	sept- seven	pod- foot
quad- four	hept- seven

Math & Science Affixes and Roots

Root or Affix	Example
aqua (water)	aquarium
hydro (water)	hydroplane
hemi (half)	hemisphere
semi (half)	semicircle
equi (equal)	equivalent
tele (far off)	telescope
micro (small)	microfilm
onomy (science of)	astronomy
ology (study of)	geology
uni (one)	universe
bi (two)	bicycle
tri (three)	triangle
octa (eight)	octagon
dec (ten)	decade
centi (hundred)	centimeter
milli (thousand)	millimeter
bio (life)	biology
astro (star)	astronaut
thermo (heat)	thermodynamic
meter (measure)	diameter
ped (foot)	pedestrian
pod (foot)	tripod

Prefixes that mean "no": a- de- dis-, in- non- un-, contra

Examples: disqualify, nondescript, unscrupulous, contradict, inadvertent

Prefix	Meaning	Examples
a-, an-	without, not	asexual, atypical, amoral, anarchy
de-	reverse action, away	defrost, demystify, desensitize, deduct
dis-, dif-, di-	not, apart	dissatisfied, disorganized, different, divert
in-, il-, it-, im-	not	inappropriate, invisible, illegal, impossible
non-	not	nonproductive, nonessential, nonsense
un-	not	unlikely, unnoticeable, unreliable
contra-, counter-	against	contrary, contradict, counterproductive

Prefixes that indicate "when," "where," or "more": pre-, post-, ante-, inter-, infra-, traps-, sub-, circum-, ultra­

Examples: premature, postscript, anteroom, intervene, transformation

Prefix	Meaning	Examples
pre-, pro-	before	pre-dinner,  preliminary,  previous,  prologue
post-	after	postwar,  postoperative,  postpone
ante-	before	antecedent,  antechamber
inter-	between, among	interstate,  intercept,  interfere
intra-	within	intramural,  intrastate,  intravenous
trans-	across	transcontinental,  transparent,  transaction
sub-	under	submarine,  submerge,  subjugate
circum-	around	circumnavigate,  circumference
ultra-	beyond, on the far side of, excessive	ultrasonic,  ultraviolet,  ultraconservative

http://academic.cuesta.edu/acasupp/as/506.HTM
 

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Familiarity with Greek and Latin roots, along with affixes can help students understand the meaning of new words.

Twister-use sight words

Great idea to get children moving and learning!

Book Buddy
Prefixes and Suffixes game from Harcourt School - Choose 1 or 2 players.


 Rooting Out Words
FunBrain game to help practice identifying root/base words
 http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/staff/boldtkatherine/readingfun3-6/readingfun_prefixessuffixesroots.htm

Interactive Computer Word Games
Great Fun!

Readers need some specific knowledge of words to provide a broad base for more learning

Visually labeling helps focus student’s attention to the meaning of specific words.

Adverbs of Frequency

http://pinterest.com/ninhapeixoto/improve-your-english/

Vocabulary

From the Vocabulary Wiki:

Created by: Tina Hatcher, Krista Milen, and Lara McTaggart (2013)

In-depth Study of Vocabulary

Tina Hatcher, Krista Milen, Lara McTaggart

"Words are the currency of communication. A robust vocabulary improves all areas of communication — listening, speaking, reading and writing." (Alexander, 2012 

What is Vocabulary?

Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word meaning in both oral print language and in productive and receptive ways.  We use vocabulary to refer to the kind of words that students must know to read increasingly demanding text and comprehension.  (McKeown and Beck)
Six Main Areas of Vocabulary Instruction
1. Robust Vocabulary Selection
"Trade books are superb sources of vocabulary selection. A word was considered a good candidate if it seemed likely to be unfamiliar to young children but was a concept they could identify with and use in normal conversation." (Beck & McKeown, 2001, p. 181)
2. Explicit Instruction
"When the teacher focused students' attention on the meanings of specific words, the students were more likely to learn and retain the word meanings than when the teacher focused students' attention on deriving those same word meanings from sentence context." (Jenkins, Matlock, & Slocum, 1989, p. 228)
3. Oral Instruction and Personalization
"Design questions that encourage children to talk about and connect ideas and develop follow-up questions that scaffold, building meaning from those ideas." (Beck & McKeown, 2001, p.19)
4. Multiple Contexts
"Students should be given opportunities to manipulate the words in a wide variety of ways, such as creating original contexts for the words, participating in games that require quick associations between words and meanings, and exploring different nuances of a word's meaning through discussion." (Beck, McKeown, & McCaslin, 1983, p. 181)
5. Rich Literature
"Texts that are effective for developing language and comprehension ability need to be conceptually challenging enough to require grappling with ideas and taking an active stance toward constructing meaning." (Beck & McKeown, 2001, p.10)
6. Ample Practice
More practice yielded significantly larger increments of learning. On three of the four measures of vocabulary knowledge, the high practice group demonstrated significantly more learning than the medium group, and on all four medium practice group achieved higher scores than the low group." (Jenkins, Matlock, & Slocum, 1989, p.228)
Research on the Role Vocabulary Has on Comprehension
*The important role of vocabulary in reading comprehension has long been recognized (Heimlich and Pittelman 1986).  One's vocabulary level is highly predictive of one's level of reading comprehension. 
*Words are how we label our concepts and ideas.  This prior knowledge is key to understanding what we read, so vocabulary is a good predictor of how well the reader will understand a text (Nagy, 1998, 2000).  But comprehension transcends vocabulary; it is about much more than just the words.  Meaning is communicated by the way words are presented according to the rules of grammar.  It is about the deep and symbolic meaning of a text as a whole.
*Effective vocabulary instruction has a positive impact on reading comprehension (Nagy and Herman 1987).  It is crucial to ensure that vocabulary instruction is not neglected.  Moreover, good vocabulary instruction can help to narrow the gap between children of higher and lower socioeconomic groups (Biemiller 2004).
*Citing studies that show vast differences in vocabulary knowledge among higher-and lower-socioeconomic-status first graders, Beck, McKeown, and Kulcan (2002) makes a strong case for robust  vocabulary instruction. 
*High-socioeconomic-status first graders know about twice as many words as lower-socioeconomic-status children.  The difference tends to persist throughout school; for example, high-performing high school seniors know four times as many words as low-performing seniors.  Researchers have identified vocabulary limitations as a major factor in the "achievement gap" between higher-income and disadvantaged students (Biemiller 1999).
Research on Vocabulary Instruction 
Research indicates that reading is an important way to acquire vocabulary incidentally. Nagy (1987) as well as Stanovich (1986) found that students who read more have larger vocabularies. And steps can be taken to decrease the incidental and random way readers acquire words by helping children learn some efficient vocabulary acquisition strategies that they can apply before, during, and after reading (Baumann, Kame'enui, and Ash 2003).  For example, children can learn strategies for deriving the meaning of a word from context or using word structure to identify the base or root word and its function in the sentence.
Rudell (1994) agrees that a combination of approaches is the most likely way to help students improve their vocabularies.  For example, readers do need strategies for deriving the meaning of words from context, but they also need to realize when they do not comprehend and know how to search form meaning (Graves 1987).  Finally,
Beck, Mckeown, and Kulcan (2002) describes three tiers of words, a quite useful concept in planning vocabulary lessons.  (See Reading Strategies) Beck's advice is to focus intentional vocabulary instruction on the second-tier words and help children make connections among words so that when learning a word like unfortunate, they also have an idea of the meaning of words like fortune, fortunate, fortunately, misfortune.
The National Reading Panel reported that (1) most vocabulary is learned indirectly, and (2) some vocabulary must be taught directly.  It seems necessary to incorporate both direct lessons on vocabulary and intentional conversation about words into all the contexts in which students encounter words.  
Beck also suggests promoting vocabulary development during read-aloud by asking open-ended questions that prompt children to talk about and make connections among the ideas in the story, then following up with direct, interactive vocabulary instruction that gives children a chance to contribute their own experience with words.
http://utk-prod.campuspack.net/Groups/ReadingEducation52925603SP2013/In-depth_study_of_Vocabulary/What_is_Vocabulary
Teaching Vocabulary through Text Talk
"Students can be taught a strategy for identifying important vocabulary and for learning those words within the context of literature."  (Dole, Sloan, & Trathen, 1995, p.460)
Text talk, developed by Beck and Mckeown and their collegues is a read-aloud strategy that focuses on vocabulary development.  By engaging children in meaningful discussions about books, teachers can use text talk read-alouds to provide a context for teaching new words.  A teacher begins a text talk lesson by reading a story aloud and engaging in rich discussion with children.  The teacher then targets several words from the story to discuss in more depth.  Deep meaning of these words becomes the focus of the lesson.  Teachers should create their own definitions to make the word meanings more assessable.  A child-friendly definition uses everyday language to explain the meaning of the word. To create a child-friendly definition, Beck suggested teachers ask themselves, "When do I use this word?" "Why do we have this word?" Staying focused on the central meaning or concept of the word rather than the multiple meanings of the word promotes understanding. After explaining in child-friendly language what a target word means, the teacher should require students to use and interact with the word by thinking about its meaning. The goal of this portion of the text talk lesson is to make word meaning explicit and clear and to engage students in actively thinking about and using the meanings right away.  A teacher might elect to ask children to use the word themselves or to respond to the teacher's use of the word. 
The selection of appropriate words is one of the most important aspects of a good text talk lesson.  The teacher should choose words that can be connected to what students know, can be explained with words they know, and will be useful and interesting to students.  Beck (2004) explained that there are "tiers" of word utility. Beck suggests targeting Tier 2 words. 

Tier III
Tier III words are low-frequency words and are limited to a specific “domain”. They often pertain to a specific content area.  These words are best learned within the context of the lesson or subject matter.  Examples: atom, molecule, metamorphic, sedimentary, continent.

Tier II
Tier II words are high-frequency words that occur across contexts. These words are used by mature language users and are more common in writing than in everyday speech.  Tier II words are important for students to know to enhance comprehension of a selected text. Tier II words the best words for targeted explicit vocabulary instruction. Examples: hilarious, endure, despise, arrange, compare, contrast

Tier I
Tier I words are the words we use everyday in our speech.  These words are typically learned through conversation.  These are common words that rarely require direct instruction.  Examples: come, see, happy, table

Elements of the Text Talk Strategy
(adapted from Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)
 Read and discuss the story with children.
During the book reading, ask children questions that focus on understanding the story.  After reading the book, conduct mini-lessons about a few key words from the text.
Introduce the target words one at a time.
During each lesson, focus on three to five Tier 2 words.  Chose words that will be most likely to be useful to children later.  Write the word on the chalkboard or on a pocket-chart card to display.
Ask children to repeat each word.
It is important for children to have a clear phonological representation of the words.  For more difficult words, you many want to have children say the words several times.
Introduce a child-friendly definition.
Explain the central meaning of the word using words the children already know.  Use complete sentences and, whenever possible include the words someone, something, or describes.
Share examples of the word in contexts that are different from the context in the story. 
Expand children's understanding of the word by using it in a variety of contexts.  for words with multiple meanings, make sure your examples use the entral word meaning.
Engage children in thinking about and using the meaning of the word.
Guide children in activities that require them to use the word.  You may ask then, "Have you ever...?" Or, you might ask then to agree or disagree with comments using the word.  Or, you might ask children to turn to a partner and tell them something they know about the word.  Be sure children use the word in their explanations.
Ask children to repeat the word again to reinforce its phonological representation.
Be sure every child has an opportunity to say the word several times, especially in meaningful contexts.
Repeat these steps for each target word.
 Vocabulary During Guided Reading
Guided reading provides one context for vocabulary that targets the needs of all students.  Each guided reading group learns vocabulary appropriate for their reading level and experiences. During the first few minutes of the guided reading lesson, you should introduce new words students would not be able to figure out on their own.  At the end of each lesson, students add these words to their New Word Lists. Students should be encouraged to use the new words they learn in guided reading when they speak and write.  
How to Introduce New Vocabulary
adapted from Jan Richardson's Next Step in Guided Reading
1. Decide which words MUST be pretaught. Words that are not crucial to comprehension or that can be figured out from morphology or context should not be pretaught.
2. Define the word with a synonym. Do not ask students if they know the definition. This encourages incorrect guessing.
3. Use the word in an example the students can connect to their own lives.
4. Explain how the word will be used in the text or show the students the word found in the text.
5. Ask the students to turn to a partner and define the word or use it in a sentence.
Prompts to Use with Individual Students
*Is there a word you don't understand?
*Have you heard that word before?
*Are there any clues in the sentence or illustration to help you?
*Is there a part in that word that can help? ("landslide" has "land" and "slide" in it.)
*Do you know a word that is similar? ("mysterious" is similar to "mystery").
 Vocabulary Strategy Cards: VocabularyCards.doc
Independent Practice Activities for New Vocabulary Words
Students need multiple experiences reading, writing, and speaking new vocabulary before they "own" it.  Each day students can spend 20 minutes of the reading workshop model doing one of the following activities using words from their Word List:
*Turn and Talk: Students work with others from their guided reading group and take turns talking about the words on their list.  They should use a word in a sentence and relate it either to the story they read in guided reading or to personal experiences.
*Guess the Word:  Students work with a partner from their guided reading group and give clues about one of the words on their New Word List. "I'm thinking of a word that...."
*High Five:  One student writes down a word from the list, and the other(s) try to guess it by asking questions.  The goal is to guess the word in less than five minutes.
*How Do These Go Together?  Students pick two words from their vocabulary bags and write a sentence using both of the words.
*Picture This: A student draws an illustration for one of the new words, and the other students try to guess it.

Ways to Integrate Vocabulary Instruction

Shared Reading

Shared reading is an excellent opportunity to expand vocabulary, because you are working with a text that will be familiar to them.  With the high level of support that you provide in shared reading , even young children can become familiar with sophisticated vocabulary. 

For example:

• While rereading a familiar text, mask a word and have students predict it, talking about its meaning in the sentence.
• Select words from a familiar text and have students locate and discuss their meaning.
• Mask words and substitute alternative words (synonyms or antonyms) within a text and discuss the way the substitution changes the meaning.
• For a text produced through interactive or shared writing, have students illustrate pages, thinking about the meaning of the words.
• Highlight words within a text and help students connect them with other words that have a similar meaning.

Independent-Reading
Bottom line- it is extremely important to provide a large variety of texts for students to read independently.  In your minilessons, you can draw attention to interesting words, and you can also invite children to offer examples of new words when they share their reactions to their reading.  In conferences, probe students' understanding of the words in texts they are reading and take the opportunity to explain and discuss word meanings.  Build interest in noticing and thinking about the meaning of words in all reading.

For example:

• Ensure a large variety of texts for independent reading.
• Encourage students to use new words as they write about their reading in their reader's notebooks.
• During sharing, have students give examples of interesting new words they have noticed.

Word Study Lessons

Word study is a highly productive area in which to boost students' vocabulary knowledge.  Here you can provide specific instruction on various aspects of words, many of which will impact students' ability to grasp the meaning  You can teach students to make connections among words in many ways, including word parts, word function (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) , word structure (for example, words that end in -ed or -ing) affixes, sounds, meaning, and compound words.  As an extension of word study lessons, students may play a variety of games that focus on word meanings.  

For example:

• Teach students to make connections among words by meaning.
• Teach students to make connections in flexible ways-word part, part of speech (noun, verb, etc.), sounds meaning.
• Have students play Lotto, Concentration, and other games using synonyms, antonym, homophone, and homographs.
• Use poems to help students learn about synonyms, antonym, onomatopoetic words, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and metaphors.
• Teach many different kinds of words.
• Help students sort words by meaning.
• Help students understand the structure of a word and its relation to meaning.
• Have children make "sentence pictures" to illustrate the meaning of words.

Writing Workshop

In writing workshop you are helping students express their own thinking in writing.  That means they should be able to use words effectively, and to do that they must understand their meaning.  Even though a writing workshop does not include direct vocabulary instruction, you can draw attention to words in a way that helps student learn about them. Writers must think deeply about the precise meaning conveyed by words.

For example:

• Draw attention to the writer's selection of words in mentor texts for mini lessons.
• Encourage students to use new and interesting words as they revise their own writing.
• In  mini lessons, create charts that help students make connections to words they want to use in their writing.
• While conferring with students about their writing, help them substitute synonyms to convey the precise meaning intended.

Evidence of Vocabulary Learning
A key to effective vocabulary instruction is discovering evidence that your students are learning new words.  To learn 400 new words each year, they must add to their vocabularies every day.  Vocabulary building is not a linear process.  We constantly enrich our vocabularies by discovering richer meaning for words we know and making connections among words.  Ask yourself,
Do my students:
1. Show interest in words?
2. Notice and comment on new words that they meet in texts?
3.  Actively search for meaning when they meet a new word?
4. Understand and search for new meanings for words that they meet in context?
5.  Demonstrate strategies for solving unfamiliar words when they meet them for the first time in oral or written language?
6. Consider alternative definitions of words in the search for meaning while reading?
7.  Use new words in discussion?
8. Use new words in writing?
9. Try to use more interesting words in their writing even if they are unsure of their spelling?
10.  Show evidence of a growing body of known words? 
Every week or so, test the students on the most recently learned words, plus additional words learned in previous weeks.  
 Resources and Activities
Center Activities
http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/PDF/G4-5/45VPartThree.pdf

Dress it Up with a Vocabulary Parade
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2010/10/dress-it-vocabulary-parade

Tons of Vocabulary Related Activities and Ideas
http://www.readingresource.net/vocabularyactivities.html

Book Lists with Ready to Print Vocabulary Activities
http://www.freereading.net/index.php?title=Vocabulary_Activities

Vocabulary Games
http://pbskids.org/games/vocabulary.html

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary_games.html

 References
Beck, I.L M.G. Mckeown, M.G ( 1997) Encouraging Young Children's Language Interactions with Stories. Handbook of Early Literacy Research, 2, 281-294.

Beck, I.L. M.G.McKeown, and L. Kucan, L. 2002. Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction.  New York: The Guildford Press.

Biemiller, A. 1999. Language and Reading Success. Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books.

Chall. J.S., V.A. Jacobs, and L.E. Baldwin. 1990.  The Reading Crisis: Why Poor Children Fall Behind.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Graves, M.F. 1987. The Roles of Instruction in Fostering Vocabulary Development. M. KcKeown and M. Curtis, Eds.  The Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition : 165-184. Mahway., NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Heimlich, J.E., and S.D. Pittelman. 1986. Semantic Mapping: Classroom Applications. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Lane, Holly B., & Wright, Tyran L. (2007).  Maximizing the Effectiveness of Reading Aloud.  The Reading Teacher (pp.668-675)

Nagy, W.E. 1988. Teaching Vocabulary to Improve Reading Comprehension. Rubana, IL, and Newark, DE:  National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association (ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communiction Skills) 

Nagy, W.E. and P. Herman. 1987. Breadth and Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge:  Implications for Acquisition and Instruction. In M. McKeown and M. Curtis. Eds. The Nature of Vocabulary Acquistion. Mahwah, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum, Associates.  pp. 19-36.

Stanovich, K.E. 1986. Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individual Differences in the Acquistion  of Literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 360-406.