Morphemic Analysis

Definition:"A strategy in which the meanings of words can be determined or inferred by examining their meaningful parts (i.e., prefixes, suffixes, roots, etc.)"-reading.uoregon.edu

This is important because students can learn to use this strategy to decode unfamiliar word meanings. 


Etymology

Definition:"the origin and history of a word or words, or the study of word origins"-dictionary.cambridge.org

This is important because as the students start getting older, they will start looking at the origins of words and exploring where words came from. 


Stem

Definition: "in grammar, the underlying form of a word to which inflectional endings are added"-wordsmyth.net

This is important because this is the main part of the word and students must learn this before the inflectional endings, which will apply to the underlying form of the word(the stem). 


Free Morpheme

Definition: "a morpheme (or word element) that can stand alone as a word"-thoughtco.com

This is important because while students are learning about words, they will see words with free morphemes. Students will learn these words by breaking apart the morphemes and understanding what each part means. 


Bound Morpheme

Definition: "a word element that cannot stand alone as a word"-thoughtco.com

This is important because these are word elements such as prefixes or suffixes that most words have. 


Concept Sorts

Definition: "a vocabulary and comprehension strategy used to familiarize students with the vocabulary of a new topic or book"-readingrockets.org

This is important because this is a great way for students to show what they already know and relate it to the material they will be learning.

Absorbed or Assimilated Prefix (bonus)

Definition: "disguising of prefix roots"-membean.com

This is important because prefix assimilation expands the vocabulary skills of students. 

Consonant/Vowel Alternation (bonus)

Definition: "any sound change within a word that indicates grammatical information(often inflectional)"-en.wikipedia.org

This is important because this is difficult skill for students to learn when learning to read. We, as teachers, must spend more time on words with this concept. 

Reduced Vowels (bonus)

Definition: "any of various changes in the acoustic quality of vowels, which are related to changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word"-en.wikipedia.org

This is important because to be able to read, students have to know these changes to the pronunciation to words. 

Affixes

Definition:"a bound inflectional or derivational element, as a prefix, infix, or suffix, added to a base or stem to form a fresh stem or a word"-dictionary.com

This is important because chunking words is an important part of learning to read. Children can more easily understand words and what they mean if they can look at the words in the terms of the prefix, the base word, and at the suffix.

Morphemic Analysis

Definition: "a structural analysis that examines the word parts having meaning such as prefixes or suffixes"-edupedia.com

This is important because the prefixes and suffixes of a word can change the whole word. For example, by adding the prefix un- to something, you are making the word mean the opposite of what it originally meant. 
Inflectional Endings

Definition: "a group of letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning"-mheonline.com

These are important because they can change the meaning of a word. Inflectional endings can change the tense (past, present, future) of a word, along with the number of objects (dog or dogs).



Syllable Juncture

Definition: "a term used to identify the point at which two syllables join"-wtps.org

This is important because children need to be able to take a deeper look at words and their parts to be able to understand unknown words. 


Domain Specific Academic Vocabulary

Definition:"technical or jargon words important to a specific subject, e.g., tangent in mathematics, constitution in history/social studies, and explicate in English/Language Arts"-prestwickhouse.com


This is important because these are more difficult words for students to understand. An example of one of these words is photosynthesis. This is a word that a student would not typically use outside of a science class. 



General Academic Vocabulary

Definition: "words that are traditionally used in academic dialogue and text"-learninga-z.com



These are important because these are words that are used in their everyday school settings. 

Accented Syllables (bonus)

Definition: "a syllable that is stressed in pronunciation"-englishplus.com

These are important because when learning to read, you need to know when to pronounce which letters which way.

Unaccented Final Syllables (bonus)

Definition: "words that end in -el, -le, -il, -al, -en, -in, -an, -on, -ain"-macmillanmh.com

This is important because many words end in these letters. Teaching the familiarity between words helps children learn. 

Word Consciousness

Definition: "awareness and interest in words and their meaning" -keystoliteracy.com

This is important because this is what gets children interested in spelling, writing, and all of the other aspects of learning words. It is important to get the children curious because that helps the learning become more meaningful. 


Diphthongs

Definition: "a sound made by combining two vowels, specifically when it starts as one vowel sound and goes to another, like the oy sound in oil" -vocabulary.com

These are important because these are difficult terms for students to understand. When teaching spelling or reading, it is hard to explain why the two sounds make a whole new sound.


Ambiguous Vowels

Definition: "vowel combinations that can make more than one sound, such as the oo in book and moon OR sounds that can be signified by more than one vowel mixture, like the sound of /ah/ in tall, caught, or cost"-theedadvocate.org

These are important because these are another thing that children have difficulty with. It is hard to explain that vowel combinations can make more than one sound and that sounds can be signified by more than one mixture. These are complex parts of the English language that we, as teachers, need to spend more time on. 


Homophones

Definition: "a word that sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning and/or spelling"-vocabulary.com

These are important because these are things that need extra focus when you are teaching them to children. These can be tricky and confusing for even some older children.





Homographs

Definition: "a word of the same written form as another but of different meaning and usually origin, whether pronounced the same way or not"-dictionary.com

These are important because, like homophones, they are tricky and can be confused easily. These need extra focus on so that the students do not get them confused with homophones or homonyms.


Homonyms (bonus)

Definition: "a word that is said or spelled the same way as another word but has a different meaning"-vocabulary.com

These are important because, like homophones and homographs, they can be confusing for children. These three words are spelled similarly and can be confused for another. 

Sight Words

Definition: "Words, like come, does, or who, that don't follow the rules of spelling or the six syllable types"-weareteachers.com

These are important because these are words the children will see and use everyday, that they cannot spell out normally. These words have to be memorized.

Schwa

Definition: "the mid-central, neutral vowel sound typically occurring in unstressed syllables in English, however-spelled, as the sound of a in alone and sofa, e in system, in in easily, o in gallop, u in circus"-dictionary.com

This is important because this is a sound that occurs that students will struggle with and will need extra help with. 

Digraph

Definition: "a pair of letters representing a single speech sound, such as ea in meat or th in path"-dictionary.com

This is important because this is a commonly used spelling in the English language that the students must learn. Grouping or chunking parts of words like these will be most beneficial to the students. 

Blend

Definition: "when two or more consonants are blended together, but each sound may be heard in the blend"-blog.maketaketeach.com

This is important because this is another commonly used spelling or part of a word that is used in the English language. This will also help students learn because it helps group or chunk together information, such as the -br words. 

Phonograms

Definition: "a unit symbol of a phonetic writing system, standing for a speech sound, syllable, or other sequence of speech sounds without reference to meaning"-dictionary.com

This is important because this is how students speak the sounds heard in the English language. This is the vocalization of the English language. These are how you sound out the words you see. They are the written form of speech. 

Onset

Definition:"the initial phonological unit of any word (e.g. c in cat)-readingrockets.org

This is important because this is the beginning of every word. Students must learn this to pronounce, read, write, spell, etc. This is very important in the English language. 

Rime

Definition: "the string of letters that follow the onset, usually a vowel and final consonants (e.g. at in cat)-readingrockets.org

This is important because this is the part of the word. Students need to know this in order to pronounce, spell, read, and write words. This is also an important part of the English language.