Bernice Garcia

Summarization
In the article, Breaking Down Words to Build Meaning:
Morphology, Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension in the Urban
Classroom there are four main points discussed.

The first point, Principle 1: Teach Vocabulary using

Morphology This principle explains how morphology
strategies should be taught within the context of a
comprehensive program of vocabulary improvement, but
as a distinct component of the program. It also explains
that the most effective approaches provided were multiple
ways to expose students to words, introduce the words to
students in contact that they can relate to and are
meaningful to them, and help students interact in the

process of processing the meaning of words in a deep way.

The second point, Principle 2: Morphology as a Cognitive
Strategy

In this principle I learned how to use

morphology to manipulate words instead of providing

students with rules to memorize. The strategy is taught
with four cognitive steps. These steps help students break
down a word into morphemes and make a hypothesis of
the meaning of the words using word parts. This strategy
must be taught explicitly and modeled to students several
times.

The third point, Principle 3: Underlying Morphological

Both Explicitly and in Context
This principle goes over three types of knowledge of
language that students need to know to use morphology
effectively.

-Knowledge of Prefixes

and Suffixes- Some examples to teach prefixes and suffixes

in different ways are, grouping words by prefixes and/or
suffixes, using a word wall, finding out the meaning of
prefix and suffixes.
The next point in this article is that students need to
know how words are transformed. This allows students to
experiment with how letter sounds change and their
spelling. An example that was provided is: teachers can
group words by roots to show how a single word can take
many forms. Teachers can also create a word chart that
displays these various forms of keys words selected from a
text that students are currently reading.
Lastly, I read about knowledge of roots. I learned that
as a teacher I must teach a selected amount of roots. I may
start with the most common roots Latin and Greek and
teach these roots in meaningfully context.

The fourth point in this article is Principle 4: Knowledge of

Spanish This principle targets Spanish, speaking students

to recognize cognates in Spanish their home language and

English, since both languages have many similar cognates.
However, there is a downfall to this principal because if the
student is not proficient in their home language (Spanish)
then the student will not be able to use the cognates in
Spanish to transfer to English.

My Classroom
I found all four principles very interesting, the principle I believe I
should focus on the most inside my classroom is Principle 1: Teach
Morphology in the Context of Rich, Explicit Vocabulary Instruction. The
reason why I decided I should focus on this principle is because I
believe my second grade Dual Language students will benefit in
learning about morphology (meaning of words) that involve playful and
interactive instruction. I like this principle because in my school we use
Ready Gen which has complicated texts, this principle helps use
academic words that appear in texts, provide student-friendly
explanations, create instructional contexts that supply useful
information about new words and engage students in actively dealing
with word meanings. This principle does not only expose students to
knowing what a word means but also helps them learn strategies for
learning new words. It also welcomes Native Spanish speakers in
having access to texts in Spanish, this is a big concern for me when I

teach vocabulary words and their definitions because Im always

concerned for my Native Spanish speakers.