Building Strong Readers and Writers Through Morphology

Submitted by Mara Trager, Literacy Specialist 3-5

Just this week, I overheard a student say to their teacher, “Thank you for being so helpful and teaching me today! I can’t wait to read the new biography books we got!” as they walked out to carline for dismissal.

This made me smile, but it also made me realize that our students actually use morphology all the time, in everyday speech and writing, often without realizing it! 

 Morphology is the study of how words are built and how the parts carry different meanings. The smallest units of meaning are called morphemes and include roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Even if we don’t stop to think about it, our brains are constantly breaking words into meaningful parts to make sense of them, adapt them, and create new ones. Let’s break down the sweet sentiment from the student.

1. They added endings to verbs: When they used “being,” “teaching,” and “books” they were using suffixes (-ing, -s) to show tense or number.
2. The student also changed a noun into an adjective: We naturally turn words into other forms, like  “help” → “helpful.”
3. They also added a new word to their vocabulary: The teacher introduced biography books in her library, and shared that bio- means “life” and -graph means “ to write”. The student was then able to figure out that biography means “writing about someone’s life.”

Learning about morphology helps students become stronger readers, spellers, and writers because it gives them tools to unlock word meaning and structure. By understanding prefixes, suffixes, and roots, it helps students figure out unfamiliar words they come across while reading. Additionally, when students know how words are built, they can spell them more accurately. Lastly, morphological knowledge helps students use more precise vocabulary in their writing. In other words, morphology supports vocabulary growth, comprehension, and word awareness, skills that help strengthen all areas of literacy learning.

There are many simple and fun activities that you can play at home that help children understand how words work, while gaining confidence and independence as readers and writers. Morphology gives them lifelong tools to make sense of language, expand their vocabulary, and tackle complex texts with understanding and curiosity.  Try activities like word hunts, Pictionary, Charades, Scrabble, and Boggle to make this learning feel playful and engaging!