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Liz Canny: I am going to write a word on the board.
VO: To truly understand what a word means, students need more than just the definition.
Liz Canny: The word is unlikely. Can everyone with their eyes facing me say unlikely?
Students: Unlikely.
VO: One way to build that deeper meaning is through morphology, breaking a word down into its meaningful parts. Watch as teacher Liz Canny does just that with a small group of second graders at AIM Academy in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
Liz Canny: Let's clap out the syllables of unlikely. Hands up so I can see them. "Un - like - ly." [class claps along with Ms. Canny] Let's try it this way. Put your hand under your chin. We're going to feel how many times our hands drop. Eyes on me. When we say unlikely. Ready?
Everyone: "Un - like - ly."
Liz Canny: How many times do we hear that? Oh, I heard one person say it. Edie, could you say it louder?
Edie: Three.
Liz Canny: Three. These syllables actually tell us some really good information about this word. The front of our word has a prefix. Can everyone say, 'un-'?
Students: 'Un-.'
Liz Canny: 'Un-' means not. Okay. Our base word here is the word like. Everyone say like.
Students: Like.
Liz Canny: Good. I'm going to write the suffix. Everyone's eyes up here. That L-Y says /lē/. Can everyone say /lē/?
Everyone: /lē/
VO: Notice that when Ms. Canny breaks the word into its parts, prefix U-N, base word like, and suffix L-Y, that she never stops to define what a prefix or a base word or a suffix is. This is because she's already explicitly taught those terms in an earlier lesson.
Liz Canny: Let's put this together. Ready? Eyes on me. "Un - like - ly." One more time. "Un - like - ly." Okay. 'Un-' means "not." What are some other words that start with 'un-'?
VO: Asking students to think of other words that start with the prefix U-N is where the morphology magic happens. This not only helps solidify its meaning of not in the word unlikely. It also shows students that the prefix U-N is a word part whose meaning travels to every word they might attach it to.
Liz Canny: What are some other words that start with 'un-'? Bea?
Bea: Unattended.
Liz Canny: Unattended, great. Unattended. Do you know what that means, Bea? Unattended?
Bea: Like you're not participating in something.
Liz Canny: Yeah, maybe you're not participating in something or maybe there's not an adult with you. We might see someone unattended outside where they're not supposed to be. Teddy, another word with 'un-' at the front?
Teddy: So it's unlikely that you would see a kind of animal like gorilla or a deer or something.
Liz Canny: Okay.
Teddy: Unlikely.
Liz Canny: That reminded me of unlikely. Do you think uncommon would make sense there? It could be uncommon to see a gorilla outside our window.
Teddy: Yeah.
Bea: Yeah.
Teddy: It's definitely uncommon.
Liz Canny: That is definitely uncommon. Now I want us to think of a word that has the same middle part, like. Can anyone think of a word that has like in it? Elijah?
Elijah: I like gummy worms.
Liz Canny: So you're thinking of the verb like, okay? Something you like to do or like to eat. Any other words that might have like in there?
VO: The students latching onto a familiar meaning of the word like — to enjoy — makes sense. Ms. Canny doesn't call it wrong. She names it as a real meaning of the word and then guides them back to how the word like functions as a base word.
Liz Canny: I'm thinking of this word, likable. Can everyone say likable?
Students: Likable.
Liz Canny: Hey, that means you're a person someone might like or might want to be friends with. Okay. The last part I'm thinking about, this L-Y ending, /lē/, that helps us know if we are doing ... the way we're doing something. So that helps us determine maybe an adjective or an adverb.
VO: For suffix L-Y, Ms. Canny shifts her approach. Instead of asking students to give her other words that end in suffix L-Y, she hands them a situation and lets the ending do the work.
Liz Canny: What about if we're doing something safe? How could we say that with the ending at the end? Can everyone try that? "Safe - ly"
Teddy: I know one.
Liz Canny: I'm going to come to you next, Teddy. Thank you for your hand. What's another one you have?
Teddy: Likely.
Liz Canny: Likely. Good. So we have that similar there. What about if I do something in a kind way? Raising a hand. What if I do something in a kind way? Anna, what do you think? If I add /lē/ to the end of kind, what could I say?
Anna: Kindly.
Liz Canny: Kindly. Great. Okay. So just from our word unlikely in the middle, we thought about all of these other words. Okay? And our prefix 'un-', does anyone remember what that word means? Bea? 'Un-' means, what does it mean?
Bea: Not.
Liz Canny: Not. Can everyone go like this? Their bodies ready? Go ...
Everyone: Not. [Everyone makes vertical motion with their hands]
Liz Canny: Not. Okay. Unlikely means not likely to happen, be done, or be true.
VO: By breaking unlikely into its parts and connecting it to related words, students gain more than a single definition. They gain a strategy they can use again and again. The more practice they have breaking words apart, the more they can uncover meaning on their own.
Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale; the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation; the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation; the AFT; and several anonymous donors. Special thanks to AIM Academy and the AIM Institute for Learning and Research in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel @RUTeaching. Reading Universe is a service of WETA Washington D.C. and was developed in collaboration with the Barksdale Reading Institute and First Book.
