Greek Morphemes Lessons (It’s NOT Greek to Me!) from Ready to Teach is a secondary level vocabulary study that we have been reviewing for the past several weeks. For this review, we received Greek Morphemes Lessons (It’s NOT Greek to Me!) Student Book, Instructor’s Manual and jump-drive with power-point presentation on it. (The instructor’s manual also had a cd with the power-point presentation but since so many laptops are not equipped for cd’s, the cd is being discontinued and will be replaced with the jump drive.)
The course is divided into twelve lessons. Each lesson is then divided into four parts; A, B, C and D. Initially the student watches the power-point presentation which presents the new word parts (roots, prefixes, and suffixes) that will be used for that lesson. In the Student Book, the student has a page specifically for taking notes. Using these notes, the student can then work the first set of words (Part A). There were generally eight words to work for each part. For Part B, the student then works the remaining words. (usually another eight). Part C involved creating a context clue sentence for part of that lesson’s words (generally eight of them.) The student gets to choose which words to use for this part of the lesson. Then the student gets to create two new words using the roots, prefixes and suffixes they have learned. Part D was especially fun, in that the student gets to break apart words and write a possible definition for each of those words. Then they got to pick a possible “funny” clue for each of these words. For example, a philophobiac (one who fears love) “would not want to read a romance novel.”
In the back of the Student Book, there are also colored papers that the students use to make study cards. Each lesson has it’s own color so that when they are using the study cards they know which lesson to look back at if they need to.
There are also fifteen reviews/tests built into the course. One following each lesson, one after the completion of Lessons 1 and 2, one after the completion of Lesson 6 (covers Lessons 1-6) and a test over Lessons 7-12.
The Instructor’s Manual is broken into four sections:
- Section 1: Background, Introduction and Lesson Plan
- Section 2: Greek Morphemes Lessons
- Transparency Masters
- Review and Answer Keys
- Tests and Answer Keys
In the very back of the Instructor’s Guide there are premade study cards that are also color coded by lesson number. These cards are made on cardstock and are very sturdy and nice to work with.
This was a new approach to vocabulary study for Brock. He enjoyed the power-point presentations which introduced each lesson and gave the definitions to the word parts he would be using for that lesson. He had no trouble following along and taking notes and it didn’t take very long for him to catch on to “working” the words.
Working the words refers to looking at the list of words and determining what prefixes, suffixes and roots each of those words is comprised of. Then he had to write a possible definition for that word.
For example:
bibliomaniac:
- biblio-is book
- maniac-one who has a madness for
Therefore, bibliomaniac would be one who has a madness for books.
Brock liked Greek Morphemes Lessons (It’s NOT Greek to Me!) and so did I! It was a fun way to expand his understanding of vocabulary words. I would recommend Greek Morphemes Lessons to those who are in junior high or high school (or older) as a way to improve their vocabulary skills.
I invite you to check out what other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew say:
Jennifer
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