The roots of comprehension

Rasinski, T., Padak, N., & Newton, J. (2017). The roots of comprehension. Educational Leadership, 74(5), 41-45.


This concise article makes a strong case for teaching students of all ages about the Greek and Latin roots that are part of many of the words they will encounter in texts across the curriculum. “The Power of Roots” segment presents some convincing numbers: the authors cite research that tells us that “up to 76 percent of commonly occurring academic words share morphological roots” (p. 42). If we can help students see the connections among morphologically related words, we may be able to help them get a better handle on academic vocabulary, and in turn, that should help them with comprehending academic texts.

The first and second authors are well known to those of us in the literacy field, and both have a long history of solid research and publication in the field, so their words here have weight. As those of us who have followed their work have come to expect, these authors follow their research up with ideas for classroom practice. This part is not lengthy (the article in its entirety is only five pages long, counting almost a page of bibliography). I did find myself wanting a bit more, but what’s here is useful, and provides a starting point for further inquiry.

What’s here includes a suggested instructional routine for weekly study of word roots, with a few examples of possible target words for various content areas given in a sidebar (p. 43). Care is taken to provide examples at both older and younger grade levels. As a teacher educator, I’ve sometimes found that morphological study involving Greek and Latin roots is a hard sell for elementary teacher candidates, so I found the examples helpful, though I wished for more. I think some of that resistance may come from those teacher candidates’ fears and insecurities about their own knowledge of morphology and word roots. I liked the “teacher testimonial” (p. 44) that depicts a teacher learning about word roots and new words right along with her young students. The example of third graders discovering the connection between the prefix e/ex and the word “erosion” is priceless. This kind of learning can be exciting and authentic! Teachers do have to let students see them as fellow learners, and that can be scary sometimes, but oh, the rewards!

The authors provide a very short but helpful list of web sites full of information on many Greek and Latin word roots. Looking at the word lists I found there really got me thinking about words that could provide teaching and learning opportunities. On the sites given, I found other links that took me further on the topic, and I definitely want to know more.