Designing Engaging and Effective Morphology Lessons for Grades 4–8
...is a self-paced professional learning course designed for teachers, interventionists, tutors, and homeschool educators who want to confidently teach morphology within a structured literacy framework.
Organized into 15 concise modules, the course explores the research supporting explicit morphology instruction and demonstrates how morphology strengthens reading, spelling, vocabulary, orthographic mapping, and reading comprehension.
Participants learn how to prioritize morphemes for instruction, select high-value words, and implement a clear, repeatable instructional routine using practical classroom examples.
One recent attendee shared this after implementing the instructional routine with one of her students:
"Today I used some of your suggestions about morphemes with a boy I tutor who has significant struggles, although he is improving all the time. I've been doing a lot with prefixes, suffixes, and root words, but I presented them similarly to the way you demonstrated in your slides, including both reading and spelling the words. He did absolutely fabulously! He, his mother, and I were so happy. Thanks again!" — Natasha Hays, M.D.
Topics include:
- The research behind explicit morphology instruction
- Orthographic mapping and the role of morphology in automatic word recognition
- Selecting high-utility morphemes and academic vocabulary
- Designing engaging instructional routines
- Word sums, word matrices, word building, and word chains
- Supporting students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences
- Practical demonstrations using authentic lesson examples
Ideal for:
- Structured literacy teachers
- Reading interventionists
- Dyslexia specialists
- Classroom teachers (Grades 3 and above)
- Special educators
- Speech-language pathologists
- Tutors
- Homeschool educators
Example Curriculum
- Course Introduction
- Module 1: What is morphological awareness? (4:44)
- Module 2: How does morphological instruction support students? (5:17)
- Module 3: Pronunciation shifts, but spelling remains stable (4:46)
- Module 4: Which morphemes should I teach? (4:22)
- Module 5: How can I build an effective instructional routine (4:27)
- Module 6: Introducing a common base element (2:55)
- Module 7: Word building (1:40)
- Module 8: Segmenting (3:01)
- Module 9: Word building (matrix) (2:21)
- Module 10: Word chain (spelling) (2:54)
- Module 11: Sorting (common base word) (2:27)
- Module 12: Matching (related words) (1:41)
- Module 13: Fill-in-the-blank (sentences or paragraphs) (2:26)
- Module 14: Fill-in-the-blanks (sentences or paragraphs), part 2 (4:21)
- Module 15: Extra support and scaffolding (5:45)
- Video: Instructor-led Morpheme Lesson Activities -- RUPT (10:30)
- Video: Instructor-led Morpheme Lesson Activites -- SUB- (Chameleon Prefix) (5:16)
The Morphology Kit® DIY Coming soon!
As soon as we launch The Morphology Kit® DIY App, you will be able to build your own multicomponent morpheme lesson activities just like the ones described in this course.