Knowing word parts helps students become independent readers. In this post, we go over how to teach L.4 in middle school ELA. This standard-focused post provides resources to help with instruction and a breakdown of standards and learning targets.
Sometimes, it feels like an ELA teacher’s job is neverending.
We have to teach kids to read, research, write, spell, and collect and present their thoughts in a somewhat clear way, either in writing or speaking.
The rules of many of these pieces of our job are nuanced, making them even harder to explain, teach, and assess.
But we knew what we were signing up for, right?!?
The work we do is important because, with good writing and reading skills, students build confidence in the ability to understand others and present their own opinions in a professional way.
Today, we will focus on the first part of that one-two punch…the understanding others part.
To really understand others, especially in writing, we have to be able to understand vocabulary and how it’s used.
A big part of vocabulary development comes from learning and recognizing root words and affixes.
As we start talking about how to teach L.4 in middle school, we will spend some time reviewing the roots and affixes that we like to teach at each level, but we’ll also provide some helpful resources and assessments.
But first, learning targets!
Learning Targets
By focusing on learning targets, we can model our lessons to hit on very specific goals and skills. In this post, we talk about how we break down each standard and make a plan for learning, practicing, and reviewing the standards throughout the year using the checklists below.
As you think about how to teach L.4 in middle school, you’ll want to have a method to project or present your learning targets to students. Review them and discuss what the standard looks like when mastered.
For the 7th and 8th grade L.4 standards, we have already broken the standard into learning targets. Let’s take a closer look at those now.
Teaching L.7.4 (7th Grade)
7th Grade Standard: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 7 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
7th Grade Learning Targets
- I can use context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
- I can use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word.
- Consult general and specialized reference materials, both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.
Teaching L.8.4 (8th Grade)
8th Grade Standard: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
8th Grade Learning Targets
- I can use context clues to determine the meaning of a word or phrase.
- I can use Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word.
- I can consult general and specialized reference materials, both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.
Growing Through Middle School
The 7th and 8th grade standards for L.4 are pretty much identical, so instruction at the middle grade levels can be very similar, and the strategies and words you use in 7th grade can be repeated for 8th grade.
Consider having decks of task cards on hand for a bunch of different root words for students to play with and review as needed. These cards can be used the same way letter sound cards are used with elementary students. Introduce 5 new cards each week, but continue to grow the deck throughout the year.
Root words need repetition as recall is important when using a word’s root or affix to determine meaning, but don’t stop there!
You’ll also need to find ways to expose students to various words with the same root. If students see a root being used in many different ways, along with the differences, they’re also more likely to see the similarities.
Resources for teaching L.4
Knowing how to teach L.4 in middle school is tough because it encompasses so many different roots, affixes, and reading skills like context clues development. I strongly recommend saving yourself a lot of time by researching good resources that ask students to practice these skills in a variety of ways.
The resources (listed below) are specifically designed for 7th and 8th grade, and each lesson in the unit focuses on a different learning target. The resources include handouts, lessons, and even escape room activities! I recommend using these resources as the foundation for the L.4 standard and then finding other resources to supplement as needed!
Each of our resources for this standard…
Activities and Projects for Practicing and Assessing L.4 in Middle School
Here are a few activity ideas for practicing L.4 in your middle school.
- 5 Types of Context Clues: Not all context clues are made equal, so if students know what the 5 different kinds are, they have some tools they can use when they come across an unknown word within context. The 5 types of context clues are synonyms, antonyms, comparisons, contrasts, and explanations. We’ve included handouts on this topic in both the 7th grade and 8th grade resources for L.4.
- Escape Room: decomposing a word and figuring out its meaning is a lot like solving a riddle. In both of our L.4 resources for middle school, we’ve included an escape room that you can use with students immediately.
- Root of the Week: As a school, have a Root of the Week. Each week present the other teachers with one root word and post that root word and the definition on posters around the school. In addition to the posters, teachers will post different examples of that root in action in their subject area on the doors to their classroom so students can see the root being used in many different contexts.
Working with standards like L.4 is really tough because the standard is broad and includes literally every word in the English language. But when you have some good resources to use as a foundation, like this 7th grade L.4 resource and this 8th grade L.4 resource, you can slowly start to figure out how to teach L.4 in your middle school ELA classroom.