Derivational Relations Stage

Jess, Pete, Arleen, Kelli and Leigha

What's it mean?
Derivational relations: a type of word knowledge that more advanced readers and
writers experience
Spelling and vocabulary knowledge grow through the process of derivation

Derivation: from a single base word or word root, a number of related words are derived
through the addition of prefixes and suffixes

Exploration of words draws on more extensive experience in reading and

writing
Words that are related in meaning are often related in spelling as well

Oppose Opposition, Compose Composition

Derivational Relations Stage

Students in this stage

Upper elementary, middle, and high school

Early adulthood
Fairly competent spellers
Making more higher level errors
Requires a more advanced foundation of spelling and vocabulary

Reading
Advanced readers are able to explore the Greek and Latin word elements that
are the important morphemes out of which words are constructed
60 to 80% of words are generated through the combination of roots, prefixes,
and suffixes
Additional layer of word knowledge makes it possible for students to add a
morphological layer to the perception of polysyllabic words
Students in this stage pick up morphemic chunks

Rather than picking up the word morphology in syllables (mor-pho-lo-gy), students use chunks
(morph-ology)

Morphemic analysis: process of analyzing or breaking down a word in terms of

its meaning units or morphemes

Writing
Expanded vocabulary Voice or
standing in their writing Word
choice
Can be seen through informal
writing

Journal entries

Vocabulary Learning
Growth in domain specific vocabulary increases during this stage

General and content specific knowledge significant vocabulary and conceptual growth
growth in knowledge

Teach the understanding of words and ABOUT the words

Generative instruction: an approach to word study that emphasizes the
processes that apply to many words, as opposed to an approach that focuses
on one word at a time

Give someone a fish, they can eat for a day. Teach someone to fish, they can eat for a
lifetime.

Word Specific
Gives students
the fish

Word Specific vs. Generative

Generative
Vocabulary
Instruction

Teaches students
how to fish

Concept Sorts
Concept sorts

Help to activate background knowledge and generate interest in and questions about the topic
Develop word specific knowledge
Develop relationships among the concepts that the words represent

Concept sorts may be open or closed

Include key vocabulary and important topic related words

Heavenly Bodies Concept Sort

1.
2.
3.

Teacher chooses words the students already know (planet, star, moon,
sun)
Adds new words from the unit (asteroid, neutron star, white dwarf)
Students sort words in the following possible ways
a. In or out of our solar system
b. Single bodies or members of a group
c. Generating light or reflecting light

Dictionaries
Get a lot of use in the derivational relations stage
Students should be taught

Pronunciation guides
Multiple definitions
Parts of speech

Materials that should be readily available

Intermediate and collegiate dictionaries

Thesaurus collection
Several word history dictionaries and root books

Word Origins
Students develop a real sense of how words work at this level
Etymology: the study of word origins
Understanding the origin of words can be a powerful key to remembering the
spelling
Knowing that many words come from mythology, literature, and historical
events helps provide background knowledge
Study words that have come in from other countries

French bistro, adventure

Arabic algebra, algorithm
Spanish quesadilla, canyon

Word Wall Activity

Online Resources
Visual Thesaurus
1. Users type in a word
2. The word is then presented in a Thinkmap web that visually displays the
meaning relationships shared by the target word and other terms
3. Students can then click on any word to reveal the definitions, examples, and
new webs of relationships
Vocabgrabber
Analyzes the type, frequency, and relevance of vocabulary words

Visual Thesaurus

Orthographic Development in the Derivational

Relation Stage
Errors occur at the syllable juncture and with the vowel in unaccented or
unstressed syllables.

In contrast to the two-syllable words in which these errors occur at the syllables and affixes
stage, derivational relations errors occur primarily in words of three or more syllables.

Upper-Level Spelling Inventory(USI)

Useful for spelling errors

3 main categories

1. Polysyllabic words often unaccented syllables in which the vowel is reduced to the
schwa sound, as in the second syllable of opposition.
2. Several suffixes have different spellings despite similar pronunciations.
3. Other errors occur in the feature known as absorbed or assimilated prefix.

Characteristics of Derivational Relations Spelling

Chart

This chart summarizes some of the characteristics of spellers in this stage.

The Spelling-Meaning Connection

Generative understanding of words.

Significant role that morphology plays in the spelling system and in learning vocabulary.

Being aware of logical spelling-meaning connections that apply to most words

in the English language results in far more productive and reassuring word
learning than the traditional one-word-at-a-time approach.

Affixes

Adding -ION To Words

Pronounced shun

Can be written several ways. -tion, -sion, -ssion and -cian.

Many words end in this suffix and mean, act, process, or the result of an act or process.

In the image students pair the base word

with its derivative and then group the pairs
by the spelling patterns to determine the
generalization.

Greek and Latin Elements

To introduce Greek and Latin word parts we often use the term word roots.
Word roots are different then base words.

They are unable to stand alone when all affixes have been removed. (chron time in
chronology)

Students should begin to explore Latin and Greek word roots in upper
elementary, middle grades, high school and beyond.
When deciding what word roots to teach, an educator should look at the words
that will be most familiar to students or are based on the area of content.

Study government: Democracy, Monarchy, Plutocracy

Common Roots

Greek vs. Latin

The greek origin is labeled as combining forms.

Greek elements are flexible.

Appear at beginning, middle, or end of word.
Photo and graph
Telephoto, Graphic, Photograph

The latin origin is known as just roots.

Roots stay in one place in a word, and prefixes and suffixes attach to them.
Cred
Credible, Credence, Incredible
Roots follow basic spelling meanings.
Words meaning similar things are spelled similarly.
Only on occasions will the root change.

Videre (to see) -> video, evident

Greek & Latin elements with derivational stage

When teaching educators should...

Start with greek and latin elements that are most frequent and transparent in words
Sequenced according to the abstractness of their meaning

Examples:
Early in sequence: Greek roots- therm (heat) and photo (light) Latin roots - spect (to look), rupt (burst), dict (speak)
Later in sequence: Latin roots - fer (to carry) in defer or spir (to breathe) in inspiration

Predictable Spelling Changes in Vowels and Consonants

After exploring roots, students can begin to look at related words that have
sound and spelling changes.
Often, these changes are predictable or occurs frequently in families.

Long a in explain from ai to a reduced a in the derived word explanation

Exclaim/Exclamation
Deceive/ Deception

Students learn that if base words have ai/ei , the derived word has a spelling of
either a/e.

Advanced Suffix Study

This can be challenging even for advanced writers and readers.

Common misspelling is -able/-ible

Students need to see that if the base word can stand alone, it usually has a
spelling of -able.

Depend -> Dependable

Base words that end in an e will drop it and add -able.

Desire -> Desirable

If the word root cannot stand alone, it usually has a spelling of -ible.

Cred -> Credible

Advanced Suffix Study Cont.

Soft c/g endings may follow the ending of -ible

Reduce -> Reducible

Sometimes an e is kept to keep the soft sound of the c/g
Noticeable, manageable

When pairs are examined, students can also see a pattern between suffixes ant/-ance and -ent/-ence

Brilliant/Brilliance, Confident/Confidence

During this stage, teachers and students will also revisit inflectional endings
when the consonants are doubled in words that have more than one syllable.

Committed, Benefitted

Assimilated Prefixes
Prefixes are first studies in the syllables and affixes stage.
Prefixes can often be visually/meaning obvious that can be see seen and
understood.

However, some prefixes are the opposite.

Absorbed or assimilated prefixes
Doubled letters
Ex. Accommodate (most misspelled word in the English language)

Spelling is related to base word

il -> before words that start with l

Illiterate, illegal
ir -> before words that start with r
Irregular, irrational

The word immobile

Originally, the word started with the prefix inInmobile -> Try to pronounce
Tongue becomes stuck at the beginning of mobile
Overtime, the n became absorbed into the /m/ sound at the beginning of the
word mobile.

Word Study Instruction

Intermediate & Advanced Level

Word study emphasizes active exploration of words and application of word knowledge to:
Spelling
Vocabulary Development
Analysis of Unknown Words
Initiate word study for advanced readers

You know, when you first learned to read you had to learn how spelling stands for
sounds. Now youre going to be learning how spelling stands for meaning. (288)

Consonant Alternation
Consonant sounds change when suffixes are added to a word

Silent: sign, signal, signature; crumb, crumble; column, columnist

Sound Change: compress, compression; magic, magician

Builds students vocabulary

Allows them to sound out and understand new words

Vowel Alternation and Reduction

Alternation: occurs when the spelling of the vowel stays the same but the word
is altered; prefix, suffix, affixes, accent changes

Students learn most when these patterns are presented in a logical sequence
Example: revise, revision; nature, naturally

Reduction: long vowel is reduced to the schwa

Schwa is the smallest vowel sound in a word

Example: confide, confident; oppose, opposition

Gray Box Example

Teacher introduces roots fract and struct

Uses words fracture and fraction
Students understand that it means to break them apart
Comprehend that fract is not a word but it has meaning in two different
words
Students used construct and related it to instruct
Can construct (build) a house and instruction is similar because knowledge is
built

Word Study Notebooks (5-10 per week)

Collect the word: orthography
Record the word and sentence: English orthography is not crazy, and it carries the
history of the word with it. P22, Sounds of Language
Word Parts: orth/graphy (may have something to do with writing)
Possible Related Words: orthodontist, orthodox, graphics, orthographer
Dictionary: a method of representing the sounds of a language by letters; spelling.

Word Tree: Growing from Base Words and Roots

Start with a base word or root as the roots of the tree
Each branch has a different derivative of that root or base word

Example: spect
Respect
Inspect
Spectacular
Speculate
Disrespect
spectacle

Latin Root Jeopardy

Categories are Latin roots

Example: spect (to look ), form (shape), port (carry)

Each question is a clue to a new word using the latin root in that category

Example: one who watches; an onlooker (spectator)

Sequence and Pacing

Choosing what to teach is restricted by the difficulty of the word meaning

Not an issue with reading or spelling words

Ex: Assimilated Prefixes
Taught later because prefixes will not occur as often in their readings or spoken language

Placement of Students

Not based on difficulty of spelling patterns, rather student grade level

Can confirm with the use of the Elementary Spelling Inventory, the Upper-Level Spelling
Inventory will provide more information

Early/Middle
Early

Mastered syllable juncture conventions

Spelling with most prefixes/sufixes and what occurs when affixed to bases
Common prefixes may occasionally be misspelled ( permission -> PURmission)
Learning how meaning is a clue to how a word is spelled

Middle

Spelling of prefixes and suffixes is well known

Base and Roots in related words are also well known
Compete/Competitive/Competition

Late
Most will be in this stage by middle school, some in upper elementary grades
Able to spell most academic vocabulary words that are new correctly
Often confuse assimilated prefixes and certain suffixes

-able/-ible
-ant/-ent
-ance/-ence

Not the end of development

Never ending

Assess and Monitor Progress

Assess

Ask students to spell the words studied that week.

Ask students to generate given a prefix,suffix, or root.
Root mal = Malignant, Malfunction
Match elements to meanings
Pre- before
Post - after

Progress

Students can monitor own progress

Vocabulary notebooks can be graded and reviewed

Activities in the Classroom:

You Teach The Word

We Think
Words that grow from base words & word roots
Latin Jeopardy
Root Webs

Jeopardy Time!
https://jeopardylabs.com/play/Greek-and-Latin-roots-1

Word Study with English Learners: Greek and Latin

Some word roots might be similar to those in his or her native language
Greek and Latin roots help students break down words to find a meaning of a
word.
For example: Fracture and fracture: fracture mean to break and fraction mean
a part of

Spelling Changes in Vowels and Consonants

Time to examine words that change in spelling and sound
For example: Long - a in explain form - ai to a reduced -a in the derived word
explanation
It also changes in exclaim and exclamation
Long to short -e occurs in receive and reception

Advanced Suffix Study

Adjective forming suffix: -ible/ -able - students struggle to spell this suffix
correctly
Free morpheme: base word- if the suffix is attached to a base word, then it is
usually spelled -able.
Bound morpheme: word root: if the suffix is attached to a word root, then it is
usually spelled -ible.
Soft c or g endings may be followed by -ible.
Final e is normally kept at the end of the word to keep the soft sound.
Example: noticeable
Students understand suffixes when they are paired up

Word Study with English Learners

Cognates: words in different languages, but have similar structure with the
same meaning.
Example: madre (Spanish) mother (English)
Words and word elements should be taught in families, such as the long- toshort vowel alternation.
Words that we select for students to explore with should carry some
relationship to the student.
Teacher- directed and exploration: good balance

Teacher- Directed
Instruction on word study should be ongoing and all day long.
Try to use the words in as many content areas as possible.
Students will get a better grasp on the word if they have a connection ot the
word

Routines
Students should have routines with their words
Notebooks: clarifying spelling, looking into different languages, and new and
interesting words
Short writings with the words
Classroom displays of the words
Continual review of all the words learned that year.
Illustrating word relationship