Greek Morphemes Lessons- It's NOT Greek to Me! - TOS Review

Ready to Teach 

 

offered us the opportunity to review Greek Morphemes Lessons (It's  NOT Greek to Me!). 

 

While many vocabulary programs are designed to get the students memorizing big words that they'll probably rarely read and possibly never speak, Greek Morphemes Lessons (It's  NOT Greek to Me!).takes a different approach and uses small word parts and small definitions to build and analyze words and from there to construct word meanings. While the approach may be more challenging, it's also more fun and  gives the students the skills and tools they need to succeed with understanding a plethora of words rather than a select number that they've memorized. In other words they are teaching your student to fish (metaphorically speaking) rather than just given them a fish.

 

Why do vocabulary study at all, you ask? The most practical reason is so that they score well on the vocabulary portion of their college entrance exams. Beyond that, so that they can read and talk with ease and intelligence.

We received both the Student text and the Teacher's Guide to Greek Morphemes Lessons (It's  NOT Greek to Me!). Cub (age 15) has taken Intro to Greek, is finishing up First Form Latin and does Worldly Wise 3000 for fun, so word roots are right up his alley. He loves them. He is a wordsmith, writes for fun, and revels in a word well spoken, or written. He dived right in. Well, he tried to, got a bit hung up on the page lay-out, we went over the Teacher's Manual and then he dived right in.

 
Each lesson is set-up in the same way. The student is given a list of Greek Roots, Pre-fixes and Suffixes. Then they write out the words listed in the Dictionary list and tear them apart. In other words, it's like word dissection. Pretty fun for word nerds! Next they create context clues for words, create new words, and break more words apart. Lastly, they have a fun word match-up with "serious" Greek words and silly definitions.

The Teachers Manual contains a weekly assignment guide, bulletin board ideas, a complete answer guide, color coordinated study cards, printed on card stock and transparency masters. While we used this entirely at home, it could easily be used in a co-op or school setting and would be a perfect addition to a Test Prep class.

Once we got the hang of the course, we didn't refer to the Teacher's Guide much, other than the answer key. But for those just delving in to intense vocabulary study, I would suggest it. It is chock full of great information and helps.

Cub took off with this program. He would choose it for fun, and the only thing that slowed him down with it was an arm length cast on his right handed. Not good for a right-hander. Even with that, he continued to scrawl through the book, just for fun.

I highly recommend this program.. It's a fantastic introduction to vocabulary in a way that will allow your student to understand language far beyond the words introduced in this program. Excellent for writers, Test Prep, or anyone who wants to speak and listen with knowledge and understanding.
 

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