Vocabulary Strategies to Teach Latin Bases
Latin bases are building blocks that aid in understanding everything from SAT words to complex medical terms. They are puzzle pieces that you can combine with prefixes and suffixes to form a wide variety of vocabulary words. Rote memorization and flashcards are not the best ways to learn vocabulary, however. Dr. Kate Kinsella purports "repetition, integration and meaningful use" of vocabulary are the best aids for comprehension.
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Vocabulary Museum
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Students can create and "visit" a vocabulary museum in several ways. They can be assigned common Latin bases, such as "grad" or "cide." They can turn these bases into full words, such as graduate, or scissors, by adding common prefixes and suffixes. Students then create posters illustrating the words, or they can use modeling clay to create three-dimensional models of the words. The posters and clay models are then displayed around the room, and students can "visit" all of the examples and learn on their feet.
Create "Nonsense" Words
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Playing with word parts can help students understand how parts become a whole and how prefixes and suffixes in Latin can join with the Latin roots. Students can choose from three piles of words. One pile contains prefixes. For example, the prefix "co" means with while "sub" means under. The second pile contains Latin roots such as "ject," meaning to throw, or "vert" meaning to turn. The final pile contains suffixes such as "able" and "ment." Students can take turns creating their own words such as "subjectable" and discuss the meaning.
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Four-Fold Vocabulary
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The four-fold vocabulary technique involves a piece of paper divided into four boxes. The first box contains the Latin root, and the second box contains a synonym. In the third box, students take the time to draw a picture of the base word. Finally, they can write a sentence in the fourth box that uses the Latin base in a complete word with prefix and suffix.
Miscellaneous Strategies
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In learning, repetition and sensory involvement aid immensely. A word wall is a great way to highlight words that students find in print, whether in a book or magazine. Students write the excerpt on a card, along with the definition, and hang it on the word wall. Another activity is the word map, which is a paper map with boxes and arrows for the word, its definition and at least three examples. There is also a box for a synonym and antonym.
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