I grew up hearing people say “It’s Greek to me“, meaning they didn’t understand what was being said. The message I got was that “it” was confusing, and also I learned “it” was probably not worth the trouble to learn. This put a notion in my mind that many subjects, including the Greek language, was too hard to learn. I have always wondered if this was true.
Though I had my previous doubts, I am excited to say we are learning GREEK! We were recently sent Greek Morphemes Lessons (It’s NOT Greek To Me!) by Ready To Teach for review.
I am so thankful that through working with the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I have been pushed outside of my comfort zone and have had the opportunity to review many great subjects and curriculums that I would have previously doubted I could learn or be able to teach my kids.
Greek Morphemes Lessons
(It’s NOT Greek To Me!)
Expanding English Vocabulary with Greek Morpheme Analysis
Instructional Set includes:
• 1 Instructors Manual
• 1 CD and a thumb drive
• 1 Student Workbook
Retails for $69.95
Additional Student Workbooks available for $9.95
This is a vocabulary learning program, for students in middle school and high school. But it also teaches thinking skills including analysis, synthesis, inductive reasoning, oral presentation, dictionary usage, and reading strategies. It is recommended to be useful for visual learners , auditory learners, and tactile/kinesthetic learners. It can be used in a parent (teacher) and student setting or in a classroom setting with multiple students.
Many of the words we speak in the English language, especially words related to science and math, come from the Greek language. By learning the morphemes (root words, prefixes, and suffixes), we can figure out just about any word just by breaking it down (work it). This course teaches you 200 Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes for your student to work. Learning these morphemes will help them decipher thousands of words used in the English language.
In addition to the Instructor’s Manual, Student Workbook, CD, and thumb drive, you will also need a dictionary to look up words, a computer to play the PowerPoint CD or thumb drive for each lesson. You will need scissors or a way to cut apart the study flash cards, a hole punch to put a hole in them and a ring to keep them together. You might also want to laminate them to make them last longer. You may want to use a chalkboard or a whiteboard for lesson review. You may want to use an overhead projector for the transparencies if you are teaching in a classroom setting.
How we used this:
I will be honest, I was a little bit intimidated getting started. The word “Greek” just sounds so exotic and far away. The instructors manual is big, and looks serious, and contains a lot of words to the page. Anytime I approach “instructions” and there is a lot to read, I feel intimidated or overwhelmed. But, I told myself “you just have to DIG IN”!
Once we dug in, it was much easier than it first appeared. The Instructors Manual is a large book. It contains the lessons, answer keys, transparency masters (we didn’t use these), reviews, tests, and a few pages of study cards at the back. There is very little instruction once you get past the first few pages, because the whole course follows a pattern. Once you learn the strategy pattern in the beginning, you just keep repeating the same strategy through the whole course.
This course has 12 lessons. The course is designed to do one lesson a week, but you can be flexible and go faster or slower if needed. The lessons are laid out nice with a strategy you can duplicate every week to master the course. All five days of the week are laid out with a simple “to do” or “assignment” for the day.
Each day’s lesson takes between 10 minutes and 30 minutes to do. The only thing different is during the first week you will prepare the study flash cards for the whole course, all 12 lessons. You will make cards for lessons 2-12 for future use, and then a few days later you will make the cards for lesson 1 and begin using them. You have the option to make your own (color coded blank pages to be filled in and cut out, provided in the student book) or use pre-made ones (complete cards to be cut out in the instructor’s book).
Monday:
Powerpoint and assignment A: “work” first half of words from PowerPoint
Tuesday:
Powerpoint and assignment B: “work” second half of words from PowerPoint
Wednesday:
Check second half of words from day before and do
assignment C-1 : create context clue sentences with 8 words that you worked during the first two days.
assignment C-2 : create two new words, “work” the words, create context clue sentences with them.
Thursday:
assignment D: share how you came to your conclusions the day before with your new words. Work the new words with synthesis and analysis. Match the words with funny definitions.
Friday:
Review and Test
MOMS (Dad’s) and kids, YOU CAN DO THIS!
For example, here is what 1 week of learning looked like for lesson ONE.
Day one: we reviewed the Power Point file for lesson 1. My son wrote down the meanings of each of the morphemes as the lesson progressed. Next he “WORKED” the word. This means he took vocabulary words, and broke them down into its separate parts. Each part is a Greek morpheme (roots, prefixes, and suffixes are sound with meanings in the Greek language) and the student writes down what the possible meaning of each part is.
Day two: we went back over our worked words from the day before. Reviewed the second part of the lesson from the PowerPoint file and completed more “worked” words.
Day three: we went back over the second set of worked words from the day before. Then reviewed the PowerPoint to learn how to write four types of context clues. We learned 1) definition in context, 2) synonym, 3) antonyms, and 4) examples. We used words from the lessons in sentences. Then we used morphemes we learned to create two new words and “worked” those words.
Day four: we reviewed the work completed from the previous day. Then we made study cards (instructions are provided and these will be used for future lessons). Next we completed review exercises.
Day five: we went back over the assignments from the day before. We also practiced using the study cards we created. Next he took a lesson test.
I recommend this course for homeschool families. It will help your students to be able to understand the words they read and become better communicators in middle school, highschool, college, and adulthood. If I had taken a course like this as a young person, I would have had the confidence to tackle more difficult subjects in highschool and college. This course would definately benefit everyone. I am ordering more student workbooks so my other sons can take this class too.
Be sure to check out what other homeschool families on the Schoolhouse Review Crew had to say about using Greek Morphemes Lessons (It’s NOT Greek To Me!) with their kids.
