Greek and Latin Roots: High School Set
Roots that carry the abstract vocabulary of high school textbooks and standardized tests.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Work from the three examples back to the root rather than the other way round. Showing credible, credential and incredulous and asking what they share produces a definition the student built, which sticks better than one they were given. Then give a fourth word — incredible, credit — and let them work it out, which is the actual skill. Fifteen minutes covers the eight roots with that extension.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentShow the card and wait 5 seconds for the student's answer.Log as correct
- Break it upCover the prefix, suffix or root and ask what the part left means.Log as cued
- Two choicesOffer two meanings, the right one not always second.Log as cued
- ModelBreak the word into parts out loud and give its meaning; the student says it back.Log as cued
Adjust it
Use fewer words, and start with the prefixes, suffixes or roots the student already knows.
Ask for another word with the same part, used in a sentence.
Matching IEP goal
Given academic words, such as 'credential' and 'incredulous', Student will identify the word parts and give the word's meaning in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than an indirect cue.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Eight roots that carry abstract academic vocabulary, each with three words built from it: cred means believe, giving credible, credential and incredulous; dict means say, giving contradict, verdict and dictate; spect means look, giving perspective, spectator and retrospect; path means feeling, giving empathy, pathology and apathetic. Eight roots, twenty-four words, and a strategy for hundreds more.
What to listen for
Watch for the root's meaning surviving the prefix. Incredulous has the same root as credible with a negation in front, and a student who reads it as believable has found the root and lost the in-. Notice which roots are recognised in unfamiliar words — that transfer is the whole return on this work, and it usually shows up in a word you did not teach.
Carrying it home
When an unfamiliar long word comes up, ask what part of it looks familiar. Ten seconds, no materials, and it builds the habit of looking inside a word rather than at it.
What's in this activity
- cred = believe -> credible, credential, incredulous
- dict = say -> contradict, verdict, dictate
- spect = look -> perspective, spectator, retrospect
- ject = throw -> reject, projection, conjecture
- path = feeling -> empathy, pathology, apathetic
- chron = time -> chronological, synchronize, anachronism
- bene = good -> beneficial, benevolent, benefactor
- temp = time -> temporary, contemporary, extemporaneous
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Ninth through twelfth, aimed at the abstract vocabulary of high school textbooks and standardised tests.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all eight roots play with no account.
- How is this different from the middle school set?
- The middle school roots are concrete — bio, geo, tele, port. These are abstract, and they carry the vocabulary of argument and analysis rather than of content.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.