greek, latin and anglo-saxon roots to better vocabulary...

Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon Roots to Better Vocabulary – Grade Seven

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Ohio Standards Connection

Acquisition of Vocabulary Benchmark E Use knowledge of roots and affixes to determine the meanings of complex words. Indicator 6 Use knowledge of Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon roots and affixes to understand vocabulary.

Lesson Summary: In this lesson students review the concepts of affixes and roots and develop an effective knowledge of common Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon ones which are used to form many words in English. Students will develop an awareness of the formation and evolution of words and learn how word meanings can be determined by a word-part analysis. The lesson pays particular attention to how this can be used to decode texts rich with advanced vocabulary. Estimated Duration: Six 45-minute periods

Commentary: “It is a high-interest activity that requires skills which apply to other types of writing and critical reading as well.” “There was an option for students to work beyond mastery level, and it appealed to multiple types of learning.”

Pre-Assessment: • Using Attachment A, On the Edge of a Mystery, write

each of the boldfaced words in large letters on a piece of light-colored card stock. Also, prepare a class handout featuring a typed version of the passage with these vocabulary words boldfaced.

• Supply each student with one of the vocabulary word cards and a larger sheet of card stock in a contrasting color.

• Tell the students to examine the words closely and to decide what prefixes, suffixes and stems the words contain. Have the students cut the words into the stems and affixes they find and attach them with tape or glue to the other pieces of card stock. Next, after each affix or stem, have them write in marker what they believe that word part might mean. Finally, ask them to write what they believe might be the definition of the word on the back of the card.

• Students share their results (first of the word parts, then of the overall meanings) with the class or with smaller study groups.


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• Distribute Attachment A, “On the Edge of a Mystery,” and have the students read the narrative. Through class discussion, have the students determine whether or not their guesses at the words seem to make sense in the context of the passage. Continue until they reach a satisfactory interpretation of the complete text. Collect the cards the students have prepared for assessment.

Instructional Tips: • If it is necessary in the interest of time to have students share their findings in small groups,

actively circulate among the groups to gauge the confidence levels of students. (While the Pre-Assessment should be a good indicator of the students’ ability, be aware of their comfort or anxiety levels.)

• In some words, such as cranial, one or more letters within an affix or stem may not be graphemically represented. (The o in the stem cranio disappears in most English uses). In such cases, tell students to show any missing letters in parentheses.

• In some English words, extra letters (commonly vowels) have been added to stems and affixes to link syllables and ease pronunciation.

• If more than 24 cards are necessary to cover the entire class, use some of the words more than once.

Scoring Guidelines: To assess the students’ understanding of the stems and affixes and their relationship to meaning, score their work on the words as advanced, proficient or beginning: • Advanced: Correctly divides the word into stems and affixes and defines the word correctly

in a way that reflects the additive nature of its parts’ meaning. • Proficient: Divides the word correctly into stems and affixes showing a general notion of the

word’s meaning reflective of the meaning of one or more, but not all, of the word’s parts. • Beginning: Unable to divide the word correctly into stems and affixes or explain how any of

the word’s parts reveal its meaning. Post-Assessment: • Distribute copies of Attachment D, A Slippery Case, to the students. • Students divide the boldfaced words into stems and affixes, writing one per line provided and

defining each. • Students construct a definition of each word and explain in expository fashion how the

meaning reflects each of the stems. • Students write a brief explanation for each definition, showing how each supports the

meaning of the passage, i.e., fits the meaning of the passage. Scoring Guidelines: To assess the students’ understanding of the stems and affixes and their relationship to meaning, score their work on the words as advanced, proficient, beginning or limited.


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• Advanced: Correctly identifies greater than 90% of the stems and affixes and defines those words correctly to reflect the additive nature of their meaning. Additionally, contextual explanations reflect a deep understanding of the text.

• Proficient: Correctly identifies 50-89% of the stems and affixes and defines those words correctly to reflect the additive nature of their meaning. Contextual explanations, for the most part, reflect an understanding of the text.

• Beginning: Correctly identified 30-49% of the stems and affixes and defines those words correctly to reflect the additive nature of their meaning. Erratically or unevenly develops contextual explanations and demonstrates only a superficial understanding of the text.

• Limited: Correctly identifies only 0-29% of the stems and affixes and defines those words correctly in a way that reflects the additive nature of their meaning. Unable to justify few, if any, of these meanings contextually.

Instructional Procedures: Day One: 1. Ask the students if anyone can give an example of an English word that is composed of

smaller word parts, each of which each carries its own meaning. If none are offered, use the example of democracy (Demo is Greek, meaning “people”; and cracy is Greek, meaning “government”).

2. Explain that many of our most commonly used words are composed of such parts that originated in other languages and times.

3. Complete the Pre-Assessment at this point (using Attachment A, On the Edge of a Mystery). 4. Distribute Attachment B, Some Common Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes

Used in English, and explain that all of the boldfaced words in the narrative are made up of one or more of the word parts on this sheet.

5. Tell the students to file Attachment B, Some Common Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes Used in English, for future reference and study.

Instructional Tips: • It would be useful during the first portion of the lesson to review the terms prefix, suffix

(generically grouped together as affixes) and roots (stems). • Likewise, in the use of the example, democracy, it is helpful to show how changing the

prefix, demo, can produce different words with other meanings (e.g. plutocracy [government by the wealthy], autocracy [self-government], gerontocracy [government by the old]).

• Based on the number of beginning and marginally proficient students on the Pre-Assessment, prepare sets of flash cards of the stem/affixes from Attachment B, Some Common Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes Used in English. (Students should write the stem/affix on one side, meaning on the other, color coding each). Encourage students who finish other activities to partner with others to review these.

• If resources are available for computer presentations, prepare a short tutorial for students having difficulty mastering the concept of “words within words,” by showing examples of words which have two or more of the affixes/stems. Show the word, then the stems and affixes separately. Next, fade in the meanings of the stems and then on concluding frames, demonstrate how these separate meanings add up to a single idea along with a simple, direct


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sentence of illustration. Preferably use different colors for word vs. stems/affixes vs. meanings vs. examples.

Day Two 6. Pair students in the class and have them get out Attachment A, “On the Edge of a Mystery,”

and Attachment B, Some Common Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes Used in English.

7. Assign two of the boldfaced words in Attachment A, “On the Edge of a Mystery,” to each student pair, being careful not to duplicate any student word match from Day One.

8. Distribute two copies of graphic organizer, Attachment C, Seeing Connections Between Word Parts and Meaning, and a dictionary to each student pair.

9. Ask each student pair to record the following: • The word parts and the meanings for each of their words (using Attachment B, Some

Common Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes Used in English, as a reference);

• A meaning for the word that fits the context of Attachment A, “On the Edge of a Mystery.” (This may reflect what was discussed in class on Day One.)

• The dictionary definition that would seem to fit the context most closely. • Any differences/discrepancies noted between #2 and #3.

10. Student pairs share their results with the class. Through questioning, help correct any difficulties. Using the general format of Attachment C, Seeing Connections Between Word Parts and Meaning, record students’ responses on chart paper or poster board and display in the class. Leave space between each stem/affix for use during Day Three. (This will be a growing list). Label this space “Word Families.”

11. Add all stems /affixes from Attachment B, Some Common Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes Used in English, not utilized by the boldfaced words in the Attachment A, “On the Edge of a Mystery,” narrative.

12. Provide closure to the day by reminding students to review the stems/affixes in Attachment B, Some Common Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes Used in English.

Instructional Tips: • Warn students that they may see some word parts (letter combinations) that they may be

unable to explain with the materials available. Students should note these in the “Differences and Difficulties” section of Attachment C, Seeing Connections Between Word Parts and Meaning.

• At this point, note that the list of stems/affixes in Attachment B, Some Common Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes Used in English, is far from exhaustive and that words are formed in many ways. Many of our stems/affixes cannot be easily explained historically or linguistically.

Day Three 13. Students pair with their partners from Day Two. 14. Distribute dictionaries and blank writing paper to student pairs.


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15. Have students retrieve Attachment B, Some Common Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes Used in English.

16. Refer students to the charts (Step 10) from Day Two, and explain that today they will begin to look at other words built from these stems/affixes.

17. Instruct the student pairs to brainstorm other words which might contain stems/affixes they listed in their words from Day Two and to work from there to other stems/affixes in the Attachment B, Some Common Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes Used in English, list. (For instance, in listing possibilities for acro, a student might suggest acropolis. This would then possibly lead to an offshoot to political or polity, and so on.) Explain that they might explore the dictionary to verify hunches and to explore letter combinations.

18. After approximately 20-25 minutes, call the class back together as a group. 19. Begin to add more words to the charts by calling on student pairs alternately to offer one

word at a time that they brainstormed/discovered. 20. As time permits, during class discussion try to examine how knowledge of the stem/affix

meanings helps reveal the meaning of the discovered/brainstormed words. 21. Provide closure to the day by encouraging students to be on the lookout for more examples in

their reading, viewing, listening and conversations; to write these down; and to bring them to class for addition to the wall charts. Encourage reflection by having students keep this in the form of an ongoing notebook.

22. Again, remind students to continue review of Attachment B, Some Common Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes Used in English, stems/affixes.

Instructional Tips • As a strategy to assist in brainstorming (step 17), suggest that students might begin with their

words from Day Two and create a word web, linking one stem/affix to others branching off, and from those to others and so on.

• Collecting words for the word family charts should be ongoing. Periodically, as the charts become full, consolidate these into other charts, class handouts or computer databases.

Day Four 23. Begin the day with a call for any more additions from Day Three’s activity. 24. Regroup the class into teams of three or four students. 25. Instruct students to divide responsibilities on their teams. Use a team director, a recorder, a

reporter and a timer to establish fluidity and efficiency in this collaborative activity. 26. Supply each team with markers and several sheets of card stock or small poster board. 27. Explain that on this day the teams will have the opportunity to perhaps make history. 28. Instruct the teams to invent new words by recombination of the stems/affixes they have been

studying. Along with each new word, the students create a definition for the word that reflects its parts. These words and definitions then become a part of team competition later in the instructional period. The teams record each word on a piece of card stock (approximately 4 by 11 inches) with their definitions on the reverse side.

29. Set as a target from three to five words and definitions for each team and permit approximately 20 minutes of work time.


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30. Call the attention of the teams after 20 minutes and establish an order of questioning. Teams earn points by collectively responding correctly to other team’s challenge words.

31. Permit the questioning team to display the word. The other teams must then collaborate to come up with a single answer (definition) to the challenge team’s word. Teams answering correctly should be awarded one point. If a challenge team’s word is correctly defined by all the responding teams, the challenge team should be awarded double points.

32. Provide closure to the day by explaining that it is by just this sort of recombination and new applications in new contexts that the language advances. (e.g., The scientific term recombinant is an example of a new word that entered the language to describe a newly created genetic process. It adds new affixes to an older word, combine.)

33. Offer as an extra credit/extension activity for students to choose one or more of the created words from the day’s activity to illustrate (drawings/paintings to represent the stems/affixes and their related ideas).

Days Five and Six 33. Remove or cover all word posters for the administration of the Post-Assessment (using

Attachment D, “A Slippery Case”). Instructional Tips: • Students should not be given a strict timeline for completion. Many will complete the Post-

Assessment in Day Five and should be directed to extension activities. • Ideally, this entire lesson should be repeated several times throughout the academic year

utilizing new sets of stems/affixes each time. Differentiated Instructional Support: Instruction is differentiated according to learner needs, to help all learners either meet the intent of the specified indicator(s) or, if the indicator is already met, to advance beyond the specified indicator(s). • In the Pre-Assessment, use contrasting colors to aid visual learners as they isolate word parts. • Physically separate word parts to help kinesthetic learners. Use this strategy in the Pre-

Assessment or adapt to other portions of the lesson as well. (Flash cards have both kinesthetic and visual functions.)

• For students who perform at the Beginning Level on the Pre-Assessment and/or exhibit difficulty with the lesson consider reducing the number of stems and affixes they are required to learn.

• Provide alternate Pre- and/or Post-Assessment readings with lower readability for students showing prior evidence of weakness in basic word-attack skills.

• Guide students who exceed the standard to self-selected reading materials that will challenge and extend their current level of ability and to the writing projects outlined in the Extension section below.

• Prepare a computer-presentation program for individual use (See Instructional Tips, Day One) that permits adjustment of individualized presentation time and flexibility of the visual cues for students exhibiting difficulty in discriminating word parts.


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• In the case of students evidencing attention deficit, set aside a small, low-distraction environment for students’ use for study and/or completion of appropriate steps of the lesson.

Extensions: • Use the word democracy (Instruction Step #1) to demonstrate that word history (etymology)

often depends on political and social history. In this example, we often credit the ancient Greek city-state of Athens with creating the fundamentals of democracy, reflected in the English choice of the Greek word parts to name the concept.

• Offer the choice of either Attachment A, “On the Edge of a Mystery,” and/or Attachment D, “A Slippery Case,” to be used as a story starter for creative writing assignments. Tie these directly into the lesson itself by encouraging the students to use and identify words containing the stems/affixes presented in the lesson and/or collected by the class.

• Encourage students to keep their own notebooks of word families and to add to them regularly.

• Encourage students having reached high proficiency or advancement to begin to look for other words in Attachment A, “On the Edge of a Mystery,” and Attachment D, “A Slippery Case,” constructed of stems/affixes not yet studied and to pursue these independently with the aid of the dictionary or other etymological aids (e.g., preparation = pre + par + ate + tion [Attachment D, “A Slippery Case”]).

• Encourage students to explore the terminology of different curricular areas (particularly science and math) to discover constructed words (affixes + stem[s]) and to use these word parts to decode meaning. (This would be a good way to structure a portion of notebooks of word families.)

Home Connections: • Challenge students to look in dictionaries and other reference resources such as the Internet

to find other words that reflect histories that show the connection between language and historical events. (As a beginning challenge, use the word bowdlerize.)

• Encourage parents and students to begin identifying words utilizing the stems and affixes in Attachment B, Some Common Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes Used in English, found in common sources such as the newspaper, magazines, newscasts, etc.

• Encourage parents and students to prepare their own flashcards of stems and affixes to be studied for at-home review.

Interdisciplinary Connections: Content Area: Social Studies Standard: Government Benchmark: Identify the historical origins that influenced the rights U.S. citizens have today. Explanation: In the instruction of the Day One procedures, a direct connection is made to the historical significance of the language we use to discuss our form of government and how it is reflective of our government’s precedents.


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Materials and Resources: The inclusion of a specific resource in any lesson formulated by the Ohio Department of Education should not be interpreted as an endorsement of that particular resource, or any of its contents, by the Ohio Department of Education. The Ohio Department of Education does not endorse any particular resource. The Web addresses listed are for a given site’s main page, therefore, it may be necessary to search within that site to find the specific information required for a given lesson. Please note that information published on the Internet changes over time, therefore the links provided may no longer contain the specific information related to a given lesson. Teachers are advised to preview all sites before using them with students. For the teacher: (self-adhesive) chart paper (or chart paper and tape), markers, timing device

(stop watch, etc.) For the students: card stock in two contrasting light colors, scissors, markers, glue or tape,

writing paper, other card stock or poster board, a collegiate or international English dictionary

Vocabulary: • affix • prefix • root • stem • suffix • See Attachment B, Some Common Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes Used in

English Technology Connections: • Use a computer presentation program for individual review of stems and affixes. • Employ Internet searches for stems and affixes in extension activities. • Examine technology-related terms which employ stems and affixes to determine the ideas

inherent in them (for instance, the word computer). • Discuss how technology is always changing and requiring the invention of new vocabulary

and how this invention is often accomplished through the use of pre-existing stems and affixes.

Research Connections: Atwell, Nancie. In the Middle: Writing, Reading and Learning with Adolescents. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1987. Minilessons are 15- to 30-minute direct-instruction lessons designed to help students learn literacy skills and become more strategic readers and writers. In these lessons students and the teacher are focused on a single goal; students are aware of why it is important to learn the skill or strategy through modeling, explanation and practice. Then independent application takes place using authentic literacy materials.


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Barron, R. F. Research for Classroom Teachers: Recent Developments on the Use of Structured Overview as an Advance Organizer. In Research in Reading in the Content Areas, Fourth Year Report. Edited by H. L. Herber and J. D. Riley, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1978. The structured overview, also called an advanced organizer, is a visual outline presented in a hierarchical manner containing important information from a chapter or other segment of text. The teacher reviews the material and determines the most important concepts and related subordinate information. These ideas are presented in graphic form, using connecting lines between categories to illustrate their relationship. If the teacher builds the structured overview as the students watch, it makes the connections between categories explicit. Initial and ongoing discussions led by the teacher are essential to the overview’s success as a comprehension strategy because they familiarize students with concepts and vocabulary. Hearing the vocabulary pronounced and perhaps explained as the teacher discusses the overview enables the student to approach the text more confidently whether the material is read silently or aloud. In either case, consistently drawing attention to the overview as the text is read to ensure that students recognize its link to the text. "BSCS Science: An Inquiry Approach." BSCS Biological Sciences Curriculum Study. 23 Dec. 2003 <http://63.225.114.218/bscsdotorg/curriculum/InquiryFAQs.htm> The BSCS instructional model is characterized by the 5 Es: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. Each E represents part of the process of helping students sequence their learning experiences to construct their understanding of concepts. 1. Students are engaged by an event or question related to the concept that the teacher plans to

introduce. 2. The students participate in one or more activities to explore the concept. This exploration

provides students with a common set of experiences from which they can initiate the development of their understanding.

3. Students construct their own understanding and the teacher clarifies the concept. 4. The students elaborate and build on their understanding of the concept by applying it to new

situations. 5. The students complete activities that will help them and the teacher evaluate their

understanding of the concept. This 5-E model is based on a constructivist philosophy of learning (Trowbridge & Bybee, 1990).

Fischer, U. “Learning Words from Context and Dictionaries: An Experimental Comparison.” Applied Linguistics, 15 (1994): 551-574. Targeted vocabulary words should be drawn from authentic experiences in reading and listening, where students encounter words in the context of language. Lave, John and Etienne Wenger. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Express, 1990.


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Learning as it normally occurs is a function of the activity, context and culture in which it occurs or is situated. Social interaction is a critical component of situated learning—learners become involved in a “community of practice” which embodies certain beliefs and behaviors to be acquired. As beginners or newcomers move from the periphery of this community to its center, they become more active and engaged within the culture and hence assume the role of expert. Situational learning is usually unintentional rather than deliberate. Pask, Gordon. Conversation, Cognition and Learning. New York: Elsevier, 1975. The fundamental idea is that learning occurs through conversations about a subject matter which serve to make the knowledge explicit. Conversations can be conducted at a number of different levels: natural language (general discussion), object language (for discussing subject matter) and metalanguage (for talking about learning/language). To facilitate learning, Pask argued that subject matter should be represented in the form of entailment structures which show what is to be learned. Entailment structures exist in a variety of different levels, depending upon the extent of relationships displayed. The critical method of learning, according to conversation theory, is teach back, in which one person teaches another what he/she has learned. Two different types of learners are serialists, who progress through an entailment structure in a sequential fashion, and holists, who look for higher order relations. General Tips: • In order for this lesson to proceed smoothly, the teacher must be entirely fluent in the stems

and affixes to be taught. Therefore, the teacher should spend the necessary time prior to teaching to accomplish this.

• The teacher should amass appropriate alternate reading materials for students who are both significantly below meeting the standard and those who are already proficient in it.

• The teacher should be actively engaged in the extension activities, collecting more examples from a variety of sources and thus modeling the desired behavior and strategies.

• The teacher should be aware of vocabulary being taught in other curricular areas and try to make connections to these whenever possible.

Attachments: Attachment A, “On the Edge of a Mystery” Attachment B, Some Common Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes Used in English Attachment C, Seeing Connections between Word Parts and Meaning Attachment D, “A Slippery Case”


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Attachment A “On the Edge of a Mystery”

The wind blew fiercely over a terrain that seemed extraterrestrial to my eyes. The guide directed me vociferously, “Stay back from the edge of the crater. The wind can catch you and throw you in without a second’s warning.” We had been traveling on foot for nearly a week across the high desert to reach the lip of this isolated volcano. For someone such as myself who suffers from acrophobia, as well as now functioning on fewer than ten hours of sleep in the previous four days, I was more somnambulist than geologist at this moment. I cast my waterless eyes across the strange scene; an almost tactile strangeness filled me. Across the crater on the opposing side of the lip, a convention of dully-colored brown and black birds pecked at some unseen food in the black gravel that surrounded all of us. Like a group of avian pedestrians responding to a crosswalk light, the birds would from time to time raise their heads and quickly race a few steps to a new spot and then begin again to peck.

Bluish dots of lights danced at the edge of my vision, and I felt that the emptiness of the hollow, smoking cone before me could indeed pull me in. I wanted to photograph the scene but knew that the flat reality of the snapshot would metamorphose it into something that would never capture what I felt I was seeing. “You okay?” The guide, Wade Romano, was at my elbow, steadying me. “You look a little green. Been drinking enough water? We passed 14,000 feet yesterday, and altitude sickness can be mighty dangerous.” He paused and gripped my arm tightly, “Maybe we should head back down; I don’t want a disaster on my hands. There’s a short trail that intersects the one we came up. It would have been too steep on the way up, but it’ll get us down quicker.” Knowing Wade’s equanimity and experience, I nodded my agreement. As to what had happened to the previous expedition sent here two months before, there were no obvious clues. But even through the intracranial pain that was causing those phosphenes to pulse in my vision, I knew that I would return to find out the answer to the disappearance of my brother’s team.


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Attachment B Some Common Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon Stems and Affixes

Used in English

Stem/Affix Meaning in English Language of Origin acro top Greek alt high Latin ambul walk Latin anim mind Latin aster star Greek avi bird Latin con together Latin cranio skull Greek dis away Latin equi equal Latin extra beyond Latin fer carry, produce Latin geo earth Greek graph write Greek inter between Latin intra within Latin ish like Anglo-Saxon ist one who Greek less without Anglo-Saxon logy science Greek meta change Greek morph shape Greek ness quality Anglo-Saxon ous full of Latin ped food or child Greek phene appearance Greek phobia fear Greek phos light Greek photo light Greek sect cut Latin somn sleep Latin tact touch Latin terr land Latin tion act or state Latin tude state of Latin un not Anglo-Saxon ven come Latin vis to see Latin voc voice Latin

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Attachment D “A Slippery Case”

Name_______________________________ Date__________________________ Directions: Read the following narrative closely. After the narrative you will find further directions for a related activity.

“A Slippery Case” The acrobat rubbed his hands together with care. While he was courageous, he would doubtless be a fool to forget to chalk his hands to prevent slipping from the high swing that hung netless above the audience. From habit he briefly searched for the chalk can usually kept behind the curtain. It was nowhere in sight. He listened nervously for the moment when the announcer’s alto voice would shout out his name in the preparation for the last act of the evening’s show. He began to feel a bit childish worrying. But with the first signs of panic rising in his stomach, he remembered the little tin of Stick ‘Em, the Gymnast’s Friend that a salesman had breathlessly pressed into his hands before the performance. He felt for it in the waistband of his tights, removed and opened it, and vigorously rubbed some into his palms.

Now he was ready for the altitude! He tried to put on his most animated smile. This was his territory now. He was, after all, the star of the show, the one whom everyone came to see.

Inspector Barr’s cell phone buzzed quietly in his pocket as he sat in the pediatrician’s

waiting room. His daughter, Elizabeth, sat beside him, swinging her feet beneath her too-tall chair. He considered ignoring the call but finally pulled out the phone and saw that it was headquarters calling.

“Hello, Inspector Barr here.” “Chief, we’ve got something you need to look at. Did you hear on the news how that

acrobat fell to his death at the show last night?” “Yeah, how could I avoid it? They were talking about nothing else on the news.” “Well, Inspector, it seems as if it might not have been an accident.” “What?” Barr stiffened in his seat. “We’ve found some sort of a strange substance on his hands. The stuff looks like chalk,

but it’s slick as grease.” “Ok, I’ll be right there. We’ll convene at my office in an hour.” The inspector looked

down as his daughter. “Honey, we’re going to have to go. I’ve got a case to attend to. I’m sorry.” Elizabeth hopped gleefully off the chair and ambled to the door, “No sweat, Dad! I’m in

no hurry to get a booster shot!”


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Attachment D (Continued) “A Slippery Case”

The Inspector grinned and messed up her hair. “You didn’t arrange that call did you?” She put on a sheepish face, “Nope, I’m innocent, Inspector. I swear!” Inspector Barr took Elizabeth home, drove his car to the ferry across the bay, caught the

interstate, and hurried on to police headquarters. The first facts of the case were already in a file on his desk in the homicide section. He muttered over them quickly. “Internal injuries, fracture of the cranium, deposits of silicone found on the hands, wife interviewed.”

A folder under his arm, Lieutenant Adams entered breathlessly, “You’re here already. . .”

“Yes, I cut across the bay when I saw I could make it to the ferry. Anything new since we talked?”

“There is, and it’s pretty strange, Inspector.” “. . . and?” Barr looked impatiently at the young Adams. “In the victim’s dressing room, we found a bouquet of flowers with a note.” “Yes, go on.” “The note reads, ‘Stars for the star. Can’t wait to see the end of your performance

tonight!’ The strange thing is that the wife says the morphology of the writing looks exactly like her husband’s. Why in the world would he send himself flowers?”

Inspector Barr looked intently at his subordinate. “What kind of flowers were they?” “What kind of flowers?” Adams repeated blankly. “I think you heard the question correctly, Lieutenant.” Adams hesitated and then looked through the folder quickly. “Asters, sir,” he said finally. “Well, at least that makes sense, Lieutenant. Get a graphologist in immediately to

inspect the note. Anything else? Anything out the ordinary? Anything else from the interview with the wife?”

“Yes, sir, one more thing. Very odd for a performer. The wife says that her husband was very photophobic. Can you imagine that in a guy who spent his career under the lights each night?” he paused. “Oh, and, Chief, why do the asters make sense?” ANSWER AREA Directions: In the narrative you will find a series of boldfaced words. These words contain one or more stems or affixes that you have recently studied. Using the context and your knowledge of these word parts, on the attached answer sheet, you should choose ten of the boldfaced words with which to work. Write each stem or affix that you find in each chosen word and define it. (Write each word part and its definition on a line separate from the others.) Letters missing from the stem or affix can be added in parentheses. Next, define the chosen word as best you can and explain how the overall definition reflects the meaning of the individual word parts. Finally,


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explain how your definition supports and/or is supported by the context (that is, the meaning of the overall narrative). In other words, explain why your understanding of the word makes sense or was a good choice for the story. To aid your work, you may write on this paper if necessary. Remember: • Write the word chosen by the number; • List each stem or affix you recognize and define it. (Remember, missing letters can be shown

in parentheses.) • Write a definition for the word so that it reflects what you have stated regarding the word

parts. • Write an additional explanation that shows why your definition makes sense in this context

and/or why it makes for a good word choice in the passage. 1. Word: ____________________

Word Parts: __________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Definition: ___________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Further explanation: ____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________


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2. Word: ____________________

Word Parts: __________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Definition: ___________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Further explanation: ____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

3. Word: ____________________ Word Parts: __________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Definition: ___________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Further explanation: ____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________


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_____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

4. Word: ____________________ Word Parts: __________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Definition: ___________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Further explanation: ____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

5. Word: ____________________ Word Parts: __________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Definition: ___________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________


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Further explanation: ____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________


7. Word: ____________________ Word Parts: __________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________


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Definition: ___________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Further explanation: ____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________


9. Word: ____________________ Word Parts: __________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________


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_____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Definition: ___________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Further explanation: ____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________


greek, latin and anglo-saxon roots to better vocabulary...

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