Teaching children the Latin and Greek roots inside English words helps them recognise, use and remember vocabulary better than traditional vocabulary materials do. In a 2017 study of 493 middle-school students, the root-based classes came out ahead for gifted and typically developing students alike. One DODO lesson on the stem de- shows what that teaching looks like.
What did the study of 493 students find?
The study, by Shelagh Gallagher, was published in Roeper Review in 2017. Ten middle-school teachers took part with their 493 students. Five teachers taught vocabulary with The Word Within the Word, a root-based text; the other five used traditional vocabulary materials. The students then took two tests: an out-of-level sentence-completion test and a test of prompted vocabulary recall.
On sentence completion, the root-based classes did significantly better, with moderate effect sizes, in Grades 6 and 7. On recall, they did significantly better at every grade level, with moderate to large effect sizes. The gains held for gifted students and for typically developing students alike.
The author is careful about what this proves. She calls it an exploratory study, and her conclusion begins "in this case." It is one comparison, and it points the same way as a much larger body of work.
Is it one study, or a pattern?
Teaching the Latin and Greek roots beneath English is one of the most-researched strategies in education, and the larger picture agrees with the 493-student study. A 2013 meta-analysis by Amanda Goodwin and Soyeon Ahn in Scientific Studies of Reading combined 92 effect sizes from 30 studies of teaching word structure. Overall, the children who were taught it did better on literacy measures than comparison groups, with a moderate effect of d = 0.32. The effect on vocabulary was 0.34, on decoding 0.59, and on spelling 0.30.
Two more findings from the same analysis matter for a parent. The effects were larger for younger students than for upper-elementary and middle-school students. And there was no significant effect on reading comprehension or fluency. Roots help a child with words; they do not, on their own, make a child a better reader of whole texts.
Why do roots carry so far?
About 60% of English comes from Latin and Greek, and over 90% of the words in science. A child who knows that de- means down has a way into descend, decay and decrease, and later into the vocabulary of science. A term they have never seen becomes one they can take apart.
What does a lesson on a root look like?
At DODO the roots are taught inside the reading of a real novel. In one Grade 3–4 lesson, the child has just read chapter 7 of The Red Tide (pages 89 to 106). A tall green praying mantis named Mallace arrives on the island, promises to protect the animals, and most of them follow him. Mud, Daisy and Clack see through the deception, and Mud turns Mallace's own logic against him.
The workshop that day is Stem Lesson III in Building Language: the Latin stem de-, meaning down. It is the child's third stem lesson, after re- and sub-, and every stem lesson has the same five parts, so the shape is already familiar:
| Part of the stem lesson | What it does | In the de- lesson |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | Defines the stem and gives its word list | de- means down: descend, deposit, debris, decay, define |
| Close-up | Takes one word apart | describe: de- and scrib, to write down |
| Spanish cognate | Shows the same root in a Romance cousin | the stem's Spanish relative |
| Poem | Repeats the stem in a short poem | the model on page 77, then the child's own four lines with three de- words |
| Simile | Fixes the meaning in an image | "A decrease is like a leak" (page 78) |
The child traces descend, deposit and debris and explains what "down" adds to each. Then comes the question that ties the root back to the book: find a de- word in chapter 7, such as deceive or decide, and say whether the "down" in it feels literal or hidden. In a chapter where smooth promises have most of the animals bringing Mallace their treasures, deceive is sitting right there on the page.
Why teach roots inside a novel?
The 2013 meta-analysis is clear that root work does not, by itself, make a child a better reader of whole texts. That is a good reason not to teach it by itself. In the de- lesson, the root arrives in the same lesson as the chapter and sends the child straight back into it. The word deceive is learned as the name for what Mallace did, and the stem de- is learned as a pattern the child can find again in describe, decrease and many words not yet met. The novel gives the root something to mean; the root gives the novel's language a structure the child can see.
Building Language has ten such stem lessons, from re- and sub- to port- and dis-, and The Word Within the Word from the 2017 study belongs to the same MCT gifted-ELA tradition the curriculum is grounded in.
Questions parents ask
What is the LCS System?
The LCS System is DODO’s curriculum framework — Literacy, Composition, Speaking. Literacy is the reading treasury, where language goes in: whole unabridged classics, the Latin and Greek roots beneath English, and an ear for how good writing is built. Composition is the construction engine: grammar first and fast, then sentence to paragraph to essay. Speaking is our own strand, and the one a book cannot deliver — oral defence, Socratic dialogue, taking the other side. Inside every session those three run as one sequence: Read → Think → Speak → Write.
How is a single session structured?
One session runs the full sequence, not one quarter of it. A literacy session and a writing session are each 50 minutes. Your child reads, is asked what they make of it, says it aloud to a Navigator who presses on the part they haven’t thought through, and then writes. The next session does the same thing with harder material.
Does the sequence change as your child improves?
The sequence stays. The material moves. That is what the seven ELA levels are for — L1 begins at Grade 3 and L7 is college-tier academic English, with each level running two to three 16-week cycles. A child at L1 and a child at L5 have the same session shape and completely different books.
What can you do at home this week?
At home, the root work continues in writing. After this lesson the home review asks the child to take two of the week's words and write three complete sentences for each, sentences of their own rather than copied from the book. The notes beside the words keep the root in view: descend, to go down; deposit, to place down; debris, broken-down remains; describe, to write down.
You can add a game of your own: listen for de- words for a week, at the dinner table or in the news, and ask whether the "down" in each one is literal or hidden.
If you would like to know where your child's reading and vocabulary sit now, and what lessons like this would look like at their level, a 20-minute consultation with a Navigator is the place to start. Book a consultation.