A single word can contain an entire lesson.

At a recent training at Clackamas Education Service District, educators began with photograph. They separated it into the Greek elements photo, meaning “light,” and graph, meaning “write or record.” Then the word expanded into a family: photographer, photography, and photographic.

In a matter of minutes, one familiar word became a lesson in vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and meaning — and a model educators could take back to their classrooms.

That is the power of morphology: When students understand how words are built, they gain tools for interpreting far more than one word at a time.

More than 20 educators representing six Clackamas County school districts gathered at Clackamas ESD for Institute for Multi-Sensory Education Morphology Plus, an intensive five-day course. The course explored how explicit instruction in word structure can build fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.

For participating educators, the training offered a way to help students move beyond memorization.

“Incorporating morphology into my instruction has been a transformative shift for both my teaching and my students’ learning,” said Erika Jackola, a fourth-grade teacher in the Molalla River School District. “By explicitly teaching prefixes, suffixes, and Greek and Latin roots, I’ve moved beyond memorization to help students truly understand how words work, creating stronger connections between reading and writing.”

From reading words to understanding them

Morphology is the study of how words are formed and how their parts contribute to meaning. It focuses on morphemes — the smallest meaningful parts of words — including bases, prefixes, and suffixes.

Decoding helps students pronounce a word; morphology can help them understand it. By identifying familiar word parts, students can connect unfamiliar vocabulary to words they already know while noticing relationships among spelling, meaning, and grammar.

For example, a teacher might place the base act at the center of a word web and invite students to explore action, active, actor, react, and activity. As students examine each word, they consider how a prefix or suffix changes its meaning or grammatical role.

A word sum offers another way to make those relationships visible. Students might combine re + act + ion to form reaction, discussing how each element contributes to the word’s structure and meaning.

Activities like these turn vocabulary instruction into an investigation. Rather than treating a complex word as a single unit to memorize, students learn to look for meaningful parts and use them as clues.

This instruction can complement support in decoding, vocabulary, and language comprehension, including for students with dyslexia or gaps in foundational knowledge. Educators can use morphology in core classroom instruction and in targeted interventions within Response to Intervention and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support.

“When we think about learning, we think about comprehension,” said Charlotte Gant, early literacy specialist at Clackamas ESD. “Comprehension isn’t the strategy — it’s the outcome.”

Charlotte described morphology as a key to unlocking meaning, strengthening comprehension, and developing a sophisticated vocabulary. She said the course gave educators a deeper understanding of morphology as well as practical ways to bring the instruction to life in their classrooms.

Turning research into classroom practice

Throughout the course, the instructor guided educators as they practiced using word webs, word sums, word trees, and interactive notebooks. These visual and hands-on tools help students investigate how words are constructed, trace relationships among word families, and connect spelling with meaning.

Participants also created flashcards for teaching affixes, Latin bases, and Greek roots, along with structured instructional materials and sample weekly lesson plans for both 30-minute and 90-minute literacy blocks. The resources were designed to help educators move directly from professional learning to classroom instruction.

The course is part of Clackamas ESD’s broader partnership with the 10 school districts in Clackamas County. Through professional development, consultation, and technical assistance, the Teaching & Learning team helps educators strengthen instruction and put research-based practices into action.

Early literacy is a critical focus of that work. Since 2023, more than 300 teachers have participated in IMSE summer courses at Clackamas ESD. Through those courses, educators have expanded their knowledge of the science of reading and structured literacy while gaining strategies they can use with students.

The training also creates opportunities for educators from across the county to learn from one another, share experiences, and consider how new practices can be adapted to meet the needs of their students.

Building more confident readers and writers

Morphology reaches beyond vocabulary instruction. Understanding how words work can strengthen spelling, reading, writing, and comprehension, particularly as students encounter increasingly complex academic language in the upper elementary grades and beyond.

After five days of learning and collaboration, participating educators returned to their schools with deeper knowledge, ready-to-use materials, and practical strategies for focused literacy instruction.

The next time students encounter an unfamiliar word, they may not have to skip it or wait for someone to define it. They can look inside it — for a familiar base, prefix, or suffix — and begin building meaning for themselves.

One word can contain an entire lesson. With morphology, it can also provide a path to the next one.