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7th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 10 of 13

Roots & Word Parts

Greek and Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes

What your child practices

Children work out the meaning and spelling of new words from their roots, prefixes and suffixes, and meet figures of speech.

Maine Learning Results learning standard: Language 4 · Greek and Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Roots carry meaning: tele (far), therm (heat), graph (write), bio (life).
  2. Prefixes change meaning: mis- (wrongly), re- (again), un- (not). Suffixes change the word’s job.
  3. Idioms are figures of speech that don’t mean exactly what they say.

Example: The prefix mis- means “wrongly.” What does misspell mean? Take the base word: spell. Add the meaning of mis-. Answer: spell wrongly

Roots & Word Parts in Maine

In the Maine Learning Results, this is unit 10 of 13 in 7th grade English Language Arts, after Whose Story? and before Research Skills.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Maine Department of Education

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Aqua means “water”. An aquarium is a place for…

    • keeping water animals and plants
    • growing wheat
    • parking cars
    • storing books

  2. Question 2

    Which word is closest in meaning to friendship?

    • rivalry
    • distance
    • camaraderie
    • silence

  3. Question 3

    The suffix -less means “without”. Fearless means…

    • without fear
    • fear again
    • before fear
    • full of fear

  4. Question 4

    The root dict means “say”. What does predict mean?

    • say nothing
    • say what will happen before it happens
    • say it loudly
    • say it again

  5. Question 5

    The root aud means “hear”. Audible means…

    • able to be heard
    • able to be touched
    • able to be tasted
    • able to be seen

  6. Question 6

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • resede
    • reseed
    • receed
    • recede

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