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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.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 7.2.1.2; 7.1.8.2 · word study in spelling and reading academic words

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 Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, 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: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

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

    The prefix pre- means “before”. What is a preview?

    • a final grade
    • a loud speech
    • a look back at something
    • a look at something before it is shown

  2. Question 2

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

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

  3. Question 3

    Which word is closest in meaning to friendship?

    • silence
    • rivalry
    • distance
    • camaraderie

  4. Question 4

    The root port means “carry”. What does portable mean?

    • too heavy to move
    • able to be carried
    • very quiet
    • close to the water

  5. Question 5

    Auto means “self”. An autobiography is a story of a person’s life written by…

    • a stranger
    • a machine
    • a teacher
    • that person

  6. Question 6

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • reseed
    • resede
    • recede
    • receed

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