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7th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 10 of 15

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.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 7.2(C) · 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 Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 10 of 15 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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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 root ced or cede means “go”. What does precede mean?

    • go before
    • go back
    • go away from a group
    • go around

  2. Question 2

    The prefix inter- means “between”. International means…

    • inside one nation
    • between nations
    • against a nation
    • without a nation

  3. Question 3

    The root scrib or script means “write”. A manuscript is…

    • a text written by hand
    • a loud announcement
    • a map
    • a kind of movie

  4. Question 4

    Which word contains the root port, meaning “carry”?

    • vision
    • transport
    • planet
    • magnet

  5. Question 5

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

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

  6. Question 6

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • recede
    • reseed
    • receed
    • resede

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