CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.4b

ELA4th GradeVocabulary Acquisition and Use

The Standard

Use common, grade-appropriate Greek and Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., telegraph, photograph, autograph).

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students break unfamiliar words into familiar Greek or Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes. They use those word-part meanings, along with context, to predict what the whole word means.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students identify familiar roots and affixes in new words and state what each part means. They combine those meanings with sentence clues to give a sensible definition.
Common Misconceptions: Students may treat every word part as a root, or assume a familiar-looking part always has the same meaning. They may also ignore context when a root gives only a partial clue.
How to Assess It: Give students the word “preview” in a short sentence. Ask them to circle the prefix and root, then explain how both parts help define the word.

Lesson moves

Give pairs root and affix cards to combine, then have students write a likely meaning for each new word.
Ask students to explain in writing how “telephone,” “telescope,” and “television” are connected by the root “tele.”
Play a matching game where students pair roots such as “photo,” “graph,” and “auto” with meanings and example words.
Examine words on maps, product labels, and signs, then use known roots and affixes to predict each word’s meaning.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.4b, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

Learning progression

If students are struggling here, check these first.

Mastery here sets students up for these next.

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