South Dakota ELA 11-12.L.4.b

ELAGrades 11–12Language

The Standard

11-12.L.4: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 11–12 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.

Analyze morphology to explore different meanings or parts of speech (e.g., conceive, conception, conceivable).

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students break related words into base words, prefixes, and suffixes. They explain how those parts change meaning or a word’s role in a sentence.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can explain why predict is a verb, prediction is a noun, and predictable is an adjective. They can use each in a sentence and explain what the ending adds.
Common Misconceptions: Some students call prediction a verb because predict is a verb. Others treat prediction and predictable as synonyms and miss that -able means “able to be.”
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: Complete “The outcome was ___” with predict, prediction, or predictable. Name its part of speech and explain what -able adds.

Lesson moves

Give pairs cards with predict, prediction, predictable, and unpredictable; have them sort by part of speech and mark the parts that change meaning.
Write two sentences using persuade and persuasive, then explain why swapping the words would break each sentence.
Play suffix swap: show create, creation, and creative beside sentence blanks; teams choose the fitting word and name its part of speech.
Give students a mock job posting with “analyze data” and “analytical skills”; ask why each word form fits its phrase.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 11-12.L.4.b, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

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

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