Building Vocabulary from Word Roots - More Information

Grades 3-8

About the Authors:

• Timothy Rasinski, Ph.D., Kent State University, is the author of several best selling books and numerous articles on reading education, word study, and reading fluency. He is a popular and frequent presenter at reading and literacy conferences worldwide. His research was cited by the National Reading Panel in the development of Reading First. Visit Tim's website.
• Nancy Padak, Ed.D., Kent State University, is the Principal Investigator for the Ohio Literacy Resource Center and directs the Reading and Writing Center at Kent State. A former editor of The Reading Teacher, she currently edits the Journal of Literacy Research
• Rick Newton, Ph.D., Kent State University, is Emeritus Professor of Greek and Latin and also teaches a popular and long-running course on vocabulary development.
• Evangeline Newton, Ph.D., University of Akron, is Professor of literacy Education and Director of the Center for Literacy. She teaches a range of literacy methods courses and conducts workshops for new and experienced teachers on word study, comprehension, and guided reading.

Research Says...

"Latin and Greek word roots are found commonly in content-area school subjects, especially in the subjects of science and social studies. As a result, Latin and Greek word parts form a large proportion of the new vocabulary that students encounter in their content-area textbooks. Teachers should teach the word roots as they occur in the texts students read. Furthermore, teachers should teach primarily those root words that students are likely to see often."

Put Reading First: The First Research Building Blocks of reading Instruction
Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement
Second Edition, June 2003

You can download the entire study at the National Institute for Literacy website.