Free Morphology And Etymology Lesson Plan for 9th Grade Students

Topic: Morphology and Etymology

Objectives & Outcomes

• Students will understand the concept of morphology and how it is used to form words.
• Students will be able to use etymology to understand the history and meaning of words.

Materials

• Handout with examples of morphologically and etymologically related words
• Computer with internet access for etymological research

Warm-up

• Ask students to name some words that are related to each other (e.g. cat - kitten) and some that are not (e.g. cat - dog).
• Discuss the reasons why some words are related and others are not.
• Introduce the concept of morphology and explain that it is the study of how words are formed and changed.

Direct Instruction

• Write the word "cat" on the board and ask students to identify its morphemes (cat = ca + t).
• Have students think of other words that contain the same morphemes (e.g. kitten, cater, catch).
• Explain that the process of combining morphemes to form words is called word formation, and the resulting words are called neologisms.
• Provide examples of how morphology and etymology are related (e.g. the word "firefighter" is derived from the morphemes "fire" and "fighter").

Guided Practice

• Have students work in pairs and provide them with a dictionary.
• Ask them to identify the morphemes in a given word and use them to form new words.
• Examples: ca + t + ical = cataclysm, ca + t + ic = catastrophic, ca + t + ous = catastrophic, ca + t + er = catcher, ca + t + ic + ial = catastrophic

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Independent Practice

• Have students work in pairs and create a list of words made up of at least three morphemes each. The words should be meaningful and –Have them present their list to the class and explain the meaning of each word.

Closure

• Review the importance of morphology and etymology in word formation.
• Ask students to share their new found appreciation for these linguistic concepts and how they are used in creating new words.

Assessment

• Observe students during the class discussion and independent practice activity to assess their understanding of the topic.
• Collect and grade their written work for correct use of morphology and etymology in creating new words.