E143: DE+CON+STRUCT+ED: Helping Students Decode Big Words (w/ Amy Jackson and Kristi Livingston)

About this episode

This episode discusses the importance of morphology in helping students with reading difficulties decode and understand complex words.

Students with dyslexia and other reading difficulties often struggle with multisyllabic words—but explicit instruction in morphology can make a meaningful difference. In this episode, I talk with Amy Jackson and Kristi Livingston about their article DE+CON+STRUCT+ED: A Guide to Explicit Morphology Intervention and the role morphology plays in helping students both decode and understand complex words. By learning to identify, spell, and define prefixes, suffixes, and roots, students strengthen both word recognition and language comprehension. This kind of work is part of a broader story often referred to as the “Mississippi Miracle”, where sustained, research-informed literacy practices across the state have contributed to significant gains in student reading outcomes. The approaches discussed in this episode reflect the kind of intentional, structured instruction that has helped move that work forward. We explore why morphology should be a central part of word study, walk through a structured approach to introducing new morphemes, and discuss how this supports students with language-based learning differences. If you’re an upper elementary teacher or interventionist looking for…

People in this episode

Host: Joel Amidon

Guests: Amy Jackson, Kristi Livingston

Topics covered

• morphology
• reading difficulties
• explicit instruction
• dyslexia
• language comprehension
• upper elementary education

Keywords

• morphology
• dyslexia
• reading instruction
• word study
• language-based learning differences
• explicit morphology intervention

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: DE+CON+STRUCT+ED: A Guide to Explicit Morphology Intervention

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