Overview

Membean's primary focus is on individual words, but we believe that roots, primarily Greek and Latin, are an important knowledge component of words. In fact, Membean teaches more word roots than any other program online. Students will learn close to 1000 word roots by the time they finish learning vocabulary through Membean. This article will explain how we teach roots. 

Word Ingredients Memlet

Roots are just one of many ways that we teach words. The Word Ingredients memlet that students see during training breaks each word into its constituent morphemes: prefix, root, and suffix. Not only do we break the word apart, we also explain how the morphemes combine to create meaning. Here's an example for the word equanimity:

Notice the star on the root anim. Common roots are marked with a star because we want students to pay special attention to them. Knowing these roots in particular will help them make sense of many unfamiliar words they come across.

This memlet is interactive, so students can click on a morpheme to explore its root tree:

While we do place emphasis upon word roots, we also strongly believe that context, definitions, and word relationships are equally important for nuanced word knowledge. You can see all the ways that Membean teaches words, including word roots, here.

Word Parts Library

Our library of word parts is comprehensive—clicking on one opens a page with more information and examples for that morpheme. 

Rootcasts

We also offer a collection of rootcasts. These are short, engaging, informative recordings describing how word parts combine to create meaning. 

Offline Root Resources

You can find a variety of root-related lesson plans and activities on our teacher resources page.