L.8.4: Context Clues, the Root cedere, Specialized References and Verifying Word Meanings
In plain English: L.8.4 is the Common Core grade 8 ELA standard that asks students to figure out unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases in grade 8 reading, choosing the strategy that fits each word. The four strategies are context, Greek and Latin word parts such as the Latin cedere (to go) in precede, recede and secede, general and specialized references, and checking the first guess.
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
a.Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word's position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
b.Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., precede, recede, secede).
c.Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.
d.Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy · Domain: Language Standards · Cluster: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use · Official standard
Students practice a flexible routine for words they do not know and for familiar words used in a new way. The standard names four strategies: context (the meaning of the sentence or paragraph, and the word's position and job), Greek and Latin affixes and roots, general and specialized reference materials in print and online, and verifying a first guess. At grade 8 the words come from grade 8 reading in every subject, so students also learn when a textbook glossary gives a more precise meaning than a general dictionary.
The official example, precede, recede and secede, anchors the word-parts work: all three are built on the Latin cedere, "to go," with a different prefix. Students read two excerpts from John Muir's Travels in Alaska (1915) about the glaciers of Glacier Bay, a model history passage about the secession crisis of 1860-1861, and a page of model dictionary, glossary and thesaurus entries.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Use the meaning of a sentence or paragraph, and a word's position and job, to find the meaning of an unknown or multiple-meaning word
Use Greek and Latin affixes and roots, such as cedere in precede, recede and secede, as clues to meaning, and spot look-alikes
Consult general and specialized references, in print or online, for a word's pronunciation, part of speech and precise meaning
Verify a preliminary meaning in context or in a dictionary, and revise it when it does not fit
Choose the strategy that fits each word instead of using the same one every time
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
Using context, word parts and general and specialized references to find meanings L.7.4
Using Greek and Latin affixes and roots as clues to meaning L.6.4
Naming nouns, verbs and adjectives in a sentence
Reading a dictionary entry: respelling, part of speech and numbered meanings
"Read the sentence: As the tide receded, the children ran out across the wet sand to explore the pools the water had left behind. What do you think receded means? Which words told you?"
Collect guesses (went out, moved back, went away) and ask students to point to the clues: ran out across the wet sand, the pools the water had left behind. Note the word's job: it follows the tide, the subject, so it is a verb. Then write re- and cede on the board and tell students that the word holds a Latin verb, cedere, "to go," that also hides in two words from U.S. history they will meet today. Context gave the first guess; word parts will check it.
Direct Instruction15-20 minutes
Part 1: Context (standard a).Context is the words and sentences around an unknown word. First reread the sentence, then the paragraph: writers often explain a hard word with a restatement, an example, a contrast or a result nearby. Then check the word's position and function, its place and its job in the sentence. A word after the or a is usually a noun, a word after will or to is usually a verb, and a word just before a noun is often an adjective. A multiple-meaning word, a word spelled the same with two or more meanings, such as range or current, can change its meaning and even its pronunciation with its job.
Part 2: Greek and Latin affixes and roots (standard b). A root carries a word's core meaning; an affix is added to it, a prefix before and a suffix after. The grade 8 official example is a family built on the Latin cedere, "to go" or "to yield": precede, recede and secede. The prefix changes the direction: prae-, before; re-, back; se-, apart. The root can be spelled cede, ceed or cess, as in proceed and recession. Parts give a clue, not a definition, and some words only look related: cedar, the tree, comes from the Greek kedros.
Part 3: General and specialized references (standard c). A general dictionary gives a word's pronunciation, its part of speech and all its common meanings, numbered. A specialized reference covers one subject: an earth science or U.S. history glossary in a textbook, a sports or music glossary, or a dictionary of idioms. It gives the precise meaning used in that subject. A thesaurus lists synonyms (words with similar meanings) and antonyms (opposites). All three come in print and online. Read the respelling in parentheses for pronunciation: capital letters mark the stressed syllable, as in ri-SEED.
Part 4: Verify (standard d). A first guess is a preliminary determination. Put it back into the sentence in place of the word. If it fits every clue, keep it; if it does not, or if you are not sure, check a dictionary and choose the numbered meaning that fits. Choosing flexibly means starting with the strategy most likely to work for this word and using the others to check (Diagram 2).
Context: the overall meaning of a sentence
In the eighth inning the crowd's excitement began to ebb; by the last out, half the seats were empty and the fans who stayed sat in silence.
Result: Preliminary meaning: to slowly get smaller or weaker. The rest of the sentence shows a steady drop: empty seats, then silence. Verify: "the crowd's excitement began to fade" fits every clue. A dictionary confirms it and adds that ebb first names the tide going out, a picture that matches the slow loss.
Context: a word's position and function
Our team will project the map onto the wall. Compare: Our science project is due Monday.
Result: In the first sentence, project follows will and has an object, the map, so it is a verb: to show an image on a surface with light. In the second it follows science and is the subject, so it is a noun: a planned piece of work. A dictionary shows that the pronunciation changes too: pruh-JEKT for the verb, PROJ-ekt for the noun.
Latin root: the official example family
precede, recede, secede
Result: All three come from the Latin cedere, "to go." Precede is from praecedere, "to go before" (prae-, before): Thunder rarely precedes lightning.Recede is from recedere, "to go back" (re-, back): the water moves back from the shore. Secede is from secedere, "to go apart, withdraw" (se-, apart): to formally leave a group or a nation. The prefix does the work; the root stays the same.
Specialized reference: a social studies glossary
After the factory closed, the town slid into a recession, and many families struggled to pay their bills.
Result: The word parts, re- (back) + cess (from cedere, to go), suggest "a going back," and a general dictionary lists that meaning first. An economics or social studies glossary gives the precise meaning used here: a period, usually several months or longer, when business activity, jobs and spending shrink. The context (a closed factory, unpaid bills) confirms the glossary meaning. The noun is pronounced ri-SESH-uhn.
Verifying a preliminary meaning from word parts
The proceeds of the bake sale went to the animal shelter.
Result: Preliminary meaning from word parts: pro- (forward) + ceed (go), so "the going forward"? Verify in context: a going forward cannot be given to a shelter, so the guess fails. The dictionary lists proceeds as a plural noun, pronounced PROH-seedz, meaning the money raised by a sale or event. The parts were a real clue to history, not to this meaning; checking caught it.
Guided Practice15 minutes
Introduce the text: in 1879 the naturalist John Muir traveled by canoe along the coast of Alaska with a missionary and Tlingit guides, among them a man Muir calls Charley. He was among the first visitors from outside to explore Glacier Bay, today a national park, and he later wrote about the trip in Travels in Alaska (1915). Words to know: glacier (a huge, slowly moving mass of ice), moraine (a ridge of rock and gravel left by a glacier), fiords (long, narrow arms of the sea between cliffs), Vancouver's chart (a map made by the British explorer George Vancouver in the 1790s). In pairs, students fill in the organizer for six words: the strategy they tried first, a preliminary meaning, and how they verified it. Model the first row together.
1At the mouth of the bay a series of moraine islands show that the trunk glacier that occupied the bay halted here for some time and deposited this island material as a terminal moraine; that more of the bay was not filled in shows that, after lingering here, it receded comparatively fast. All the level portions of trunks of glaciers occupying ocean fiords, instead of melting back gradually in times of general shrinking and recession, as inland glaciers with sloping channels do, melt almost uniformly over all the surface until they become thin enough to float. Then, of course, with each rise and fall of the tide, the sea water, with a temperature usually considerably above the freezing-point, rushes in and out beneath them, causing rapid waste of the nether surface, while the upper is being wasted by the weather, until at length the fiord portions of these great glaciers become comparatively thin and weak and are broken up and vanish almost simultaneously.
2Glacier Bay is undoubtedly young as yet. Vancouver’s chart, made only a century ago, shows no trace of it, though found admirably faithful in general. It seems probable, therefore, that even then the entire bay was occupied by a glacier of which all those described above, great though they are, were only tributaries. Nearly as great a change has taken place in Sum Dum Bay since Vancouver’s visit, the main trunk glacier there having receded from eighteen to twenty five miles from the line marked on his chart. Charley, who was here when a boy, said that the place had so changed that he hardly recognized it, so many new islands had been born in the mean time and so much ice had vanished. As we have seen, this Icy Bay is being still farther extended by the recession of the glaciers. That this whole system of fiords and channels was added to the domain of the sea by glacial action is to my mind certain.
John Muir, Travels in Alaska (Glacier Bay grows as the glaciers melt back) (1915). Public domain (published 1915). Source text.
Word organizer for the Muir excerpt (teacher key in the last column)
Word (paragraph)
Strategy that helps
Preliminary meaning
Verified meaning (teacher key)
receded (1)
Word parts: re- (back) + cedere (to go); context: it "halted here for some time" first
went back
Moved back: the glacier's front melted back toward the land, and the islands it left behind show where it paused.
recession (1, 2)
Word parts, plus position: after of and the, so a noun
a going back
The moving back of the glaciers. A general dictionary also lists "a business slowdown," which does not fit ice.
nether (1)
Context: a contrast with "the upper" surface
lower
Lower, bottom: the underside of the floating ice, where warmer sea water rushes in.
The main body of the glacier, as a tree's trunk is its main stem; not a storage box or an elephant's nose.
tributaries (2)
Specialized reference: an earth science glossary
smaller branches
Smaller glaciers that flow into a main one. A general dictionary lists first a stream that flows into a river.
domain (2)
Context, then a general dictionary
area
A territory that someone owns or rules; here, the area now covered by the sea.
Ask: which two words share the root from the warm-up? (Receded and recession.) Which word needed a specialized reference to be exact? (Tributaries: the everyday meaning is about rivers.) Which word did context settle almost alone? (Nether, because Muir contrasts it with "the upper.") Stress that every row used more than one strategy.
Independent Practice10-15 minutes
Students read the history passage below. For each of the eight words in italics, they (1) write a preliminary meaning from context and word parts; (2) check it in a general dictionary or in the glossary of their U.S. history textbook, a specialized reference; and (3) write the meaning that fits and the reference that confirmed it. Five of the words come from cedere; three are multiple-meaning words whose everyday meaning does not fit.
1In the four months that preceded Abraham Lincoln's inauguration in March 1861, the United States began to come apart. Lincoln had won the election of 1860 without the electoral vote of a single Southern state. Leaders in the Deep South feared that he would stop slavery from spreading into the western territories, and they chose to secede from the Union rather than accept him.
2South Carolina seceded first, on December 20, 1860. By February 1, 1861, six more states had followed. Delegates from these states met in Montgomery, Alabama, and formed a new government, the Confederate States of America.
3Some members of Congress tried to intercede. Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky proposed a compromise that would have protected slavery in part of the West. Lincoln, not yet in office, would not concede on the spread of slavery, and the plan failed.
4As the months passed, hope that the crisis would recede faded. In April 1861, Confederate forcesfired on Fort Sumter, a federal fort in Charleston Harbor, and within two months four more states seceded. The war that followed would decide whether a state could leave the Union.
Written for this page (a model history passage), The Secession Winter, 1860-1861 (a model history passage). Original passage written for this page.
Teacher key.preceded: prae- (before) + cedere: came before in time; the months came before the inauguration. secede: se- (apart) + cedere: to formally withdraw from a nation; a U.S. history glossary gives this exact sense. Union: capitalized, the United States as one nation, especially the states that stayed loyal in the Civil War; not a labor union. intercede: inter- (between) + cedere: to step in between two sides to settle a dispute; Crittenden's compromise is the example. concede: con- + cedere (to yield): to give in or admit a point; here Lincoln would not give in. recede: re- (back) + cedere, but here in the sense of growing weaker or fading, not moving back in space: the crisis did not fade away. forces: a noun after Confederate, meaning military troops, not "pushes." fired: shot guns and cannon, not dismissed from a job; the target, a fort, rules out the job meaning.
Closure5 minutes
Exit ticket: Write one new word from today, the strategy you tried first, and the reference, general or specialized, that confirmed its meaning. Then use precede, recede or secede in a sentence about something in your own life.
Teacher note on the texts: Both Muir excerpts are quoted exactly from the Project Gutenberg text of Travels in Alaska, with its spelling fiord. The second excerpt says Muir "made the Indians cease rowing." The paddlers and guides were Tlingit men, whose skill and knowledge of the coast made the trip possible; in the first excerpt, Charley remembers the bay from his boyhood. Indians was the usual word in Muir's time and is kept as in the source; in discussion, name the people as Tlingit, or as Alaska Native people. Glacier Bay is part of the homeland of the Huna Tlingit. Most of Glacier Bay's glaciers have kept retreating since Muir's visit, which connects the excerpts to earth science. The history passage was written for this page; its dates can be checked in any U.S. history textbook.
For the quiz: Questions 8-16 and 20 use the second Muir excerpt below, which comes a little earlier in the same chapter: Muir's canoe party finds two more glaciers, then lands at a third. Questions 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16 and 20 also use the reference page after it. Words to know: headland (a high point of land that sticks out into the sea), boulders (large rounded rocks).
1When we arrived at the mouth of the fiord, and rounded the massive granite headland that stands guard at the entrance on the north side, another large glacier, now named the Reid, was discovered at the head of one of the northern branches of the bay. Pushing ahead into this new fiord, we found that it was not only packed with bergs, but that the spaces between the bergs were crusted with new ice, compelling us to turn back while we were yet several miles from the discharging frontal wall. But though we were not then allowed to set foot on this magnificent glacier, we obtained a fine view of it, and I made the Indians cease rowing while I sketched its principal features. Thence, after steering northeastward a few miles, we discovered still another large glacier, now named the Carroll. But the fiord into which this glacier flows was, like the last, utterly inaccessible on account of ice, and we had to be content with a general view and sketch of it, gained as we rowed slowly past at a distance of three or four miles. The mountains back of it and on each side of its inlet are sculptured in a singularly rich and striking style of architecture, in which subordinate peaks and gables appear in wonderful profusion, and an imposing conical mountain with a wide, smooth base stands out in the main current of the glacier, a mile or two back from the discharging ice-wall.
2We now turned southward down the eastern shore of the bay, and in an hour or two discovered a glacier of the second class, at the head of a comparatively short fiord that winter had not yet closed. Here we landed, and climbed across a mile or so of rough boulder-beds, and back upon the wildly broken, receding front of the glacier, which, though it descends to the level of the sea, no longer sends off bergs. Many large masses, detached from the wasting front by irregular melting, were partly buried beneath mud, sand, gravel, and boulders of the terminal moraine. Thus protected, these fossil icebergs remain unmelted for many years, some of them for a century or more, as shown by the age of trees growing above them, though there are no trees here as yet. At length melting, a pit with sloping sides is formed by the falling in of the overlying moraine material into the space at first occupied by the buried ice. In this way are formed the curious depressions in drift-covered regions called kettles or sinks. [...]
John Muir, Travels in Alaska (two more glaciers and a melting glacier front; the last sentence of paragraph 2 is left out) (1915). Public domain (published 1915). Source text.
Dictionary entry re·cede (ri-SEED) verb re·ced·ed, re·ced·ing. 1. to move back or away from a point: The floodwater receded from the road. 2. to become fainter or more distant: The sound of the siren receded. 3. of hair, to stop growing at the front of the head. [Latin re-, back, + cedere, to go]
Dictionary entry dis·charge (dis-CHAHRJ) verb 1. to send out or pour out: The pipe discharges water into the creek. 2. to fire a gun. 3. to let someone leave officially: The hospital discharged her on Friday.noun (DIS-chahrj) 4. something that is sent or poured out.
Dictionary entry sub·or·di·nate (suh-BOR-dn-it) adjective 1. lower in rank or importance: a subordinate officer. noun 2. a person lower in rank. verb (suh-BOR-dn-ayt) 3. to treat as less important.
Dictionary entry waste (wayst) verb wast·ed, wast·ing. 1. to use carelessly or for no good purpose. 2. to wear away or lose size little by little: The sandbar wasted away in the winter storms.noun 3. material that is thrown away.
Earth science glossary, Unit 3: Glaciers berg noun short for iceberg, a large piece of floating ice broken off a glacier. fiord (fee-ORD), also fjord noun a long, narrow arm of the sea between steep cliffs, carved by a glacier. moraine (muh-RAYN) noun a ridge or mound of rock, gravel and soil carried and left behind by a glacier. terminal moraine noun the moraine that marks the farthest point a glacier reached.
Thesaurus entry profusion noun Synonyms: abundance (a large amount), plenty (enough or more than enough), wealth (a large supply). Antonyms: scarcity, lack. Do not confuse with confusion (a state of disorder).
Written for this page (model entries, not copied from a published reference), Reference page: dictionary, earth science glossary and thesaurus entries. Original passage written for this page.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give a card with the four strategies from Diagram 2 and a sentence starter for each: "The clue is ...", "The parts are ...", "The glossary says ...", "When I put it back, ..."
Start with words whose meaning is restated in the same sentence before moving to clues spread across a paragraph
Provide a prefix strip for the cedere family: pre- or prae- (before), re- (back), se- (apart), pro- (forward), ex- (out), inter- (between)
For Advanced Students
Have students find four more cedere words in an online etymology dictionary and sort them by the root's spelling (cede, ceed, cess)
Ask students to compare a general dictionary entry and a history glossary entry for secede, and explain which one a history essay should use
Have students find a multiple-meaning word in a science chapter and write a two-column note: everyday meaning and science meaning
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Check that each meaning comes with the clue that produced it; a right answer without a clue may come from memory rather than a strategy. For word parts, look for each part's meaning combined into a definition that then gets checked in context, and for students who catch look-alikes. For references, check that students can read a respelling, name the part of speech, and pick the numbered meaning or the specialized entry that fits. Above all, look for verification: a meaning put back into the sentence and changed when it does not fit.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Landscape Word Context Cards
15 minPairs
Each pair gets 8 context cards with words about land, water and ice, each in bold. Partners sort the cards by the clue that helps most (the meaning of the sentence, the meaning of the paragraph, or the word's position and function), write a preliminary meaning, and verify it by rereading the card with the meaning in place (standards a and d).
Context Cards
1. After the storm the creek became a torrent, rushing so fast that it carried whole logs downstream.
2. The island was barren: no trees, no grass, not even moss grew on its gray rock.
3. Instead of flowing straight to the sea, the river meanders, looping back and forth across the valley like a dropped ribbon.
4. The glacier's front towered over the water. With a crack like thunder, a slab of ice the size of a house broke off and crashed into the bay. Visitors wait for hours to see the glacier calve.
5. We climbed for three hours. At the crest, we could finally see both valleys at once.
6. The ferry crossed the sound in forty minutes.
7. The lake ice will thaw by April.
8. Wolves range across hundreds of miles of forest.
Procedure
Partner A reads the card and names the clue; partner B writes a preliminary meaning and rereads the card with it in place
Pairs sort the cards into three piles, then compare with another pair and settle any card sorted differently
Teacher key: sentence meaning, cards 1-3; paragraph meaning, cards 4-5; position and function, cards 6-8, where each word is used in a less familiar job or meaning. Meanings: 1, torrent: a fast, violent stream of water; 2, barren: bare, unable to grow plants; 3, meanders: winds and curves; 4, calve: of a glacier, to break off pieces of ice; 5, crest: the top of a hill or ridge; 6, sound: a noun after the, a wide channel of sea water, not a noise; 7, thaw: a verb after will, to melt; 8, range: a verb after the subject Wolves, to wander over a wide area. Three, two and three cards.
Discussion Questions
On card 4, which sentence gave the meaning of calve, and why was the last sentence alone not enough?
On cards 6-8, which meaning did you think of first, and what in the sentence ruled it out?
2
The cedere Family Tree
15 minGroups of 3
Each group gets 12 word cards and a tree with the root cedere (to go, to yield) at the trunk. Ten words belong to the family and two only look as if they do. Groups hang each family word on a branch labeled with its prefix, write a meaning built from the parts, and check the two look-alikes in an online etymology dictionary (standards b, c and d).
Groups sort the cards onto branches by prefix, or into a pile labeled "look-alike"
For each family word, the group writes a meaning from the parts and checks two of them in a dictionary
Teacher key: precede (prae-, before: go before); recede and recession (re-, back: go back, a going back); secede (se-, apart: withdraw); proceed (pro-, forward: go on); exceed (ex-, out: go beyond); concede (con-: yield, give in); intercede (inter-, between: step between two sides); success (sub-, next to or after: from succedere, to come after, then to turn out well); predecessor (prae- + decedere, to go away: a person who held a job before). Look-alikes: cedar (Greek kedros) and reseed (re- + the English seed). Ten family words and two look-alikes.
Discussion Questions
How does success fit the family when its meaning seems far from "to go"?
Reseed sounds exactly like recede. What does that show about using sound alone as a clue?
Modification for Distance Learning
Groups drag digital cards onto a shared tree diagram and paste the etymology link for each look-alike.
3
Subject Glossary Stations
15-20 minGroups of 4
Groups rotate through 6 station cards, each with a word used in a school subject. At each station, students check a general dictionary first, then the right specialized reference, such as a history, science, math, music, sports or cooking glossary in print or online, and record the pronunciation, part of speech and precise meaning (standards c and d).
Station Cards
1. In 1819, Spain ceded Florida to the United States.
2. Stir the salt until the solution is clear.
3. The quarterback's pass ended in an interception.
4. Hold the last note until the conductor ends the fermata.
5. The mean of the five quiz scores is 84.
6. Knead the dough for eight minutes.
Procedure
Before opening any reference, each student writes a preliminary meaning on a sticky note
Student 1 checks the general dictionary, student 2 the specialized reference, student 3 records the pronunciation and part of speech, and student 4 reads the card aloud with the meaning in place
Teacher key: ceded (SEE-did), verb, gave up land or a right, usually by treaty (U.S. history glossary); solution (suh-LOO-shuhn), noun, a mixture in which one substance is dissolved evenly in another (science glossary); interception (in-ter-SEP-shuhn), noun, a pass caught by a player on the defending team (football glossary); fermata (fer-MAH-tuh), noun, a sign that tells a performer to hold a note longer than its written length (music glossary); mean (meen), noun, the average, the sum of the values divided by how many there are (math glossary); knead (need), verb, to press, fold and stretch dough with the hands (cooking glossary)
Discussion Questions
At which stations did the general dictionary list the subject meaning first, and at which did it list it last?
How is ceded on card 1 related to the words in Activity 2?
Challenge Variation
Each group writes a station card from another class, such as art, computer science or health, and names the glossary a classmate would need.
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
2 diagrams
Diagram 1: The cedere Word Family (Official Example)
The Latin cedere, "to go" or "to yield," is inside all three official example words; the prefix sets the direction: precede (before), recede (back) and secede (apart). The green box shows other family members, and the red box shows look-alikes with other origins, which is why a guess from word parts still needs checking.
Diagram 2: Four Strategies Working on One Word
For recession in the Muir excerpt, context shows the word is a noun about ice, the parts suggest "a going back," the dictionary offers two meanings, and putting meaning 1 back into the sentence confirms it. The order can change from word to word.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
L.8.4 Homework: Working Out Unknown and Multiple-Meaning Words
Directions: Complete all six problems. You will need a print or online dictionary for Problems 2, 4 and 5, and a textbook glossary for Problem 3. Use Diagram 2 as a checklist.
Part 1: Context and Word Parts (Problems 1-3)
Write the meaning of each bold word, the clue that helped (the meaning of the sentence, the meaning of the paragraph, or the word's position and function) and its part of speech: (a) The model was intricate: it had two hundred tiny parts, and each one had to be glued with tweezers. (b) After the argument, Tia was aloof all week. She ate lunch alone and answered questions with one word. (c) The lifeguard will scan the water every few seconds. (d) The old rope bridge looked precarious; it swayed in the wind, and two boards were missing.
Each word below comes from cedere. Use the parts to write a preliminary meaning, then check it in a dictionary and correct it if needed: procession, excessive, deceased, recessive. Word parts: pro- (forward), ex- (out), de- (away), re- (back); the suffixes -ion (an act of), -ive (tending to) and -ed (a past form, used here as an adjective). Which word needed a science glossary to be exact, and why?
Each bold word has an everyday meaning and a special meaning in one subject. For each sentence, write the meaning that fits and name the glossary that would give it: (a) The earthquake happened along a fault in the rock. (b) The current in the circuit lit the bulb. (c) The town sits at the mouth of the river. (d) The Senate voted on the bill.
Part 2: Reference Materials and Verifying (Problems 4-6)
Look up each bold word in a dictionary and copy its pronunciation, its part of speech and the numbered meaning that fits: (a) Fallen trees may impede the salmon's journey upstream. (b) The fans were jubilant after the last-second goal. (c) Our class will conduct a survey of lunch choices. For (c), also give the pronunciation of conduct as a noun, as in good conduct. Then use a thesaurus to find one synonym for jubilant and write a sentence with it.
A student made a preliminary guess for each bold word. Verify each guess in context and in a dictionary, say whether it is right, and fix it if it is wrong: (a) The bats hung in a dark recess at the back of the cave. Guess: "a break from class." (b) The coach's speech was so moving that several players wept. Guess: "changing location." (c) The judge will sentence the defendant on Monday. Guess: "a group of words with a subject and a verb." (d) After the storm, the lighthouse was still intact. Guess: "whole, not damaged."
Keep a log of three unknown or multiple-meaning words you meet this week in any class. For each one, copy the sentence, name the strategy you tried first, write your preliminary meaning, name the reference you used (general or specialized), and write the verified meaning.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Context Clues
All four meanings, clues and parts of speech correct
Two or three correct, or clues missing
Fewer than two correct
Word Parts
Four meanings built from the parts, each checked, with a reason about the science word
Meanings built but not checked
Parts not used
References
Pronunciations, parts of speech and fitting meanings correct; glossaries named correctly
Most entries complete
Meanings copied without choosing the one that fits
Verifying
Every guess tested and fixed with a reason; log complete
Most guesses tested, or log incomplete
Guesses accepted without checking
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Questions 8-16 and 20 use the second excerpt from Travels in Alaska in Closure, and Questions 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16 and 20 also use the reference page right after it; paragraph numbers are shown beside the excerpt. The other questions use new sentences. Your score updates as you answer, and Reset quiz clears everything so you or your students can try again.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Read the sentence: The hikers turned back because the trail was impassable; a rockslide had buried it under three meters of boulders. What does impassable most likely mean?
Answer: B
The hikers turned back, and the trail was buried under boulders, so no one could get through. The parts agree: im- (not) + pass + -able. A would not force hikers to turn back. C and D have no support in the sentence: nothing mentions trail markers or other hikers.
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Read the sentence: Our coach will object if we skip warm-ups. Based on its position and the rest of the sentence, which meaning of object fits?
Answer: C
Object follows will, where a verb goes, so A and B, both nouns, cannot fit. Of the verbs, only "to protest" fits a coach reacting to skipped warm-ups. D is not a meaning of object at all. A dictionary also shows the verb is pronounced uhb-JEKT.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which sentence uses precede correctly?
Answer: A
Precede means to go before (prae-, before + cedere, to go), and a cartoon shown before a movie goes before it. B needs recede, to move back. C needs secede, to withdraw. D uses a meaning the word does not have.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which word does NOT come from the Latin cedere, "to go, to yield"?
Answer: C
Seize comes through Old French seisir from a Medieval Latin word probably borrowed from a Germanic language; it only sounds like cease. Concession comes from concedere, to yield; succeed from succedere, to come after; and ancestor, surprisingly, from antecessor, "one who goes before," from antecedere.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
The Latin ante- means "before," and cedere means "to go." In a grammar lesson, the teacher says, Find the antecedent of the pronoun it. What is an antecedent?
Answer: D
Put the parts together: "a going before." In grammar, the antecedent is the noun that comes before a pronoun and that the pronoun stands for, as the kite in The kite rose until it vanished. A reverses the direction the prefix names. B confuses the roles of the words. C invents a meaning with no link to the parts.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A student writing a story wants a less formal word than recede to describe a crowd moving away from a stage. Which reference will help most?
Answer: A
A thesaurus lists synonyms, such as pull back, retreat and move away, so the student can compare them. A geology glossary gives the special earth science meanings of words, not everyday synonyms. An atlas is a book of maps. A rhyming dictionary lists words that sound alike at the end.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A classmate reads The concession stand sold popcorn and lemonade and guesses that concession means "giving up," because concede means to yield. What should she do next?
Answer: C
A "giving up stand" makes no sense with popcorn and lemonade, so the guess fails the context test; a dictionary gives another meaning: a right to sell goods in a place, or the business that sells them. A ignores that parts give a clue, not a definition. B abandons the strategy. D names a reference that has no word meanings.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 1 of the second Muir excerpt, the fiord of the Carroll Glacier was "utterly inaccessible on account of ice." What does inaccessible mean here?
Answer: B
The parts are in- (not) + access (from accedere, to go toward) + -ible (able to be): not able to be approached. The context agrees: the party "had to be content with a general view," seen from three or four miles away. C and D are contradicted by the same sentence: Muir saw the glacier and sketched it. A is the opposite of the meaning.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use the reference page. In paragraph 1, Muir describes "the discharging frontal wall" of the Reid Glacier, in a fiord "packed with bergs." Which meaning of discharge fits?
Answer: D
The glacier's front sends out ice into the water, which is why the fiord is "packed with bergs" (icebergs, according to the glossary). Discharging describes the wall as an action it does, so a verb meaning fits, not the noun in C. A and B are real meanings, but no gun is fired and no one is released from a hospital.
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use the reference page. In paragraph 1, the mountains show "subordinate peaks and gables" around "an imposing conical mountain." Which part of speech and meaning of subordinate fit?
Answer: A
Subordinate comes right before the noun peaks, so it is the adjective: smaller peaks that rank below the main mountain, which is "imposing." B is a noun meaning about people, and C is a verb, pronounced differently (suh-BOR-dn-ayt), which cannot describe peaks. D is the opposite of the entry.
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use the thesaurus entry on the reference page. In paragraph 1, the smaller peaks and gables "appear in wonderful profusion." Which word could replace profusion with the closest meaning?
Answer: D
The thesaurus lists abundance as a synonym, and "wonderful" and a "singularly rich" style of mountains fit a large number of peaks. A is listed as an antonym. B only sounds similar; the entry warns against confusing the two. C has no link to the entry or the sentence.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use the reference page. In paragraph 2, Muir climbs "upon the wildly broken, receding front of the glacier, which ... no longer sends off bergs." Which meaning of recede fits?
Answer: B
The glacier's front is melting and moving back from the sea: it now only "descends to the level of the sea" and "no longer sends off bergs." C is about sounds and sights fading, not ice moving. A is about hair. D contradicts both the prefix re- (back) and the melting described in the paragraph.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use the reference page. In paragraph 2, "Many large masses, detached from the wasting front by irregular melting, were partly buried." Which meaning of waste fits?
Answer: C
The front is shrinking through "irregular melting," which fits meaning 2, to wear away little by little. A needs a person using something carelessly, and ice cannot be careless. B is a noun, but wasting describes the front as a verb form. D contradicts the melting in the same sentence.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 2, Muir explains that when buried ice melts, "a pit with sloping sides is formed," and that such "curious depressions" are "called kettles or sinks." What does kettles mean here?
Answer: A
The sentence before defines the word: a pit forms when the moraine material falls into the space the buried ice had filled, and Muir calls these depressions kettles. This is a specialized earth science meaning. B is the everyday meaning, and D mixes in the everyday meaning of sinks; neither fits a landscape. C names boulders, which the paragraph mentions separately.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
In paragraph 2, Muir calls the buried ice masses "fossil icebergs." A classmate guesses that they are "icebergs that have turned into stone." Verify the guess in context and give the meaning that fits.
Model answer: The guess does not fit. Muir says the masses are "partly buried beneath mud, sand, gravel, and boulders" and "remain unmelted for many years, some of them for a century or more," and that they finally melt and leave a pit. Stone does not melt, so the ice is still ice. Fossil here means very old and preserved under the ground, like a fossil: old glacier ice kept from melting by the moraine on top of it. Rubric line: 2 points for rejecting the guess with two pieces of evidence and giving the fitting meaning; 1 point for one of the two.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
In paragraph 2, the ice masses are buried under "boulders of the terminal moraine." The word terminal comes from the Latin terminus, "end." Use the word part and the earth science glossary to explain what a terminal moraine is. Then explain why an everyday meaning of terminal, a bus or airport terminal, does not fit.
Model answer:Terminal means "at the end," and the glossary defines a moraine as a ridge of rock, gravel and soil left by a glacier, and a terminal moraine as the one that marks the farthest point the glacier reached. So a terminal moraine is the pile of rock at the far end of a glacier. A bus or airport terminal is a building at the end of a route; it shares the idea of an end, but it is a place for travelers, not rock left by ice, so the earth science glossary gives the precise meaning. Rubric line: 2 points for the combined meaning and the reason the everyday meaning fails; 1 point for one.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Write one sentence each for precede, recede and secede that shows the meaning through context clues. Then explain what the three words share and how the prefix changes each meaning.
Model answer: "A drumroll will precede the winner's name at the assembly." "When the river receded, the families found mud on every step." "The small town voted to secede from the county and form its own school district." All three are built on the Latin cedere, "to go." The prefix sets the direction: pre- (before) makes "go before," re- (back) makes "go back," and se- (apart) makes "go apart, withdraw." Rubric line: 2 points for three sentences with clear clues and an explanation of the root and all three prefixes; 1 point for two.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
For each word, name the strategy or reference you would try first and explain why: (a) preheated in Bake the bread in a preheated oven. (b) moulin in an article about glaciers. (c) benched in The coach benched the striker for the rest of the half.
Model answer: (a) Word parts first: pre- (before) + heated gives "heated before," and the recipe context confirms it. (b) A specialized reference first, such as an earth science glossary: the context of a glacier article may not define it, and it has no familiar English parts. (A glossary gives a narrow shaft that meltwater drills down into a glacier.) (c) Context and position first: benched follows the subject The coach, so it is a verb, and the sports context shows it means took a player out of the game; a sports glossary can verify. Rubric line: 2 points for a sensible first strategy and reason for all three; 1 point for two.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
Progress is said two ways, depending on its part of speech. Use a dictionary to find both pronunciations. Write one sentence using progress as a noun and one using it as a verb, label each with its pronunciation, and explain how a reader can tell which is meant.
Model answer: "The team made steady progress on the robot." (noun, PROG-res) "The robot will progress to the finals if it wins today." (verb, pruh-GRES) A reader can tell by the word's position and job: after made steady, it names a thing, so it is a noun; after will, it is an action, so it is a verb. The stress moves from the first syllable in the noun to the second in the verb. Rubric line: 2 points for both pronunciations, both sentences and the explanation; 1 point for two of the three.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
In paragraph 2, Muir says the glacier "descends to the level of the sea" but "no longer sends off bergs." Use context and the glossary to work out what bergs means, then explain what this detail tells the reader about the glacier.
Model answer: The glossary defines berg as short for iceberg, a large piece of floating ice broken off a glacier; paragraph 1 supports it, where a fiord is "packed with bergs" near a glacier's "discharging" wall. The detail shows the glacier is shrinking: it still reaches the sea but no longer breaks off icebergs into it, and its "receding," "wasting" front is melting back. Rubric line: 2 points for the meaning with a reference or context clue and a reasonable conclusion about the shrinking glacier; 1 point for one.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does L.8.4 mean?
L.8.4 means that eighth graders can work out unknown words and phrases, and words with several meanings, by choosing the strategy that fits each word.
The standard names four strategies: context clues (part a), Greek and Latin word parts (part b), general and specialized references (part c) and checking a first guess (part d).
Why are precede, recede and secede the L.8.4 example?
They show one Latin root, cedere (to go), taking three different meanings from three prefixes.
A student who knows pre-, re- and se- can predict "go before," "go back" and "go apart," then check each word in context. The family also connects to grade 8 U.S. history, where secede names what Southern states did in 1860-1861.
How is L.8.4 different from L.7.4?
The four strategies are the same; the words and the official example change.
L.8.4 works with grade 8 reading and content, and its root example moves from bellum (war) to cedere (to go). In practice, eighth graders apply the strategies more often to subject-area texts, such as history and science chapters.
What are context clues?
Context clues are hints in the nearby words and sentences that point to a word's meaning.
A writer may restate the word, give an example, draw a contrast or describe a result. L.8.4 also counts a word's position and job in the sentence as context: the same spelling can be a noun in one place and a verb in another.
What is a multiple-meaning word?
A multiple-meaning word has one spelling and two or more meanings, such as trunk, sound or current.
Readers use context and the word's job to choose the meaning, and a dictionary's numbered meanings or a subject glossary to confirm it. In science, history and math, the subject meaning is often not the everyday one.
When should students use a specialized reference instead of a dictionary?
Use a specialized reference when the word belongs to one subject and the general meaning does not fit.
A textbook glossary, a sports or music glossary, or an idiom dictionary gives the exact meaning used in that field. A general dictionary may list the subject meaning last, or not at all.
What does "verify the preliminary determination" mean in L.8.4?
It means testing a first guess about a word's meaning before trusting it.
Students put the guess back into the sentence. If it fits every clue, they keep it; if it does not, or they are unsure, they check a dictionary and choose the meaning that fits the context.
Which Greek and Latin roots should eighth graders know?
L.8.4 gives no required list; it asks for "common, grade-appropriate" affixes and roots, such as cedere.
Roots that show up often in grade 8 reading include cedere (go), terminus (end), scribere (write), portare (carry) and the Greek graphein (write) and logos (word, study), with prefixes such as pre-, re-, ex- and inter-.
Can word parts give the wrong meaning?
Yes. Word parts are a clue, and some words only look or sound as if they share a root.
Cedar is not a cedere word, and reseed sounds exactly like recede but is built from seed. Other words have kept the root but drifted in meaning, like proceeds (money from a sale). Checking the guess in context catches both.
How can parents help with vocabulary at home?
Ask "How did you figure that out?" whenever your child explains a new word.
Point out word families in everyday life (proceed on a road sign, exceed on a speed limit notice), look up surprising words together in an online dictionary, and compare the everyday and school meanings of words like mean or solution.
07
Related Standards
6 standards
These standards connect to L.8.4: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
L.7.4Prerequisite
Use context, Greek and Latin word parts and references, and verify meanings
