I share the same opinion of prefixes, suffixes, and roots as the author of Deeper Reading. Teaching word families is possibly the most engaging way to learn vocabulary. The "partial meanings" are more easily remembered than a list of words and definitions. I agree that teaching a few "staples" is an effective way to encourage students to think while deciphering a word rather than just skipping it or looking it up in a dictionary.
I love watching the students' faces as they realize where meanings come from. It is like they are saying, "Wow, this makes sense." When reading a text, I love modeling how I analyze diction and all possible meanings of words. Falling back on Greek and Latin often informs our interpretation of shades of meanings. It teaches the students how language originated and how it is still evolving.
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