DATES:    Monday, 9th & 16th November 2026
TIMES:     7.00pm - 8.00pm
VENUE:    Online via Zoom

Target Audience: Primary School Teachers & SET's, 2nd-6th Class

This session focuses on the role of explicit morphology instruction within a structured literacy framework for Primary School Teachers & SET's, 2nd-6th Class. Topics include defining morphological awareness, examining the research base supporting explicit morphology instruction, exploring the role of morphology in reading, spelling, vocabulary, and comprehension development, prioritizing morphemes for instruction, selecting high-value words for teaching, and designing clear, repeatable instructional routines. Particular attention is given to supporting diverse learners, including multilingual learners and students with dyslexia.

The presentation bridges research and classroom practice by modeling practical, multicomponent instructional routines that educators can implement immediately. Participants will explore how phonology, orthography, morphology, syntax, and semantics interact within skilled reading and written language development and will learn how to integrate tools such as word sums, matrices, word chains, and connected text into effective literacy instruction.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will be able to:

• Explain the role of morphology in supporting reading, spelling, vocabulary, and comprehension development.
• Apply research-informed strategies for selecting high-utility morphemes, word families, and Tier 2 academic vocabulary for instruction.
• Implement structured, repeatable instructional routines that integrate multiple language systems.
• Analyze how suffixes and morphological structure influence pronunciation, spelling, meaning, and part of speech within multisyllabic words.
• Adapt morphology instruction to support diverse learners, including students with dyslexia and multilingual learners.
• Design engaging, classroom-ready lessons that promote transferable word knowledge, spelling accuracy, vocabulary growth, and reading comprehension.

Bio of Presenter: Mary McFarlin

Mary McFarlin has 20 years of experience supporting students with diverse learning needs. Before entering education, she worked with youth in residential treatment and the juvenile justice system. She received her initial structured literacy training through the National Institute for Learning Development and later worked as a Professionally Certified Educational Therapist.

She now specializes in structured literacy as a CERI-certified Structured Literacy Dyslexia Specialist. Mary is the author of the Morphology Kit, a collection of lessons focused on Latin-based morphemes, and presents nationally on morphology instruction. She serves as a board member of the Washington Branch of the International Dyslexia Association and moderates The Morphology Teacher’s Hub Facebook group.