DPHS-SKILLS Lesson Plan
Topic: History, Variation, and Change
Date: Week 3, Feb 11, 2015
Learning Objectives:
language change over time = variation!
House-Cleaning: (not always applicable)
Before class: arrange desks in 5 groups of 5-6.
Title slide:
● What did we talk about on Monday? OK, cool, language change. Today we will continue talking about language change and history, but also about language variation. What do you think language variation might be?
● Awesome. Before we get started, we need to take care of some house cleaning.
Housecleaning slide:
● For each unit, we will be making teams of 4-5 students that will work together throughout that unit. So we finished Unit 1, which was about observing language, levels of linguistic structure, slang. Now we are on Unit 2, so it’s time to make groups.
● Call out group names, point to each group try to move there in one minute or less.
● Once your group is seated and quiet, you will get your brownies.
● Check in about consent forms.
● Name cards (??)
● Announcements?
● Take out your homework sheet -- histories of words.
Warm-Up Activity: (always connected either to fund of knowledge or previous lessons)
Do-Now slide:
● Ok. I want you to close your eyes, and think of three words that you have heard, but that different people express differently.
● Ask for a few volunteers to share back.
Map Slide:
● Share story about learning Spanish, moving all over the place, having to learn new words as you went. These differences are called “variation.”
● How do you think these differences came to be?
Main Points Slide:
● Take a few minutes to write these down in your journals. Anytime we come across one of these points in the lecture -- point it out to me or the whole class.
History of English:
● First, we will look at how English changed over time, then we will talk about how Spanish has changed over time.
● Announce video, ask students to write down one thing they found surprising or didn’t know during the video.
● Review questions and motivations for language change.
Language Family Trees:
● What other languages is English related to? Spanish? German? Frisian? Chinese? Which one is the closest do you think?
● Tell them about Frisian, German, Spanish. Show them the language trees.
● Mentors: pass out language family trees.
● Activity: take one minute to highlight the languages you know. Find a relative that they both have in common. DO EXAMPLE.
Language Reconstruction:
● Some languagess have written records, others don’t. How would you go back to try to figure out the history of a language?
● Watch Don’s video.
● So what does he do? Goes to document and reconstruct proto-language.
5 min BREAK: NAME CARDS with markers and PAPER
History of Spanish:
● So we talked about some variation that exists in Spanish, how might this have happened?
● Good, let’s look at how Spanish changed in Spain over time -- then what happened? Spain started colonizing other lands, and Spanish started spreading. Where did it spread to? Where is Spanish still spoken today?
Think, Pair, Share Activity:
● Do all languages go through same changes at same time?
● How might changes spread?
● These different changes over time leads to variation.
● How do people feel about these differences? Think it’s cool? Weird? Sounds funny?
Variation in Spanish
● Let’s take a look at some variation in Spanish by Spanish speakers. Preview videos. Watch all of Vid 1, up until 2:30 of Vid 2.
● What were some of the differences between these different varieties of Spanish? What were the differences across speakers that the guy & girl in these videos picked up on?
● Go over next slide, have students write it down.
● Any questions? Any thoughts popping up in your mind?
Dialect Map Activity
● Cool, so we’re going to do an activity now to think about our own perceptions of accents, dialects, and languages. Where do you think people speak differently in the US and in Mexico and in Central America?
● Take 10 minutes to draw borders and label how people speak.
● After 10 minutes, share back with group, and then we will share back in a big group.
Discussion: (end on proposal/wrap-up statement)
● Talk about stereotypes and the social meaning of accents, dialects, and language.
● Journal activity.
Other Activities, Data, Lecture, etc.:
(If 90 min, 5 min BREAK)
NAME CARDS with markers and PAPER
Wrap-Ups:
Homework:
Instructor materials: (e.g. small scraps of paper, handouts, headphones, recording devices)