Influences on Language Through ALICE Programming
Megan Carlson, 8th Grade Language Arts
Grover C Fields Middle School
New Bern, NC
Students will complete a research assignment to learn the journey language takes to be incorporated into the English lexicon. Students will be given a list of terms to research their etymologies, definitions, and usage shifts over time. Students will produce a visual representation of their research in addition to their written research paper.
ALICE will allow students to visually illustrate the journey a chosen word has taken to be incorporated into our lexicon.
Common Core Standards
L.8.4.B—Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g.,precede, recede, secede).
L.8.4.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.
L.8.5—Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
W.8.2—Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
RI.8.1—Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
RI.8.2—Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.
SL.8.5—Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.
Previous Lessons
1)Research skills and reliable sources
2)Alice programming
3)Summarizing main ideas
4)Sequencing
Influences on Language: The Story Behind a Word
Events in history and popular culture have an impact on the integration of words into our everyday vocabulary. You will analyze various words that have been integrated into the English language and the events that stimulated their use. You will research a number of terms and pick three words to focus on in a research paper.
Step 1: Complete the Research Chart.
Step 2: You will select two words from Table One and research events related to the usage spikes for those terms. What was happening in society to cause the drastic increases and decreases in their usage?
Step 3: You will write a research paper analyzing the usage shifts for the two selected terms as well as the creation one term from Table Two. In your paper, you will also address the question of: How many words are there in English? Why is this a problematic question?
Step 4: Complete an Alice World simulation to visually show the journey one term from your paper has taken to be incorporated into the English lexicon.
Helpful Websites
1. (Etymology of Words)
2. (Meaning and Etymology)
3. (Usage Shifts)
Influences on Language: The Story Behind a Word Research Chart
Table One
Word / Website(s) Used / Etymology / Meaning(s) / Usage (Significant Years or Periods) / One Event Related to Word in Significant YearsAlien
Immigrant
Werewolf
Yankee
Federal
Sexism
Communism
Democrat
Republican
television
Table Two
Recent Word / Website(s) / Etymology/How did it get invented / Meaning / Why was it added to the dictionaryHashtag
Selfie
Photobomb
Emoji