Robert Hayden's poem "Those Winter Sundays" serves as the anchor text in a five-part activity that takes the mystery out of poetry analysis by modeling explicit strategies for pupils to employ to conduct a close reading of a poem. After...

Following extensive modeling about how to apply word analysis and vocabulary skills to learn new words, partner teams create brief word presentations to teach new vocabulary to the class. Preselect words from upcoming social studies,...

An etymology resource is packed with suggestions for activities designed to build phonological, visual, morphemic, and etymological spelling skills.

Who named the shapes, or the days of the week? Should words be removed from the dictionary if they're no longer commonly used? Are there too many words in the English language? Language arts students explore these and additional...

If your language arts students think etymology isn't relevant to their everyday lives, show them a presentation that will prove them wrong! The slideshow provides explanation about various words, roots, and suffixes that have adapted in...

Gadzooks! Where do new words come from? Who decides what a word means? What about memes? Young etymologists will be fascinated by a short video all about words, words, words.

Invite your pupils to do the teaching when it comes to the vocabulary in Pudd'nhead Wilson. Each individual is assigned one word to research in depth and teach to classmates, one pupil at a time.

Young learners develop a deeper understanding of target vocabulary. Working in pairs, students independently complete a series of word clue cards asking them to find various information about key terms including their definition,...

Many doubt the reasoning for having a b in doubt, but do they know the whole story? Pupils can watch as a Latin word becomes the English doubt. The narrator explains the etymology of doubt, emphasizes the importance of meaning and...

In these English lesson plans, students use video, the Internet and non-fiction essays to research the history of the English language. They write a short research paper and design a PowerPoint presentation showcasing their findings.

No wonder the ship was called the Titanic. An investigation of Norse, Roman, and Greek Mythology provides insight into mythological characters and corresponding words in the English language. A close look at roots, prefixes, and suffixes...

In this etymology worksheet, students use a dictionary to look up 13 vocabulary words. For each word, they write the base word and its etymology, including its origin and the approximate time period in which the word was introduced into...

Understanding a word's etymology can really help with decoding and building vocabulary skills. Readers compare and contrast words of similar origins but with different difficulty levels. They focus on prefixes, suffixes, and affixes....

Prepare a stack of index cards with a Greek or Roman god's name on one side and their description on the other. Then, use the worksheet attached to brainstorm as many words that contain the root from each card. Pupils also create their...

What do the words alligator, armadillo, and cockroach all have in common? Each one is an English word with Spanish origins. Introduce young etymologists to the joys of discovering word origins with a lesson that asks them to create a...

Students explore where words come from. Every word had a beginning--- a birth. They use the internet and go to a web site given by the teacher to take a quiz on word origins, students are allowed to use dictionaries.

In small groups or pairs, learners explore the origins of each others' names. An awesome idea, but you'll need to do the initial research to gather your class's names and their origins. Or, consider having each member of your class...

This phonics PowerPoint presents sets of word families featuring /a/ and /o/. Each of the words is accompanied by a picture. Students practice sounding out each of the words.

Students play charades to act out vocabulary words that have recently been introduced in class.  In this vocabulary lesson students may work in groups or in pairs.

Fourth graders investigate eponyms in the English language. For this eponym lesson, 4th graders participate in a teacher led lesson on the definition of an eponym. They complete a worksheet in which they determine which eponym became...

For this vocabulary practice worksheet, students match the 9 terms that end with -cide to their appropriate meanings. Students also write the 9 terms in alphabetical order.

In this etymology worksheet, students read about the history of naming words and how words are named. They think critically by answering three questions about the meaning of words, etymologies and the derivation of words.

In this word search activity, learners locate 30 words given in the word box. Students find the words in a puzzle consisting of 15 rows and 35 columns.

Students use the internet to research the field of Etymology. Using this information, they create a list of words they were unfamiliar with along with their origin. They complete numerous activities by reading and following directions.