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What are the origins of the English Language? The history of English is conventionally, if perhaps too neatly, divided into three periods usually called Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), Middle English, and Modern English. The earliest period begins with the migration of certain Germanic tribes from the continent to Britain in the fifth century A.D., though no records of their language survive from before the seventh century, and it continues until the end of the eleventh century or a bit later. By that time Latin, Old Norse (the language of the Viking invaders), and especially the Anglo-Norman French of the dominant class after the Norman Conquest in 1066 had begun to have a substantial impact on the lexicon, and the well-developed inflectional system that typifies the grammar of Old English had begun to break down. The following brief sample of Old English prose illustrates several of the significant ways in which change has so transformed English that we must look carefully to find points of resemblance between the language of the tenth century and our own. It is taken from Aelfric's "Homily on St. Gregory the Great" and concerns the famous story of how that pope came to send missionaries to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity after seeing Anglo-Saxon boys for sale as slaves in Rome: Eft he axode, hu ðære ðeode nama wære þe hi of comon. Him wæs geandwyrd, þæt hi Angle genemnode wæron. Þa cwæð he, "Rihtlice hi sind Angle gehatene, for ðan ðe hi engla wlite habbað, and swilcum gedafenað þæt hi on heofonum engla geferan beon." A few of these words will be recognized as identical in spelling with their modern equivalents-he, of, him, for, and, on-and the resemblance of a few others to familiar words may be guessed-nama to name, comon to come, wære to were, wæs to was-but only those who have made a special study of Old English will be able to read the passage with understanding. The sense of it is as follows: Again he [St. Gregory] asked w

History of English (Source: A History of English by Barbara A. Fennell) The English language is spoken by 750 million people in the world as either the official language of a nation, a second language, or in a mixture with other languages (such as pidgins and creoles.) English is the (or an) official language in England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand; however, the United States has no official language. Indo-European language and people English is classified genetically as a Low West Germanic language of the Indo-European family of languages. The early history of the Germanic languages is based on reconstruction of a Proto-Germanic language that evolved into German, English, Dutch, Afrikaans, Yiddish, and the Scandinavian languages. In 1786, Sir William Jones discovered that Sanskrit contained many cognates to Greek and Latin. He conjectured a Proto-Indo-European language had existed many years before. Although there is no concrete proof to support this one language had existed, it is believed that many languages spoken in Europe and Western Asia are all derived from a common language. A few languages that are not included in the Indo-European branch of languages include Basque, Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian; of which the last three belong to the Finno-Ugric language family. Speakers of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) lived in Southwest Russia around 4,000 to 5,000 BCE. They had words for animals such as bear or wolf (as evidenced in the similarity of the words for these animals in the modern I-E languages.) They also had domesticated animals, and used horse-drawn wheeled carts. They drank alcohol made from grain, and not wine, indicating they did not live in a warm climate. They belonged to a patriarchal society where the lineage was determined through males only (because of a lack of words referring to the female's side of the family.) They also made use of a decimal counting system by 10's, and formed words by compounding. This PIE language was also highly infl

[DOC] Instructions for Classroom Dynamic Criteria Mapping Instructions for Classroom Dynamic Criteria Mapping © 2005 Bob Broad Dynamic Criteria Mapping (DCM) is a process by which you and your students can discover what you, the instructor, value in student work. DCM yields a more empirically grounded, more detailed, and more useful account of your values than traditional rubrics can. The process is a streamlined form of grounded theory (as summarized by Strauss and Corbin in Basics of Qualitative Research, Sage 1998). Here is a brief set of instructions by which you can try classroom DCM. Read What We Really Value: Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and Assessing Writing by Bob Broad (Utah State University Press, 2003). The book offers historical and theoretical background on DCM, a detailed example of DCM in action, and more specific instructions on how to undertake the process at both the classroom and programmatic levels. Collect data. Once you have handed back to your students two or three substantial sets of responses to their work, ask your students to gather together those responses and bring them to class on the appointed day. Ask students to prepare by noting specific comments you made, in response to specific aspects of their work, that show something(s) you value. Note: you show what you value both in those qualities whose presence you praise and in those qualities whose absence you lament. On the appointed day, ask students to work together to generate a long list of qualities, features, or elements of their work that you have shown you value. Ask for illustrations or quotations that demonstrate each value they identify. Ask for passages or excerpts from their work that demonstrate those values. Analyze the data. After you and your students have created a large "pile" of evaluative statements and indicators, it is time to analyze the data to create a representation ("map") of your values. The key is not to rush this

Lord of the Flies - Art by Sam Weber

Using the 4 Resources Model

I enjoy using the resources listed here. Based on the 4 Resources Model and Literature Circles.