This lesson focuses around language revitalization and work being done today to help languages thrive around the world. It touches on the creation of pedagogy as well as methods involved in revitalization. It also builds in pronunciation practice with words that students will have been familiar with.
Learning Objectives
1. SWBAT speak about the characteristics of an endangered language
2. SWBAT offer potential solutions for language revitalization
3. SWBAT independently research and present on data points regarding a specific endangered language
4. SWBAT manipulate tone to emphasize certain words in a sentence
Full lesson plan on Google Docs:
Activity: Discussion - Language Materials
Steps & Teacher Directions:
Show a picture of the Rosetta Stone on a projector (see appendix A)
Ask students if they recognize the image
Lead class discussion - if students are not familiar with the Rosetta Stone, give an explanation:
The stone is a written record of a decree issued in Egypt
The stone comes in three scripts - Hieroglyphics, Demotic script (another ancient Egyptian writing system), and ancient greek.
The stone was used to decipher Hieroglyphics.
Ask these discussion questions and ask students to answer them:
Do you think it would be hard to learn a language that does not have many written materials?
What kinds of materials do you think would help with learning a language?
Activity: Language Revitalization Presentation
Steps & Teacher Directions:
Present the slides
Activity: Run and Get the Rods
Steps & Teacher Directions:
split into two teams
line up facing the front of the room
upon hearing a word run up to the board identify how many syllables and where the stress is
arrange the bars with the correct number and so that the stress is correct.
first one done wins
repeat until out of time or names
Activity: Spark Video & Conclusions
Steps & Teacher Directions:
Bring students together by telling them that they will be creating a video in adobe spark about a language of their choosing.
Promote discussion by asking students if they have any lesser used languages that they are interested in. If not, provide examples of these languages.
Show students the example adobe spark video, which is a call to action to help with a specific language's revitalization
Ask students to find a Native American language that is undergoing revitalization and have each student choose a specific language.
Answer any questions that students have about the adobe spark project.
Wrap up by thanking the students and saying that you are looking forward to seeing their videos.