Anglo-Saxon Origin: Old English, 449A.D. -1066 A.D.

The Germanic groups terrorized England, driving the Celts to the northern and western edges of the island (currently Ireland, Scotland, and Wales). The Germanic invaders spoke Anglo-Saxon, often referred to as Old English. Their vocabulary consisted of everyday words to suit their daily Agrarian life: sheep, earth, plough, fog, wood, field, and work as well as basic words such as the, is, and you.

Short Words either with one or two syllables

Some Characteristics: Number words to a thousand (ex: one,twenty,eight, first, second, third), most basic colors but not fancy (ex: brown, red, blue), names of farm, forest, and ocean animals (ex: dog,cow,pig), and outer body parts and inner ones related to hunting (ex: head, feet, arm).

Word Examples: ten, waist, nineteen, hand, goat, ear, pink, snake, ankle, horse

Latin Origin: Middle English 1066 A.D.-1500 A.D

Latin, the language of the early Roman invaders and also the basis for Romance languages, again entered the English lexicon during the Renaissance. Scholars turned to Latin when they were developing ways to categorize and describe information such as the physical environment .

Long words with 3 or 4 syllables

French is spoken by upper class; English by working classes. Many French words still remain and new words are formed by adding affixes to roots. Knowledge of the origin of a word assists readers of English in understanding how new words are generated and also the formation or structure of the words. Usually Latin words have different sounds than what the actually letters sound like.

Some Characteristics: "ti" says "sh" words, words with "sion", words with "ssion", double consonants near beginning of word, legal terms (justice, court), "du" says "gu", words with "ular" and much more.

Word Examples: extraordinary, project, action, magnificently, erect, opt, potential, doctor, creation, caution

Greek Origin:Modern English 1500 A.D.- Present

Europe was also undergoing a great revival of classical learning during the Renaissance. Scholars who wanted to show their classical training often drew on the original sources of words in Greek to name new inventions (e.g., telescope, microscope). The number of Greek-origin words may be small but these words are central to learning in the sciences and social studies.

Specialized words used mostly in science; new words are formed by compounding words forms. (e.g., cry sphere, cryotherapy). With Greek words some letters are pronounced differently.

Some Characteristics: Olypmic related words, words ending in "ology", words with "rh". words with "k" (long "k" words), words with "th" (long or short unfamiliar words), words with "ch" (pronounced /k/), and a few more clues.

Word examples: alphabet, photograph, thermostat, empathy, technical, character, anchor, skeleton

Valuable to teaching our students: It is important to teach our students word origins because it guides our students in extending their vocabularies, professionals need knowledge about how words with different language origins are formed and how words are connected to one another. The language source of a word also helps figure out spelling and pronunciation.

Our students need to know where the words come from when they learn a new word. With learning what an Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Greek word is and find those clues, they will figure out which origin their vocabulary came from. As well Roots provide an instant basic meaning to words for students, as well it provides patterns in vocabulary development. It gives our students depth of word knowledge.

How I would teach this in my classroom:

(1)Make a picture of a tree, put root at bottom, put English words made of that root on branches. Can be put in an interactive notebook and added to later. Or put up as a poster. I would have Anglo-Saxon, Latin, or Greek at the bottom. Then going to the top I will have different words that fit that origin. The different branches will be the clues that the students should look for each origin.

(2) Go over the clues in class and have them go through the different words and tell me what clue goes with that word (just like what we did in class).

(3) Another one would be having words that are Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Greek up on the board and I would have them go through each word and have them categorize each one to the right section. Then I would ask them why that word goes with that origin.

(4) I would go through some of the stories that we read in class and talk about the vocabulary words in the story. I would go through the words and we will, as a class, talk about what origin it goes into. It is important to actually go through the vocabulary words during different subjects instead of just English.

(5) I would have a flashcard review of each origin, description of it, some clues, and I will have words of that origin that goes with it. I would do it each morning before English until they get a good understanding of it.

(6)Lastly what I would have my students do a research project that they got to pick which origin they want to do and come up with their own research on that topic.