UNIT X 222 | UNIT 6 Instructional Routine: Grammar p. Txxviii Grammar in Action A PRACTICE • Understand genre Preview “The First American English Dictionary” with students. Tell them that it is a biography. Say: The last text we read contained several biographies. This is also a biography. Skim the text. Who is this biography about? (Noah Webster) Discuss the elements of a biography with students, reinforcing the idea that biographies like the one they are about to read are not fiction; they tell about the important events in a real person’s life. • Use text features to make a prediction Ask students to point out the text features. They should identify the title, the image, and the words in bold type. Then have students predict what the text will be about. Ask: What is the title? What do you see in the image? What are the words in bold type? (pronounce, textbook, dictionary, published) What do you think this biography is about? (the person who published the first American dictionary) • Listen to media to build academic language Play the audio once, having students listen to gain a general understanding of the biography without looking at the words. Then replay it, this time asking students to read along silently. Direct them to pay special attention to the words in bold type and their context. • B • Use the vocabulary Have students identify the words in bold and discuss their meaning. Call on volunteers to read the sentences where they appear in the text. • Read for specific information Read the questions aloud. Have students go back and whisper read the text with a partner as you replay the audio. Have students underline or mark the associated texts with sticky notes when they hear and read anything related to a question. Give students time to write their answers in complete sentences. Call on volunteers to share their answers with the class. ANSWERS 1. The colonists needed words for things they didn’t have in Britain. They shortened some words because they were difficult for the colonists to pronounce. 2. Webster wrote a textbook so American students could learn from American books. 3. After writing the textbook, Webster wrote a dictionary. It was published in 1828. EXPLORE AND LEARN PRACTICE DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION Scaffold Review how to use context and visual clues to determine a new word’s meaning. Have students look up the words in bold in the Picture Dictionary. Amplify Have students use the Internet to research what Native American words are part of the English Language. Then have them write five sentences about how those words became a part of American English. Grammar in Action A Read the biography. American English Dictionary Have you seen some English words spelled differently? Maybe you’ve seen color spelled colour. This is the difference between American and British English. Sometimes, words with the same meaning are completely different. For example, the British word for soccer is football. The English colonists’ language began to change in the 1700s. They needed new words for things that weren’t in Britain, like squash. Native American people called this vegetable askutasquash. The word was difficult for the colonists to pronounce, so they called it squash. Noah Webster was a teacher in Connecticut in the late 1700s. He thought that American students should learn from American books, so he wrote an American textbook. His textbook became very popular. Noah then worked on an American dictionary. It took him 27 years to write, and he studied 26 languages to help him. He changed the spelling of many British words, such as musick to music. He also included new words, such as skunk and hickory. Noah’s dictionary was published in 1828 with 70,000 words. Today, almost everyone has used his dictionary. The dictionary is online, too. People have added many words to the dictionary, like self ie and emoji. B Use the vocabulary 1. Why did the colonists use words from Native American languages? Why did they sometimes shorten the words? 2. Why did Noah Webster write a textbook? 3. What did Noah Webster write after the textbook? When was it published? Tutorial THE FIRST CONNECT TO Grammar UNIT 6 222 UNIT 6 / CONNECT TO GRAMMAR
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