The Beauty of the English Language: A Journey to Help Kids Appreciate It.

English Language is beautiful and we should help kids appreciate its beauty.  

When words are explored in the context of meaning, etymology and morphology (the triad of foundational principles), a switch is flipped, something is ignited, fascination develops, understanding emerges, connections strengthening and fun (yes FUN) happens.

Have you ever thought about the word <question>? Like really just looked at it and wondered?

Did notice that when a student asks a question it is literally them going on a mini <quest> in search of the answer. It is a literal quest (see what English did there, quest - question), a mini journey, to get from unknown to known.

Now if we only focused on the sounds, memorizing the word or that -tion is a suffix, that little nugget of beauty is lost.

How much more fun would it have been to go on a quest about the word <question> by looking into its history and word relatives.

See the spark? Seeing a bit of fun?

Seeing other possibilities to captivate the hearts and minds of students?

If not, continue to follow me as we go on a quest for understanding.