Content area: ESL

Grade level: High School or adult learners.

Learni
ng
Objecti
ves

Lesson objectives: See how languages change over time

Colora
do
Acade
mic
Standa
rds

ELP Standard 5 for 9-12 grade: Interpret features of periods in world history from grade
level text: reading level 5.

Lesson
synops
is and
artifact
s

We will use primary sources from 1500s history to see how language was different from
today. Looking at resources such as a letter from Christopher Columbus will portray an
accurate appraisal of how language was used back then. Students will be given different
excerpts of such materials and be asked to highlight/circle whatever immediately sticks
out. Then, students will be given a letter from civil war soldiers and be asked to go over the
letters again and pick out any more differences they see.

Assess
ment

Students will be asked to write their own letters in different styles of time periods,
mimicking the nuances of older English. This will be a formative assessment, and students
should be creative with the topic.

Differe
ntiatio
n

To make the assignment more suited to gifted learners, the assessment will also consist of
students writing a letter in a future style, predicting how language might change in the
progression of years to come.

Links
to
primar
y
source
s

Columbus letter:

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?
collId=rbesp&fileName=0001//rbesp0001.db&recNum=14&itemLink=r?
intldl/esbib:@field(NUMBER+@od1(rbesp+0001_0015))&linkText=0&presId
=esbib
Civil war letters: http://www.nps.gov/anti/learn/education/upload/Letters%20and%20Diaries

%20of%20Soldiers%20and%20Civilians.pdf.