Class: Prima Lingua (6th grade)

Query: How might we use derivatives as component pieces that together showcase the theme of the root word?

Students in Prima Lingua explore the connections across languages. In this word study, each student selected a word in Latin and researched its derivative words in many other languages. Seeing these connections in words — in the stems of the words and their meanings, despite differences in languages — students made models to represent these connections. A prison break, with prisoners labeled x, y, and z, spills out of the prison marked liber (“free” in Latin).  A galaxy of stars with astronomical words in 6 languages circles a Latin stella. Students developed their own mental models of how languages are connected and evolve over time; and they expressed these models in unique physical representations. The entire 6th grade celebrated the Derivative Fair together, writing “warm & fuzzies” next to each others’ projects instead of voting on a fan favorite.

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