Have you ever wondered how a language develops? Well I have and I thought it would be a wonderful project for the students to investigate. Just in talking with my own children, who are now in their teens, I will be snickered at because of some outdated use of our language. They may even ask me to interpret, like I was speaking a foreign language. GEE WHIZ!! There are several different avenues one could take the students down in this venture. Interviews with grandparents, parents, and other teachers could give them a list of words and phrases that have changed meaning and possibly even become extinct. Another avenue would take the students to a large library where they could browse through some really "old" literature to add to the list of "outdated" words and phrases. Yet another group will wander down Report Lane and write on how the English language originated. Did it start at the Tower of Babel? What's its history? The project would come to life if several classes around the country would connect through E-mail. As an interested teacher you could telnet to the Cleveland Freenet. This tel- net site can be accessed from: telnet freenet-in-a.cwru.edu or telnet 129.22.8.44. Once at the Main Menu select the Arts Building. Now that you are in the Arts Building you will choose Literary Arts from the menu. Read about the area and then choose the appropriate Bulletin Board for your age students. (This area may also be accessed under Academy One, Kid-Lit menu.) Exchanging funny phrases and word meanings over the Bulletin Boards would keep the students excited and more than likely entertained. The grand finale will be the SNIGLET PROJECT. These are words that appear to be words but are not found in the dictionary--yet. Examples: an informary - The place where you keep the piles of stuff that you have accumulated while down- loading files off your computer. a snipit - an "R" rated sniglet. How to implement. This will more than likely be a 4 - 6 week project. You will want to make sure that you have enough time to complete it. Recruit at least one other class to collaborate with through telecommunications. Once this is done you need to break up into teams or units each with a different assignment. Team one--interviews. Team two--browse through "old" literature. Team three--brainstorm for ideas on why words change meaning and where new words come from. Team four--a report on the history of the English Language. At least once a week the classes need to get on line and share some of the interesting items they have discovered and chuckle together. The age of the students will determine the level of telecommunications involvment. Older students would be able to use nationwide library searches in their reports, etc. Once all team assignments have been completed the information would need to be compiled and put into a unified report. The instructors involved could best determine how to do this. This report will be so enlightening that the participants will want to place it in one of the Journal sections back at the Cleveland Freenet. Now for the icing on the cake. Make up your own SNIGLETS. Have each class come up with say ten to twenty sniglets (words that look like words but are not found in the dictionary--yet!) These will be exchanged with the other participating classes. If the students have a definition in mind do not pass this along, as part of the fun will be to see what the other class thinks the meaning is. My guess is that your meanings for the words will not even come close to what the other students come up with. You will be doing the same with the SNIGLETS you are given. Be sure to end with the TOP 10 list and post them for others to see and "use". Now wait and see if any of these SNIGLETS show up in a dictionary 20 years from now!!
