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A great video for upper primary.
Etyomology.

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Find the creation of new words fascinating? Click here to find out more. How new words are born is a great article on this topic.

Loanwords are those words borrowed from another language. Here is a site with some great examples found in the English language. What do the words smorgasbord, karaoke, and bikini all have in common? Check out 20th century loanwords from the British Library. Can you think of any others? How about bayonet, ballet, and chef, all from the French language.

Finding this idea of creating new words fun? Watch this TED Talk: Go ahead, make up new words! Who decides if a word is "real?" Watch this TED Talk: What makes a word "real?" and find out.

What about combining two words into one? Watch this video from Oxford Dictionaries: What do you call a new word made by combining two other words?

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Where do new words come from? - Marcel Danesi

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There are over 170,000 words currently in use in the English language. Yet every year, about a thousand new words are added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Where do they come from, and how do they make it into our everyday lives? Marcel Danesi explains how new words enter a language.

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Understanding Language Difficulties Tn The Brain

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Understanding Language Difficulties Tn The Brain

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This one is for teachers interested in the brain and language

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Aphasia: The disorder that makes you lose your words - Susan Wortman-Jutt

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Language is an essential part of our lives that we often take for granted. But, if the delicate web of language networks in your brain became disrupted by stroke, illness, or trauma, you could find yourself truly at a loss for words. Susan Wortman-Jutt details a disorder called aphasia, which can impair all aspects of communication.

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History of how swear words developed. Very interesting. Could have some place in SEL lessons (Upper Primary) when talking about how we communicate with others. Does mention the word 'Sex' at one point but only in passing.

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If bad words are taboo, why do they make up such a significant part of our daily conversations? And where do they come from, anyway? Vsauce explains what makes bad words so ... bad.

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Some ideas on how to support explicit teaching of listening skills.

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We hear a lot about how to speak well in public, but very little about how to learn the equally important art of listening properly to others. This video describes four steps to becoming a good listener.

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A bit of history of how grammar developed.
Upper Primary
Oral language versus written language

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Let's Begin...

It can be hard sometimes, when speaking, to remember all of the grammatical rules that guide us when we're writing. When is it right to say "the dog and me" and when should it be "the dog and I"? Does it even matter? Andreea S. Calude dives into the age-old argument between linguistic prescriptivists and descriptivists - who have two very different opinions on the matter.

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About TED-Ed Animations

TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here "

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Does grammar matter? - Andreea S. Calude

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It can be hard sometimes, when speaking, to remember all of the grammatical rules that guide us when we're writing. When is it right to say "the dog and me" and when should it be "the dog and I"? Does it even matter? Andreea S.

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Excellent video.
Descriptive Writing.

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Can reading fiction actually build morality and help you grow as an individual? This article from the Boston Globe, " Why fiction is good for you," might just answer that question. Ohio State also weighs in on the discussion with this report, " Losing Yourself" in A Fictional Character Can Affect Your Real Life." Have you ever lost yourself in a book, unable to pull yourself away from it? Which one? Think about what the author did that made the book so special.

Find yourself so immersed in those electronic devices that you fail to read books anymore? Read this article from the New York Times and see what neuroscience has to say. Been a little crabby and not yourself? Pick up some fiction! Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer, might just snap you out of the doldrums! Get to the library or your bookshelf, find a nice comfy spot and get reading! Let a book cast a spell on you!

Why is it so important that children have books to read? Fiction books are especially essential for the development of empathy for others. Scientific American discusses this here: Novel Finding: Reading Literary Fiction Improves Empathy. Want to get smarter? Watch this video and find out how fiction can help: How Fiction Makes Our Brains Better. Finally, take a look at the, Top Ten Reasons to Read Fiction.

This TED-Ed lesson: How fiction can change reality discusses how popular fiction can spark public dialogue and affect culture. Want some more hints on writing fiction? Another TED-Ed lesson might just help: How to build a fictional world.

(Educator headshot by David Findlay, 2011)

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How to write descriptively - Nalo Hopkinson

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The point of fiction is to cast a spell, a momentary illusion that you are living in the world of the story. But as a writer, how do you suck your readers into your stories in this way? Nalo Hopkinson shares some tips for how to use language to make your fiction really come alive.

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To learn more about this punctuation mark, start by reading the two Grammar Girl posts here and here.

To understand the difference between grammar "rules" and grammar "style" choices, you'll want to look at a style guide or two. Below are the websites for several major English language style guides:

Want to improve (or test) your knowledge about punctuation? Take the TED-Ed Lessons described below:

The Oxford comma:
If you read "Bob, a DJ and a clown" on a guest list, are three people coming to the party, or only one? That depends on whether you're for or against the Oxford comma. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson to explore both sides of the comma divide.

How to use a semicolon:
It may seem like the semicolon is struggling with an identity crisis. It looks like a comma crossed with a period. Maybe that's why we toss these punctuation marks around like grammatical confetti; we're confused about how to use them properly. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson to see best practices for the semi-confusing semicolon.

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To learn more about this punctuation mark, start by reading the two Grammar Girl posts here and here. To understand the difference between grammar "rules" and grammar "style" choices, you'll want to look at a style guide or two. Below are the websites for several major English language style guides: Want to improve (or test) your knowledge about punctuation?

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History.
Explains some of the complexities of English

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Let's Begin...

When we talk about 'English', we often think of it as a single language. But what do the dialects spoken in dozens of countries around the world have in common with each other, or with the writings of Chaucer? Claire Bowern traces the language from the present day back to its ancient roots, showing how English has evolved through generations of speakers.

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About TED-Ed Animations

TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here "

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Where did English come from? - Claire Bowern

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When we talk about 'English', we often think of it as a single language. But what do the dialects spoken in dozens of countries around the world have in common with each other, or with the writings of Chaucer?

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It may seem like the semicolon is struggling with an identity crisis. It looks like a comma crossed with a period. Maybe that’s why we toss these punctuation marks around like grammatical confetti; we’re confused about how to use them properly. Emma Bryce clarifies best practices for the semi-con…

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Gine Cooke does great language videos.
This is the story of the word 'True'. Excellent for looking at root words and relationships between words

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Some Maths connections here!

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Mysteries of vernacular: Odd - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel

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Whether we're talking all things unusual or mathematical, the origins of the word odd point to the Indo-European root uzdho, which means pointing upwards. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel explain the evolution from the term for a triangle to a number indivisible by two and, eventually, to the peculiar.

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Interesting for discussions around how new words come to be.
Also good for discussing how certain sounds and therefore spelling words change over time .

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Mysteries of vernacular: Lady - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel

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Why do we call women ladies? Well, etymologically-speaking, the word comes from the Old English words for hlaf (bread) and daege (maid), which, combined, mean the female head of the household and eventually indicated high social standing. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel follow the word to its contemporary position simply describing a female.

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Another great maths connection

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Mysteries of vernacular: Zero - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel

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Though the first written number system can be dated back to 2500 years ago in Mesopotamia, a zero-like symbol did not appear until 7th century CE India. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel track the evolution of zero from a dot to the symbol we use today, as well as the Arabic, Italian and French roots of the word.

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Explanation of some irregularities in creation of plurals.
Quite funny!

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A brief history of plural word...s - John McWhorter

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All it takes is a simple S to make most English words plural. But it hasn't always worked that way (and there are, of course, exceptions). John McWhorter looks back to the good old days when English was newly split from German -- and books, names and eggs were beek, namen and eggru!

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One of my all tie favourites looking at root words

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This is a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago. http://www.etymonline.com/
We all know certain spelling errors are very common, such as miniscule or geneology. But how common exactly, and are they getting more or less common as time goes on? http://keithbriggs.info/spellometer.html
Spelling is the writing of one or more words with letters and diacritics. In addition, the term often, but not always, means an accepted standard spelling or the process of naming the letters. http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/spelling
On the history of spelling. by the Rev. Professor W. W. Skeat, LIT.D., LL.D., D.C.L., PH.D. Published on behalf of the Simplified Spelling Society by Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd. London. January 1941. First published December 1908. http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/pamflets/p1history.php
Real Spelling www.realspelling.com
WordWorks www.wordworkskingston.com
Real Spellers www.realspellers.org
This is a past TED conversation. Read throught the comments to see what other people think about spelling. "Punctuation marks are symbols that indicate structure and organisation. Spelling is the action of writing symbols so that these constitute meaningful structure (words) that in turn create longer structures (sentences, paragraphs, etc.) that convey meaning. But in the current world where technology is used more and more for communication purposes, what is the importance of correct spelling and punctuation? Isn't spelling reform a good idea? Do we still need punctuation?" http://www.ted.com/conversations/8529/does_punctuation_and_spelling.html
For other language and literature lessons from TED-Ed, check out this YouTube playlist: http://www.youtube.com/course?list=ECF9A468788928A351

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Why is there a "b" in doubt? - Gina Cooke

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Say the word "doubt" aloud. What is that "b" doing there? Does it have any purpose? Gina Cooke explains the long and winding history of "doubt" and why the spelling, though it seems random, is a wink to its storied past.

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Another favourite of mine!

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Usually when we spell a word, we only acknowledge the surface structure by naming out the letters: "<d-o-e-s> spelles does. However, words often have deeper structures that can help us make sense of the way they're spelled, and that can highlight their connections to other words. We can make sense of these deeper structures by using something called a word sum, a morphological algorithm for the written word. For example, <do> + <es> --> <does>. We read a word sum like this: "d-o plus e-s is rewritten as d-o-e-s."
We can also understand the structure of words by using the word matrix, a Real Spelling tool that is the lexical map of a word family -- words that share the same base element. http://www.realspelling.fr/Welcome_to_Real_Spelling/70-matrices.html
Research these tools for understanding spelling in this free video gallery: http://spelling.phanfare.com/5232742
In working with your regular vocabulary or spelling words, study how you can use word sums and/or matrices to connect how words are spelled with what they mean and how they make sense.
The English language is rich in homophones, words that sound the same, but have different meanings and thus different spellings. Words like heel and heal or pain and pane are homophones. The spelling <heal> serves a few purposes: the <ea> can change sounds so that the same spelling works in suffixed words like health and healthy. The <ea> also connects heal to the less common word hale, as in the saying hale and hearty. The words heal, health, and healthy all share a base element, <heal>. The words heal and hale share an etymology: their historical roots are related.
Often, people think that the presence of homophones in English means that our spelling system is crazy or doesn't make sense. However, homophones help our written language to make sense when we read it. Watch this short graphic on The Homophone Principle, and investigate the following pairs of homophones:
feat ~ feet; meet ~ meat; row ~ roe; mist ~ missed; profit ~ prophet; wine ~ whine; none ~ nun; peace ~ piece; knot ~ not ~ naught; rain ~ rein ~ reign; sense ~ cense ~ cents ~ scents
a. What do each of these words mean?
b. How are they built? Are there any prefixes or suffixes you can peel off? What is the base element? Is the base element free (a word on its own, like <one>) or bound (needs another written element in order to surface in a word, like <rupt>)? Remember to look for a silent <e> that may have been replaced by a vowel suffix (as in loving), or a consonant that may have been doubled when adding a vowel suffix (as in robber), or a <y> that's changed to an <i> (as in cried).
c. Do they have any relatives? Are there any morphological relatives, words that share a base element, like one and alone? Are there any etymological relatives, words with the same or related historical roots, like two and twin? The website http://www.etymonline.com is very helpful for looking into words' histories.
d. What aspects of their pronunciation is relevant to their spelling? What do we need to make sure to signal about the pronunciation of a word in its spelling? For example, in the word large, the final <g> is 'soft', so we need to make sure to put an <e> on the end to signal that. Otherwise, it would be pronounced differently: *larg would end with the same sound as log.
Consider how these questions can help you to understand how a word is spelled, and why it is spelled that way. Consider too how they help to make sense out of homophones. How does this change your understanding of English spelling? Why do you think that people persist in characterizing English spelling as random or crazy? Do you think that memorization or investigation is a better approach to learning about spelling?
Linguist~Educator Exchange http://linguisteducatorexchange.wordpress.com
Real Spelling www.realspelling.com
WordWorks www.wordworkskingston.com
Real Spellers www.realspellers.org
Erin McKean is a lexicographer. See her talk about building dictionaries: http://www.ted.com/talks/erin_mckean_redefines_the_dictionary.html
See a topic posted by Gina Cooke on the TED-Ed Community about teaching letters and sounds vs. letters and their names.

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What can spelling tell us about relationships between words? While spelling may sometimes seem random or unexpected, this lesson illuminates how peeling back the layers of spelling helps us understand the complex history and meaningful structure of words.

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It isn't easy holding complex sentences together (just ask a conjunction or a subordinate), but the clever little comma can help lighten the load. But how to tell when help is really needed? Terisa Folaron offers some tricks of the comma trade.

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Kids would love this particularly some of the less engaged writers

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Gayle was born in New York City and, at age 8 months, moved with her family to Atlanta, Georgia. It was not until after she finished school that she learned about slam poetry. She embraced it almost immediately won the 1994 National Individual Slam Poet in Ashville, NC just months after being exposed to slam poetry. In Heidelberg, Germany, she became the 1996 International Slam Poet Champion.
The mission of Poetry Slam Incorporated (PSI) is to promote the performance and creation of poetry while cultivating literary activities and spoken word events in order to build audience participation, stimulate creativity, awaken minds, foster education, inspire mentoring, encourage artistic statement and engage communities worldwide in the revelry of language.
Slam combines movement, voice, drama and the written word for an unforgettable spoken word experience. Slam made its debut back in the late 1980's in Chicago when a local poet named Marc Smith grew tired of the stale presentations of poetry that seemed to pervade the coffee shops and libraries around town. Thus slam was born as a way of expressing oneself briefly, powerfully and impactfully.
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary
organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience.
"If I should have a daughter, instead of Mom, she's gonna call me Point B ... " began spoken word poet Sarah Kay, in a talk that inspired two standing ovations at TED2011. She tells the story of her metamorphosis -- from a wide-eyed teenager soaking in verse at New York's Bowery Poetry Club to a teacher connecting kids with the power of self-expression through Project V.O.I.C.E. -- and gives two breathtaking performances of "B" and "Hiroshima."
By turn hilarious and haunting, poet Shane Koyczan puts his finger on the pulse of what it's like to be young and ... different. "To This Day," his spoken-word poem about bullying, captivated millions as a viral video (created, crowd-source style, by 80 animators). Here, he gives a glorious, live reprise with back story and violin accompaniment by Hannah Epperson.

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Become a slam poet in five steps - Gayle Danley

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With enough passion and practice, becoming a slam poet is within your reach. Explore a distant memory on paper, then read it out loud. Edit. Try reading it out loud again, and add your finishing touches. Gayle Danley offers five steps to being a slam poet -- while being downright poetic in the process.

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A fantastic video that explains how to slow down time in your writing. Used it in year 1 but could be applied for any year level. Good to then use film strip template for writing after viewing. Love this one!

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Slowing down time (in writing & film) - Aaron Sitze

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Certain moments in our lives seem to last forever. Whether it is a first kiss or a car crash, time can seem to stretch...or even stop. Aaron Sitze explains how this sensation is conveyed in cinema and how the same conventions can be used to slow down time in your writing.

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Cute video that kids would love. Good as a start for discussing broadeningvocabulary and improving descriptive writing

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Writers and speakers have given into the allure of the ease of using terms like good and bad in their works. Find five examples from different works (plays, speeches, television commercials, etc.), in which good and/or bad have been used. Create a Prezi presentation that illustrates the examples you have found along with how you would revise these sentences to create greater clarity.
Select a term that you feel should also be stricken from the English language. Write an argumentative essay that delineates the reasons that this term should be eliminated. You may use the theme of a trial (as this essay did), or create your own theme for your essay. Present the argument to your class. Then have the class vote on whether or not to keep the term in the English language or to eradicate it.
Online Thesaurus http://thesaurus.com
Other Ways to Improve Your Writing http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/600/01/

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The case against "good" and "bad" - Marlee Neel

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Writers and speakers have given into the allure of the ease of using terms like good and bad in their works. Find five examples from different works (plays, speeches, television commercials, etc.), in which good and/or bad have been used.

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Fantastic Resources for etymology and for those kids that needs some extension

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TED-Ed celebrates the ideas of teachers and students around the world. Discover hundreds of animated lessons, create customized lessons, and share your big ideas.

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Bloody funny but NOT for kids.

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Владимир Кобелев

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Quite an entertaining video which opens up discussions about peculiarities in English spelling and history of some words.

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Where do nicknames come from? Why are Ellens called Nellie and Edwards Ned? It's all a big misunderstanding from the early days of the English language, a misunderstanding that even the word nickname itself derives from. John McWhorter tracks the accidental evolution of some familiar diminutives.

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I would not show the video at first, just use the song. Get the student listening for the sounds and remember that the letters are graphemes that represent phonemes (sounds). The letter are symbols. They don't make sounds.

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Uploaded by Genimar Aranguren on 2015-09-07.

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Please beware that /w/ should not be pronounced with the schwa on the end. The song does actually teach the incorrect pronunciation

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Jolly Phonics is a program designed to help children learn the name and sounds of letters. I have put together all the Jolly Phonic songs from Phase Two, which consists all the letter sounds from A-Z apart from Q as it is a tricky sound and is part of Phase Three as 'qu'.

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I think it is funny that for the grapheme 'ou' they use 'Ow' as in exclaiming pain. Interesting point for discussion that we write 'ouch' but the exclamation is spelled 'ow'. Wonder why?