Every name has a story.
It's the story of someone, usually a loving relative, looking down at a baby's face and choosing words filled with meaning, hopes and ambitions.
Wednesday I read some of those stories. I asked my students to write 8-10 sentences using simple present and past tense to explain the meaning and history of their name.
All of my students completed the assignment and all of them earned full credit.
What's more, I loved reading their submissions. I learned that "Al" is a definite article like "the" in Arabic. One student's last name means mayor, because his ancestor was the mayor of the town. Another student's name means "sweet" and was chosen by his older siblings. Another student wrote about how his parents chose his name with the hope that he would be successful in life.
In a few short, and often grammatically incorrect sentences, I witnessed words become sentences and sentences become a paragraph that conveyed meaning. I watched my students write a real story in English. Their story.
Great! That is exciting.
ReplyDeleteVery cool. I love those days when teaching actually works well.
ReplyDeleteIf the "sweet" student does not know the current slang in English, you need to tell her/him that "sweet" is a really good thing. Sweeeet!