One short German word covers a subject on the school timetable and a compartment in the kitchen cupboard: 'Fach'.
This is an illustrated, black-and-white word history in eleven picture cards, with a pronunciation page, a word-history page and a sources page. It prints two ways: a deck to laminate, punch and put on a ring, or a single sheet to print and use as it is.
'Fach' is German for a school subject, and for a compartment: one shelf of a cupboard, one pocket of a bag. Opera singers have a 'Fach' too: the type of role their voice suits.
The describing word made from 'Fach', 'fachlich', with a panel on when it takes an ending and one on its English cousin '-ly'.
The etymology comic: seven black-and-white illustrated panels, from a school timetable back to a river barrier more than 1200 years old, each with a short caption.
A pronunciation page giving 'Fach' as FAKKH and the plural 'Fächer' as FEKH-uh, with the IPA beside each.
A map panel showing the word's cousins in Dutch and Old English.
The word-history breakdown, stage by stage, with a date wherever the record gives one.
A sources page and a short guide for the adult on using the cards.
For personal use in home education and tutoring only.
Print it one way and you get a deck: large cards, one idea each, to laminate and put on a single binder ring, so the history can be laid out across the table in order and shuffled back together. Print it the other way and you get one page holding the whole word, ready as it comes off the printer. The deck is yours to put together (it doesn't arrive made up), so you'll need a printer, a laminator and a ring; the single page needs only the printer.
The cards suit:
pupils starting the school topic in German at KS3
anyone revising German school vocabulary for GCSE
home-educating families working through German together
dyslexic learners, and those with weak working memory, who keep a word better when it comes with a picture
adults brushing up German alongside a child
'Fach' turns up inside many longer German words a learner meets at school and on holiday. Once the short word has a picture attached, the longer ones are easier to take apart.
I first made these for a ten-year-old with an interest in German words.
Other school subjects in Die Wortwerkbank: 'Erdkunde' (geography) and 'Geschichte' (history).
For the thinking behind teaching a language through word histories, there's a Compendium post on modern languages and dyslexia.
Available now as a PDF download
One short German word covers a subject on the school timetable and a compartment in the kitchen cupboard: 'Fach'.
This is an illustrated, black-and-white word history in eleven picture cards, with a pronunciation page, a word-history page and a sources page. It prints two ways: a deck to laminate, punch and put on a ring, or a single sheet to print and use as it is.
'Fach' is German for a school subject, and for a compartment: one shelf of a cupboard, one pocket of a bag. Opera singers have a 'Fach' too: the type of role their voice suits.
The describing word made from 'Fach', 'fachlich', with a panel on when it takes an ending and one on its English cousin '-ly'.
The etymology comic: seven black-and-white illustrated panels, from a school timetable back to a river barrier more than 1200 years old, each with a short caption.
A pronunciation page giving 'Fach' as FAKKH and the plural 'Fächer' as FEKH-uh, with the IPA beside each.
A map panel showing the word's cousins in Dutch and Old English.
The word-history breakdown, stage by stage, with a date wherever the record gives one.
A sources page and a short guide for the adult on using the cards.
For personal use in home education and tutoring only.
Print it one way and you get a deck: large cards, one idea each, to laminate and put on a single binder ring, so the history can be laid out across the table in order and shuffled back together. Print it the other way and you get one page holding the whole word, ready as it comes off the printer. The deck is yours to put together (it doesn't arrive made up), so you'll need a printer, a laminator and a ring; the single page needs only the printer.
The cards suit:
pupils starting the school topic in German at KS3
anyone revising German school vocabulary for GCSE
home-educating families working through German together
dyslexic learners, and those with weak working memory, who keep a word better when it comes with a picture
adults brushing up German alongside a child
'Fach' turns up inside many longer German words a learner meets at school and on holiday. Once the short word has a picture attached, the longer ones are easier to take apart.
I first made these for a ten-year-old with an interest in German words.
Other school subjects in Die Wortwerkbank: 'Erdkunde' (geography) and 'Geschichte' (history).
For the thinking behind teaching a language through word histories, there's a Compendium post on modern languages and dyslexia.
Available now as a PDF download
