“Realism: Fidelity to natural appearances without slavish attention to minute details (see Naturalism). As a movement, it goes back to Courbet and Manet in the 1850s and culminates in Impressionism.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
Alright, last but not least this morning here is a worksheet on the proper use of the locutions me either and me neither. There are rules for this, but I doubt they are as vital to our students’ ability to write well as other things you’ll find on this blog under the Common Errors in English Usage header.
This is full-page worksheet with reading of reading of two sentences and two short reading prompts. Perhaps I misspoke above: this may be the least of the six posts published today.
And please don’t forget that Professor Paul Brians, the author of Common Errors in English Usage, allows access to the book at his web page at Washington State University.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“socioeconomic status: A term used to describe the home backgrounds of individuals or groups, taking into account such elements as family income and education attainment.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
Alright, moving right along this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on slang. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences and three comprehension questions. A basic but thorough introduction to this concept in linguistics.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Diminutive (noun): A word or word element indicating (often by addition of a suffix) small size or familiarly lovable, pitiable, or dismissible qualities, sometimes condescendingly. Adverb: diminutively.
‘My grandmother, too, used to put other people’s ailments into the diminutive; strokelets were what her friends had. Aldo said he was bored to tearsies by my grandmother’s diminutives.’ Renata Adler, Speedboat“
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
How’s your summer starting out? I’m retiring on 1 August. Enough said.
In the meantime, here is fourth lesson plan of the Introduction to Writing Sentences Unit, this one on writing the simple sentence. This lesson opens, in a rare feat of alignment at Mark’s Text Terminal, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the simple sentence; this is half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. A solid introduction to this sentence structure, with students called upon to write a simple sentence of their own using a mentor text as a model.
And here is the scaffolded worksheet that is the centerpiece of this lesson; it asks students to try their own hands at composing simple sentences as a process for developing their own understanding of this form.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Directly for Immediately. ‘I will come directly’ means that I will come by the most direct route.”
Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.
Adapted from Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage (to which he allows no-cost access at his Washington State University web page), here is a worksheet on the proper use of the auxiliary verbs may and might. This is full-page worksheet with a reading of four short paragraphs, five modified cloze exercises, and an imperative for students to compose their own sentences, from subject to period, using one of these auxiliary verbs.
Incidentally, I have struggled over time to figure out a way to teach the use of auxiliary and modal verbs. They present a tricky area of usage. I’d like to think this worksheet, informed by Professor Brians’ crystal clear style, goes some distance to clearing up the use of these two words.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“diamond: [ME] The name of the gem derives from a medieval Latin alteration of Latin adamans ADAMANT. Adamant was a legendary rock or mineral of many supposed properties. One of these was hardness, which was a reason why people sometimes identified it with diamond. A diamond is forever was used as an advertising slogan for De Beers Consolidated Mines from the late 1940s onwards, and in 1956 Ian Fleming used Diamonds are Forever as the title of his latest James Bond thriller, but the idea was first expressed by the American writer Anita Loos, in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925). ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend‘ was a song written by Leo Robin and Jule Styne for the 1949 stage musical of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”
Excerpted from: Creswell, Julia. Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Now seems like a good time to publish this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the political doctrine of internationalism. This is a half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading and two comprehension questions. A bare-bones but effective introduction to a concept that, were it ever to catch on with any permanence, might just make the world a better place.
Really.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
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