“Harappan Script: That of the Harappan civilization, flourishing in the Indus valley in the 3rd-2nd millennia BC. Undeciphered and not demonstrably connected to later Indian scripts.”
Excerpted from: Matthews, P.H., ed. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Here are pair of context clues worksheets for words used regularly in social studies classes that always caused my students, particularly English language learners, a lot of confusion. The first is on the noun siege and the second is on the verb besiege. The verb is only used transitively, so you’ll need a direct object–something has to be besieged–a fort, a city, a building–you get the picture. And once one of these things has been besieged? Then it is under siege.
OK? Any questions?
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.
“Postpositive: Placed after another word or words, or suffixed, e.g. ‘murder most foul.’”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged diction/grammar/style/usage
This lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “At the Fair” is the last one in the second unit I wrote for this material; I have a third unit of twenty-four lessons, so if you like these and use them, I’ll be posting most if not all of those in the next three or so months.
I open this lesson after a class change with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the literary genre of the epic. You’ll need the PDF of the illustration and questions to investigate what did happen at the fair. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key to help you and your students will need to solve this heinous crime and arrest a suspect for its commission.
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.
“Troubadours: Poets of southern France, northern Italy, and Catalunya who flourished from the 12th to the 13th century and wrote primarily in Occitan. The term is derived from the Occitan verb trobar, to compose. Troubadour poetry is best known through the elaborately formal lyrical Canso which celebrated courtly love and chivalry, and for proposing a fusion of aesthetic sensibility with the ability to love. During the 13th century nonlyrical genres, such as the sirventes, and the narrative works, such as the Canso de la crozada, became prevalent. Eleanor of Aquitaine was a noted patron of troubadours who introduced troubadour themes and lyrical conventions at the courts of northern France. The trobairitz were female poets of southern France who wrote in Occitan in the same period. Most trobairitz, such as Beatrice de Dia, Cara d’Andeza, and Na Castelloza practiced the Canso and other lyric genres. (See TROUVERES; GUILLAUME IX; BERNARD DE VENTADOR; and BETRAN DE BORN.)”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
When I taught high school in Lower Manhattan, The Canterbury Tales was in the English Language Arts curricular cycle. I have always assumed that one of the big ideas in teaching this book was continuity and change, particularly where language is concerned. After all, this book is a significant moment in the evolution of English as a vernacular language.
I worked up this reading on Geoffrey Chaucer and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet to assist the kids in my classes to prepare to read and at least gain some understanding of the own of Chaucer.
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.
“Prepositive: Placed before another word or words, or prefixed, e.g., ‘most foul murder.’”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Several grammarians I follow have suggested, for reasons I don’t fully understand, that the subjunctive mood of verbs is obsolescent. I don’t see how that can be, but I’m only a lowly school teacher. For that reason, I think it’s important that we continue to help students use the subjunctive properly. I hope this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the subjunctive can assist such an endeavor.
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.
“Rotten Reviews: The Prelude (William Wordsworth)
‘The story is the old story. There are the old raptures about mountains and cataracts. The old flimsy philosophy about the effect of scenery on the mind; the old crazy mystical metaphysics; the endless wilderness of dull, flat, prosaic twaddle…,”
T.B. Macaulay, in his journal
Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
It’s Merriam-Webster’s word of the day today, so here is a context clues on the adjective capricious.
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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