Category Archives: Worksheets

Classroom documents for student use. Most are structured and scaffolded, and most are pitched at a fundamental level in terms of the questions they ask and the work and understandings they require of students.

Cultural Literacy: Ghettos

Posted on August 20, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on ghettos. This is a half-page worksheet with a two-sentence reading and two comprehension questions.

Generally, I try to guide students toward the definition of ghetto that characterizes the concept the word represents as “a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure.” If you need to teach about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April of 1943, this worksheet could serve as a good instruction: the first sentence reports that ghettos were, “Originally, areas of medieval cities in which Jews were compelled to live.” However, the second sentence continues, “Today, the term usually refers to sections of American cities inhabited by the poor.” Happily, then, this document does not racialize the noun ghetto–making it, I would argue, useful for opening a discussion about the racialization of certain words in English–if you’re so inclined to do so.

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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Word Root Exercise: Duc, Duct

Posted on August 20, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Latin word roots duc and duct. They mean to lead. You’ll find this root in a variety of high-frequency words in English, including conduct, deduce, deduct, and seduce. You’ll also find it in aqueduct and abduct.

So, there are a total of eight words on this worksheet, all of them, nearly inarguably, words students should know before they graduate high school. I hope this document presents an efficient way to inculcate these words into students’ vocabulary.

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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Aghast (adj)

Posted on August 20, 2021 | Leave a comment

It’s the Word of the Day at Merriam-Webster, so here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective aghast. It means “struck with terror, amazement, or horror” and “shocked.”

The word derives from the Middle English verb gasten, “to frighten.” As you may perceive, this is also the source of the adjective ghastly. Not surprising, I suppose, since things that are ghastly generally cause us to feel aghast.

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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Winnow (vi/vt)

Posted on August 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb winnow. It’s used both intransitively and transitively. As I started writing this, I was surprised to learn the complicated set of definitions this word carries.

For this worksheet, I’ve limited the context to elicit the definition shown in the Merriam-Webster widget on my iPad, to wit “to sort or separate something.” This is the meaning of winnow in the vernacular, so I hope it serves students well.

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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Sex Change Surgery

Posted on August 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on sex change surgery along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Lest you misunderstand, this is not about the medical science or procedure of gender affirmation surgery.

Rather, it is about the infamous John/Joan case. The reading nicely job summarizes the tragic story of David Reimer, whose parents made the mistake of deferring to the New Zealand psychologist John Money. Money, who apparently coined the terms “gender identity” and “gender role,” appears to me to be at least culpable in, if not the direct cause of, the suicides of David Reimer and his twin brother. I wrote this material (using, once again, a reading from the Intellectual Devotional series) during the pandemic; as of this writing, I have not used this material with students. Nonetheless, I have tagged this post’s documents as high-interest material. Unless I miss my guess, students will indeed find these documents of considerable interest.

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.

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Cultural Literacy: George III

Posted on August 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on George III. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences  and three short comprehension questions.

In other words, this is a short and basic, though, it is worth mentioning, well-balanced, introduction to the monarch whom Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, accused in that document of, among many other things, refusing “…his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”

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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Common Errors in English Usage: Forceful (adj), Forcible (adj), and Forced (adj)

Posted on August 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on differentiating the adjectives forceful, forcible, and forced. This is a full-page worksheet with a good deal of supporting text and ten modified cloze exercises.

I confess that when I began using my first copy of William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White’s The Elements of Style, and read Mr. White’s introduction, in which he notes that Strunk “…disliked the word forceful and advised us to use forcible instead…” I wondered why the fuss. Since then, I have developed an affection for both The Elements of Style and the finer points of usage.

Whatever the fuss about forceful and forcible (and forced), the point of these worksheets is to meet the Common Core Standard–i.e. “Standard (L.11-12.1b): Resolve issues of complex or contested usage, consulting references, (e.g., Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, Garner’s Modern American Usage) as needed”–on usage, and teach students the nuances of using 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.

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Word Root Exercise: Andr/o

Posted on August 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Greek root andr/o. It means male, man, and stamen. You’ll find this root at the base of the verb philander, the noun android, and an adjective high schoolers, in my experience, are always interested to learn, androgynous. 

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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A Learning Support on Using Infinitives

Posted on August 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a learning support on using infinitives in sentences. You know that to form of a verb, as in to install, to defenestrate (defenestration is the Word of the Day today at Merriam-Webster) and to stir. I’m working a range of new materials on using gerunds and infinitives in sentences–they’ll soon begin to appear here–and realized I needed a support on infinitives.

So here it is.

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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Scuttlebutt (n)

Posted on August 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun scuttlebutt. The context provides support for inferring the simplest vernacular meaning of this word, i.e. “rumor” and “gossip.” (But did you know it also means “a cask on shipboard to contain freshwater for a day’s use” and “a drinking fountain on a ship or at a naval or marine installation”? I didn’t.)

This is too slangy a noun, I submit, for use in academic prose–though it would make for some snappy dialogue in, say, something along the lines of a Damon Runyon story. I’m not sure how I ended up with this other than it must of been the Word of the Day on Merriam-Webster at some point.

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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