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.

Callow (adj)

It’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, so here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective callow. It means “lacking adult sophistication” and “immature.” For some reason, this is a word I’ve always liked to use–it seems to me to have an onomatopoeic quality. I think the context is strong, so students will probably infer quickly the meaning of this adjective.

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.

Cultural Literacy: Franchise

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the business concept of a franchise. This is a half-page worksheet with a relatively dense three-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. Surprisingly, in so brief a reading, all the relevant bases are covered in the relationship between a franchisor and a franchisee. So this is a thorough general introduction (I worked in a business- and finance-themed high school in Lower Manhattan for ten years, so I’m sure I wrote this for use in one or more classes), but there is plenty of room to expand this document, which is easily done since it is formatted in Microsoft Word.

I don’t want to belabor the point, but this worksheet as nothing to do with the the word franchise in the meaning for which it has recently been ubiquitous in the news (because of state legislatures across the United States seeking to restrict it), to wit, “a constitutional or statutory right or privilege; especially the right to vote.” In fact, if you click through on the link above in this paragraph, it will take you to Merriam-Webster’s extensive definition of this  polysemous word. Did you know it also has use as a verb, i.e. “to grant a franchise to”?

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.

Kim Philby

Here is a reading on Kim Philby along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I have always found Philby a fascinating figure.

But so are the rest of the so-called Cambridge Five. Without them, one wonders, would John LeCarre (real name David Cornwell) have become a novelist? Betrayal of one’s country and fellows was a preoccupation of LeCarre’s. These guys–Philby, Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess, John Cairncross, and Donald Maclean–most certainly betrayed Great Britain.

This is another reading from the Intellectual Devotional series whose typescripts and ancillary worksheet I developed during the COVID19 pandemic. As of this writing, I haven’t used these documents in the classroom. Nonetheless, I have tagged them as high-interest materials because I am confident that for the right student(s), they will be.

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.

Common Errors in English Usage: Fiance (n), Fiancee (n)

Here is a worksheet on sorting out the use of the nouns fiance and fiancee. It’s quite simple: they are, respectively, a male and female noun.

As with all of the documents under this title, Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage, which he has generously made available on the Washington State University website. This is a full-page worksheet with a simple one-sentence reading and ten modified cloze exercise. You may do what you wish with this essentially open-source, Microsoft Word document.

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.

Portend (vt)

Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb portend. It means “to give an omen or anticipatory sign of.” This verb is used only transitively, so don’t forget your direct object: something must portend something else, e.g. “Thunder and lightning portend rain.”

This comes to English from Latin, which is no surprise. The Romans had great faith in portents, and heeded them willingly. In fact, Roman priests sought auguries in the flights of birds. But that’s the subject of another post.

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.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Here is a reading on Dwight D. Eisenhower along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet

This is a good general introductory biography of Ike; it includes information about his military service and his political career, including his firm support for enforcing the Brown v. Board of Education decision. What it doesn’t mention, and which it may serve as a convenient jumping-off point for, is his famous farewell address, in which he coined the term “Military-Industrial Complex.”

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.

Cultural Literacy: Free Will

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of free will. This is a half-page worksheet with a two-sentence reading and three comprehension questions.

In other words, it barely introduces, and in no way does justice to, one of the big, big questions in philosophy and religion. But as an adjunct to a fictional allegory on protagonists with circumscribed lives? This might be a useful document. In any case, it is formatted (like most of the things you’ll find on this blog) in Microsoft Word, so it is open source and therefore yours to do with as you need or wish.

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.

Word Root Exercise: Corp/o, Corpor, Corpus

Here is a worksheet on the Latin roots corp/o,corpor,and corpus. They mean, collectively, body. While that is literal in the sense of the human body, as in corpse or corporeal, it is also figurative, as in corporation.

This is a very productive root in English as well as across the Romance languages. Students would benefit from knowing it, I submit. But what do you think?

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.

Garnish (vt)

It’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, so here is a context clues worksheet on the verb garnish. It’s used only transitively, so don’t forget your direct object: you must garnish something.

The context in this worksheet seeks to elicit from students the culinary definition of garnish, to wit, “to add decorative or savory touches to (food or drink).” To that end, it might be complementary to this trove of documents I posted a couple of years ago for building a lexicon in the culinary arts.

In any event, garnish has a complicated etymology that includes the idea of garnishing wages (though, interestingly, a definition for that act–depriving someone of earnings to settle outstanding debts–is not part of the set of definitions for garnish as a verb), and “decorating,” “furnishing,” and “embellishing.” Another definition is “to equip with accessories.”  Whatever–that’s enough garnish on this blog post.

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.

Glasnost

Here is a reading on Glasnost along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. As I was a Russian and Soviet Studies student at both the undergraduate and graduate level, I can tell you that this one-page reading, from the Intellectual Devotional series, does justice to the topic.

Incidentally, the Russian word root glas means “voice.” So, while one popular definition of glasnost is “openness,” it also means, as this definition from Merriam-Webster’s connotes, the freedom to use one’s voice to discuss previously circumscribed or forbidden topics.

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.