Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Slipshod (adj)

Posted on January 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

I don’t know how often it is used these days, but if you have an idea that your students should know it and understand how to use it, here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective slipshod. It means, for the purposes of this document, “shabby,” “careless,” and “slovenly.”

Its primary meaning, as it sounds and dating from 1580, is “wearing loose shoes or slippers.” But it also means “down at the heel.” All of this is to say that this was almost certainly a Word of the Day at Merriam Webster at the height of the first pandemic surge in the late winter and early spring of 2020.

Wait: has this really continued for almost two years now?

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Worksheets

Tagged , ,

Cultural Literacy: Tip of the Iceberg

Posted on January 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “tip of the iceberg.” This metaphor remains in sufficiently common use, I think, that students, especially students for whom English is a second language, might want to learn it at some point. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two compound sentences and three comprehension questions. With characteristic brevity, the authors of the passaage (i.e., the authors and editors of the The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy) convey that this idiom indicates “Only a hint or suggestion of a much larger or more complex issue or problem.”

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged , , ,

Skepticism

Posted on January 5, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on skepticism along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This reading’s brevity should not distract from the fact (ironic, I know, to use that noun in a post containing a reading about skepticism) that it is a good general introduction to the topic of skepticism and its intellectual and philosophical principles.

And editorially, if I may? I cannot imagine a better time to teach this important mode of thought and analysis to students. In an age where social media has made it possible to spread mendacity and utter nonsense around the world with the stroke of a key, we owe it to students, and to civil society, to put this concept and its tools in the public square.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , , , ,

Common Errors in English Usage: If Not

Posted on January 5, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the use of “if not” as a means linking a weaker word with a stronger one, as in “He was smart, if not exactly brilliant.” This is a full-page reading with a five sentence reading, ten modified cloze exercises, and a word bank to assist students with word choice if they want or need that support.

To give credit where credit is due, I like to always mention, when posting these English usage documents, that they are based upon Paul Brians’ book (hence the header of each post) Common Errors in English Usage. If you’re interested, Professor Brians allows unfettered access at no charge to the book at the Washington State University website.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged ,

Word Root Exercise: Micro-

Posted on January 5, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Greek root micro-. This root is so productive in English that I imagine it would be hard to find anyone over the age of five who doesn’t understand that it means “small.” It also means, according to the book from which I drew the text at the base of all the word root exercises found on this blog, “millionth.”

This productive root can be found at the base of such high-frequency words in general discourse as microphone and microwave as well as scientific vocabulary like microbe and microclimate.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged , , , , ,

Anticlimax

Posted on January 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Anticlimax: 1. In rhetoric, a descent from the elevated and important to the low and trivial: ‘Here thou, Great Anna! whom three realms obey,/Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea’ (Pope, The Rape of the Lock, (1712). 2. In drama, the lowered state after a climax; in life, an outcome that fails to live up to expectations.”

Excerpted from: McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference

Tagged , , , ,

Pulchritude (n)

Posted on January 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

While it is far from a high-frequency word (which means I almost certainly wrote it during the height of the first wave of the Covid pandemic, when it popped up as the Word of the Day at Merriam-Webster), here is a context clues worksheet on the noun pulchritude. It means “physical comeliness,” i.e. “beauty.” An old friend of mine would refer affectionately to his wife as a “pulchritudinous little plumcake,” which is the first time and place I heard the word.

In any case, the word stems from the Latin root pulcher. As Merriam Webster puts it, “Pulcher hasn’t exactly been a wellspring of English terms…”. While I am not a betting man, if I were, I would wager that Pulcinella, a figure from commedia dell’arte (and namesake of the superb ballet by Igor Stravinsky) has a name that originates with pulcher.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Worksheets

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Apercu

Posted on January 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Apercu (noun): A quick, penetrating insight; immediate expression.

‘The program won an Emmy award in 1969, and its host, though frequently controversial for his acerbic apercus, has earned the respect of conservatives and liberals alike.’ Michio Kakutani, The New York Times”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference

Tagged ,

Cultural Literacy: Socioeconomic Status

Posted on January 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on socioeconomic status. This is a half-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. For a document this concise, this is a thorough introduction to the topic. A good start on a complex, entrenched, sociological phenomenon.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , ,

Real Numbers

Posted on January 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on real numbers along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I want to state unequivocally that not only am I not a math teacher, I was a terrible math student. I consider my lack of understanding of the fundamentals of mathematics–by which I mean, I suppose, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry–something a personal failing. And while I have always found Fran Leibowitz’s indictment of algebra (“In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra”) humorous, it is pretty thin gruel when I attempt to take some comfort in my own ignorance of the subject.

At a couple of points in my otherwise comfortably math-free teaching career, I have been called upon to teach math (which for me means arithmetic, or even basic numeracy) to small classes of special needs students. Hence the origins of these documents.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,