Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective vulgar. It means, in the context these sentences supply, “lacking in cultivation, perception, or taste,” “coarse,” “morally crude, undeveloped, or unregenerate,” and “gross.” I don’t recall using this in the classroom, but I remember vividly writing it the day after a former president mocked a disabled reporter.

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.

Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun farrago. It means “a confused mixture” and “hodgepodge.” I have to believe that this was a Word of the Day from Merriam-Webster during the pandemic lock-down, and, with little else to do, I wrote this. I guess I’ll add it to the growing, and therefore mildly embarrassing, list of words on this blog that students really don’t need to know.

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.

Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun tribune. This word means, for the context in which it is embedded in this document, “a Roman official under the monarchy and the republic with the function of protecting the plebeian citizen from arbitrary action by the patrician magistrates,” and, more pointedly, “an unofficial defender of the rights of the individual.” I can say with complete confidence that I wrote this in the years I taught Freshman Global Studies in New York City. But the basic concept of the tribune–a defender of the rights of the individual–seems like a concept students should understand.

However, writing context for this noun wasn’t easy, and I am still not fully confident this document meets its goal–i.e. helping students to infer the meaning for the word from the context in which it is situated. 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.