Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Boilerplate

Posted on July 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Boilerplate (noun): Standard, stereotypical news stories, features, etc., syndicated to newspapers; ready-to-print copy; pedestrian or hackneyed writing (from the printer’s matrix or plate form). Adj. boilerplate

‘In newspaper jargon, you might call all this the boiler plate of the novel—durable informative matter set up in stereotype and sold to country newspapers as filler to eke out a scarcity of local news, i.e of ‘plot.’ And the novel, like a newspaper boiler plate, contains not only a miscellany of odd facts but household hints and how-to-do-it instructions (you can learn how to make strawberry jam from Anna Karenina and how to reap a field and hunt ducks).’ Mary McCarthy, On the Contrary”

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

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Model (n), Model (vi/vt), Model (adj)

Posted on July 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here are a pair of context clues worksheets, the first on on model as a noun and the second on model as a verb. The word, as you surely know, also has use as an adjective; a couple of days after publishing this post, while rummaging around in my data warehouse, I found this worksheet on model as an adjective, so for the purposes of this post, you have a complete set from which to choose. Incidentally, the verb is used both intransitively and transitively.

It is generally the practice at Mark’s Text Terminal to provide the definitions on the face of the post. However, these are polysemous words, so I’ll recommend you find them in a dictionary (preferably Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate, 11th Edition, the house lexicon on this blog) to determine which meaning you want to emphasize with your students. Editorially, let me mention that these words offer teachers a chance to help students to understand polysemy, which might help them understand (and I would argue this is vital information for English language learners) why English can be a challenging language to master.

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: Folk Music

Posted on July 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on folk music. This is a half-page worksheet with a relatively short reading and three comprehension questions.

The reading implies, but does not spell out, the concept of folkways. I never understood, in my years teaching both English and social studies, why folkways as a concept was never taught explicitly, thereby offering students the opportunity to instantiate or reify it in their own lives; many of the students I served in New York City were of families recently immigrated to the United States. Understanding folkways, and using that understanding to distinguish between folkways and mores strikes me as a key element of any academic domain at the secondary level that calls itself “social studies.”

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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Palindrome

Posted on July 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Palindrome: 1. A word, phrase, or longer expression that reads the same backward as it does forwards: for example, the words level and noon, and the phrases, and the phrases Madam, I’m Adam, and Able was I ere I saw Elba. 2. Also reversal, semordnilap (a reversal backward palindrome). A word that spells another word when reversed: for example, doom, evil, warts, and the trade names Serutan, Trebor.”

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

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The Weekly Text, 16 July 2021: A Lesson Plan on Nations with the Longest Coastlines from The Order of Things

Posted on July 16, 2021 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on nations with the longest coastlines. You’ll need this reading with comprehension questions to teach this lesson. This is material for emerging reader, students with reading-related learning disorders, and English language learners.

This is a short and simple reading comprehension lesson with the usual twist on these lessons adapted from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s superb reference book, The Order of Things: students will deal with both numbers and words (often a challenging endeavor for some readers) in the reading in a relatively low-stakes environment. For more about these lessons, see the “About Posts & Texts” page, linked to below the masthead on this blog’s homepage.

That’s it for this week, Stay cool and stay safe,

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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Cultural Literacy: Catherine the Great

Posted on July 16, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Catherine the Great. To my surprise, this is the first material on the Empress I have published on this blog.

She is without question a world-historical figure, and probably of interest to a certain type of student, probably female. In any case, I’ll make a point of producing a couple of more posts about it.

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: Blast/o

Posted on July 16, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Greek word root blasto/o. It means “cell, cell layer, immature cell, and “primitive bud.”

As you will see when you read the words under review, this isn’t a root that produces a lot of high-frequency words in English. But these words, if the the book from which the text for this document is drawn can be trusted, these words do turn up on the SAT. And if you have students planning careers in the health care professions? This is definitely a word root they should 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.

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Ink

Posted on July 15, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Ink, n. A villainous compound of tannogallate of iron, gum-arabic, and water, chiefly used to facilitate the infection of idiocy and promote intellectual crime. The properties of ink are peculiar and contradictory: it may be used to make reputations and unmake them; to blacken them and to make them white; but it is most generally and acceptably employed as a mortar to bind together the stones in an edifice of fame, and as a whitewash to conceal afterward the rascal quality of the material. There are men called journalists who have established ink baths which some persons pay money to get into, others to get out of. Not infrequently it occurs that a person who has paid to get in pays twice as much to get out.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000. 

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Zenger Trial

Posted on July 15, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on the Zenger Trial along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This is a relatively short reading as selections from the Intellectual Devotional series go, but the worksheet conforms to this blog’s standard: eight vocabulary words to define, eight comprehension questions, and three “additional facts” questions.

This piece of litigation from colonial-era America was barely on my radar screen until it popped up as a question on the United States history College Level Examination (CLEP) test. To summarize even beyond the limits of this short reading, John Peter Zenger published a newspaper in New York City, The New York Weekly Journal. Zenger used his paper to criticize the colonial governor of New York, William Cosby. Cosby accused Zenger of libel and sedition and in November of  However, a grand jury refused to indict Zenger (which, if memory serves, indicated Cosby’s popularity). In 1735, Zenger was acquitted of the charges against him. His case, in American history, is often cited as the birth of the principle of free press in the United States.

In other words, in many respects, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution has its roots in the Zenger Affair.

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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Mellifluous (adj)

Posted on July 14, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective mellifluous. It means “having a smooth rich flow <a mellifluous voice> and “filled with something (as honey) that sweetens.”

It’s not a word used with any real frequency in English. But when you need it–as when it’s time to express one’s feelings about, say, Nina Simone’s voice–well, nothing else will quite do, you 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.

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