Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Cultural Literacy: Hoi Polloi

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the noun hoi polloi, from the ancient Greek meaning “the many.” This noun phrase isn’t much used anymore, perhaps because it has negative or even contemptuous connotations. Still, if we want to produce educated citizens who are capable of sustaining a civil society, this might be a word and concept for them to understand.

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.

The Weekly Text, November 20, 2020: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Walt Disney

This week’s Text is a simple one, to wit this reading on Walt Disney and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This is relatively high-interest material for students, at least many I’ve served. There are relatively few children in our society (and arguably in any society) whose imagination Walt Disney and his characters haven’t colonized.

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: Shrunk (pp), Shrank (vi/vt)

If you’re a stickler for usage, or want to give your students a chance to become sticklers in their own right, then this English usage worksheet on the past participle shrunk and the simple past tense verb shrank might be one avenue to bring that endeavor to fruition. For the record, shrunk is the past participle, so it must be used with the helping verbs had and have. Shrank, on the other hand, is the simple past tense of the verb shrink.

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.

Interpret (vi/vt), Interpretation (n)

Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb interpret and another on the noun interpretation. The verb is used both intransitively and transitively; it’s worth mentioning that used intransitively, its meaning is limited “to act as an interpreter between speakers of different languages.”

The reasons for teaching these words should be obvious, so I won’t wheedle, nag, badger, pontificate or lecture on it.

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.

Communism

As it seems to have returned to its prominent place in the bundle of American political anxieties, now seems like a good time to post this reading on communism and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

In my ill-fated career as a doctoral candidate, one of the more interesting seminars I took was on the “Hegel-to Marx Problem.” Needless to say, I read quite a bit of Marx and Engels for that class, as well, later, on my own. I bring this up because I want to comment that for a one-page reading, the documents in this post introduce communism thoroughly and objectively. It’s good stuff if you need it.

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: Republic

Now seems like a good time to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the republic as form of government. This is a full-page worksheet, so it might be useful as an independent practice (i.e. homework) assignment. There is, like most if not all of the Cultural Literacy worksheets on this blog, plenty of room to expand this document; and, as are the lion’s share of documents here, this one is in Microsoft Word, so it is easily exportable, transferable, and reviseable.

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.

United Nations

Now seems like a perfect time to post this reading on the United Nations and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Every person on this planet would benefit, I not so humbly submit, to consider themselves members of the United Nations–all species on earth would similarly benefit, I think.

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.

Obelisk (n)

It’s not a word in particularly common use in English even if one of our most recognizable pieces of public art and architecture–the Washington Monument–is indeed such a monument. In any case, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun obelisk. If you’re teaching about ancient Egypt (where it came up when I taught global studies, which is, I assume, why I wrote this in the first place), this might be a useful 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.

Ad Hoc

“Ad Hoc (ad hok) To this matter: for this specific instance or purpose; in this case; immediate; provisional.

‘Polly’s motivating force was love; she wanted a world in which everybody else whether they liked it or not, but she set this overflowing feminine cup in motion with a thoroughly masculine arsenal of charts, graphs, quorums, task forces, ad hocs, tunnel vision, and lists.’ Florence King, When Sisterhood Was in Flower”

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

A Short Exercise on the Greek Word Root Icon/o

Last but not least on a rainy Thursday afternoon, here is a short worksheet on the Greek word root icon/o–it means image. But you already knew that because of the word icon itself is so commonly used in the English language.

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.