Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Common Errors in English Usage: Their (pr), Their’s (pr)

Posted on August 24, 2020 | Leave a comment

Outwardly, which means by the text from the book I’m using to inform these documents, this English usage worksheet on understanding the use of their and their’s addresses the problem, which you may have noticed, of using an apostrophe with the plural possessive pronoun their.

And the short reading for this worksheet does deal with this, but is also emphasizes the fact that none of the possessive pronouns require an apostrophe when used with an s, as in a construction like “The jacket is hers.” I’ve also built in some instruction on antecedent/pronoun agreement, which is one of those stylistic lapses that I can tell you from considerable experience–both as a student and a tutor–that lands students in their college’s writing centers.

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 Grapes of Wrath

Posted on August 21, 2020 | Leave a comment

Alright, here is a reading on John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath along with its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I just want to mention Sanora Babb’s novel Whose Names Are Unknown, which tells a similar story; in fact, John Steinbeck may well have helped himself to her notes when writing The Grapes of Wrath.

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: Lunatic Fringe

Posted on August 21, 2020 | Leave a comment

I don’t necessarily mean to editorialize with this post, but if there is a better time to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a lunatic fringe I’m not sure when that would be.

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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Exhort (vi/vt)

Posted on August 21, 2020 | Leave a comment

Because it’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, here is a context clues worksheet on the verb exhort, which is used both intransitively and transitively. Like many of the words Merriam-Webster’s has posted lately, exhort comes from solid Latin stock.

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 Weekly Text, August 21, 2020: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Roots Man, Mani, and Manu

Posted on August 21, 2020 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Latin word roots man, mani and manu, all three of which mean hand. Even a cursory glance at these three words divulge their productivity in the English language: manicure, manufacture, and manual all come immediately to mind.

I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the noun digit in its meaning as “any of the divisions in which the limbs of most vertebrates terminate, which are typically five in number but may be reduced (as in the horse), and which typically have a series of phalanges bearing a nail, claw, or hoof at the tip — compare FINGER 1, TOE.” I wanted this do-now exercise to hint for students what the word roots in this lesson might mean.

And, at last, here is the worksheet that is the primary work of this lesson.

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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Harvard

Posted on August 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

Anyone I’ve known who has dealt with the institution reported to me that its cachet is hypertrophied, but since it remains a brand in higher education around the globe, here is a reading on Harvard University and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. As for the school’s cachet, I have no experience there (other than walking around on its leafy, mellow campus), so I can’t speak to, well anything about it.

Nota bene that this is a short history of the university and its role in the development of colleges and universities in the United States.

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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Common Errors in English Usage: Subject to and Subjected to

Posted on August 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

As I think these are two locutions high school students should understand and be able to use properly before they graduate, here is an English usage worksheet on differentiating the use of subject to and subjected to in declarative sentences and expository prose.

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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A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Buried Gold”

Posted on August 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

It was 52 degrees at 5:00 this morning here in southwestern Vermont, which sure felt like an harbinger of fall. It’s warming up slowly. I feel like, as I did in my late teens and early twenties, that I should be preparing to begin a six-week apple harvest. I can’t imagine, at my age, what picking 120 bushels of apples a day would do to my body and mind.

Ok, that said, here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Buried Gold.” I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the proverb “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” This is often attributed to Shakespeare; in fact, it comes from the pen of the Restoration dramatist William Congreve from his play The Mourning Bride. I actually posted this short exercise with a parts of speech lesson elsewhere on this blog, so be on the lookout.

Here is the scan with the illustration, reading, and questions that you’ll need to conduct your investigation and therefore teach this lesson. And here, at last, is the typescript of the answer key so you can solve your case and bring the offender to the bar of justice–so to speak.

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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Dulcet (adj)

Posted on August 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

It’s another Word of the Day from Merriam-Webster that I originally thought I’d let pass; but while I was at the laundromat this morning with my notebook, I figured well, why not? So here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective dulcet. It carries a trio a meanings which are loosely related by connotation: 1. sweet to the taste; 2. pleasing to the ear <~ tones>; 3. generally pleasing or agreeable.

The word arrives in English from the Latin dulcis, which isn’t particularly productive in English. But it does show up in Spanish, and if you teach students whose first language is Spanish they will recognize this word fairly quickly–one of the meanings of dulce in Spanish is candy, and a dulceria is a candy store. Teaching Latin roots to students whose first tongue is one of the Romance Languages offers students a bridge between their native languages and English.

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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John D. Rockefeller

Posted on August 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

It’s nearly impossible, as awful as he may have been, to underestimate his influence on American industrial capitalism, so I think this reading on John D Rockefeller and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet are relevant in a number of places across the social sciences curriculum.

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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