Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Salutation (n), Valediction (n)

These context clues worksheets on the nouns salutation and valediction might be useful at most schools to introduce these two concepts–useful for understanding forms of correspondence–to your students. You could also use them as they are, or rewrite them, to introduce the words salutatorian and valedictorian to your graduating seniors.

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: Alumnus, Alumni

Here is an English usage worksheet on sorting out the use of alumnus and alumni. If you’re so inclined, it would take only a moment to explain the inflections at the end of these Latin words and in so doing plant basic knowledge about inflected languages in students’ minds.

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.

Word Root Exercise: Pept, Peps

Last but not least this morning, here is a worksheet on the Greek word roots pept and pepsThey mean digestion. Now you know why people with sour dispositions are often described as dyspeptic. Connotations aside, this is another word root that will show up in the lexicon of the healthcare professions, should you have students…well, professing an interest in a career in health care.

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.

Hank Williams

Here’s another set of documents that to the best of my knowledge I only used once; that means I wrote them for someone with an interest in country music in general and this legend of the genre in particular. So, here is a reading on Hank Williams and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

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.

Boss Tweed

OK, for my colleagues in New York City, the next time a student asks you why the Tweed Courthouse (still home to the New York City Department of Education, as far as I know) is so named, you might find useful this reading on Boss Tweed and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. William Marcy Tweed (“Boss”) incidentally, is buried under a relatively ostentatious stone in Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Tweed’s middle name suggests that he is a member of, or at least a scion of, the same Marcy family that gave us William L. Marcy. Chances are good that this is how Marcy Avenue in Brooklyn got its name.

Perhaps making the connections in this lineage of people and place names would be a worthy endeavor for an inquisitive student? I’m just asking.

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.

Siege (n), Besiege (vt)

Here are pair of context clues worksheets for words used regularly in social studies classes that always caused my students, particularly English language learners, a lot of confusion. The first is on the noun siege and the second is on the verb besiege. The verb is only used transitively, so you’ll need a direct object–something has to be besieged–a fort, a city, a building–you get the picture. And once one of these things has been besieged? Then it is under siege.

OK? Any questions?

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “At the Fair”

This lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “At the Fair” is the last one in the second unit I wrote for this material; I have a third unit of twenty-four lessons, so if you like these and use them, I’ll be posting most if not all of those in the next three or so months.

I open this lesson after a class change with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the literary genre of the epic. You’ll need the PDF of the illustration and questions to investigate what did happen at the fair. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key to help you and your students will need to solve this heinous crime and arrest a suspect for its commission.

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.

Geoffrey Chaucer

When I taught high school in Lower Manhattan, The Canterbury Tales was in the English Language Arts curricular cycle. I have always assumed that one of the big ideas in teaching this book was continuity and change, particularly where language is concerned. After all, this book is a significant moment in the evolution of English as a vernacular language.

I worked up this reading on Geoffrey Chaucer and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet to assist the kids in my classes to prepare to read and at least gain some understanding of the own of Chaucer.

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: Subjunctive

Several grammarians I follow have suggested, for reasons I don’t fully understand, that the subjunctive mood of verbs is obsolescent. I don’t see how that can be, but I’m only a lowly school teacher. For that reason, I think it’s important that we continue to help students use the subjunctive properly. I hope this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the subjunctive can assist such an endeavor.

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.

Capricious (adj)

It’s Merriam-Webster’s word of the day today, so here is a context clues on the adjective capricious.

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.