Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

The Weekly Text, June 19, 2019: A Lesson on the Simple Past Tense of Verbs

This week’s Text, is a lesson plan on the simple past tense of verbs. I begin this lesson after a class change with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the famous proverb “Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned” (I’ve often heard this expression attributed to Shakespeare, but it actually comes from a play by Restoration dramatist William Congreve, “The Mourning Bride“). If circumstances necessitate a second day for this lesson, then here is another do-now exercise, this one a homophones worksheet on the worksheet on the adjectives veracious and voracious. You’ll need this scaffolded worksheet which is the primary work of this lesson; you and your students might also find useful this learning support and word bank. Finally, here is teacher’s copy of the 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.

Historical Term: Agent Provocateur

“agent provocateur (fr) A person placed in the ranks of the enemy during social, political, or industrial conflicts, to damage or compromise the enemy, provoking actions that might not otherwise have taken place. Agents provocateurs have been employed to provoke armed clashes between police and strikers or to induce strikers to act illegally. They have also been used by government agencies against revolutionary groups and in international politics to create disorder or ‘incidents’ as an excuse for war or intervention in others’ affairs.”

Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.

Cultural Literacy: Radioactive Waste

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on radioactive waste if you have any use for it. It seems to me if we are going to generate garbage like this and not find a way to store it safely, then we have an obligation to make sure our students understand what it is and how it might affect their future.

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.

Television

Finally, on this fine summer day, here is a reading on the origins and development of television as a technology and a cultural force along with its 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.

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 peps. They 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.