Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

The Weekly Text, July 19, 2019: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “The Lunchroom Murder”

It’s Friday again, so again it’s time for the Weekly Text at Mark’s Text Terminal.

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “The Lunchroom Murder.” This Cultural Literacy worksheet on “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”, the first line of Shakespeare’s 18th sonnet. Direct from the pages of the first Crime and Puzzlement book, here are the illustration and list of questions that drive this lesson. Finally, you’ll need the answer key to solve this mystery.

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.

H.H. Richardson

One of the great pleasures of the last eight months I’ve passed in Springfield, Massachusetts, has been my walks along Mattoon Street. It was on my way to work and back, so it was rare that I didn’t pass along the block at least once a day. Springfield has wisely and carefully preserved the general area in which this residential street is located, the Quadrangle-Mattoon Street Historic District. The neighborhood is a gem in an otherwise–I use this word advisedly, and only because I’ve seen it in the local press, and indeed, even used by the City of Springfield itself, enough to take my own liberties with it–blighted city.

Earlier this year I learned a couple of things about the North Congregational Church on Mattoon Street. First, it was one of the earliest designs of the storied American architect H.H. Richardson, that it is rendered in his characteristic style, Richardson Romanesque, and contains Tiffany windows. Second, I learned that this amazing piece of United States history is actually for sale for an asking price of $600,000.

As this reading on H.H. Richardson explains, he remains one of the most important and influential architects ever to work in the United States. Here, if these materials are of any interest to your students, is the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that attends this short reading.

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.

Coney Island

An email from the NYCDOE this morning aroused my thoughts and feelings about New York City, and possibly returning there to teach. Here is a reading on Coney Island, one of my favorite places in Brooklyn, and its attendant 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.

The Weekly Text, July 12, 2019: Two Context Clues on Propaganda (n) and Propagandize (vi/vt)

Because I find myself in an advanced, and badly needed, state of relaxation, and eager to sustain this state, these two context clues worksheets on the noun propaganda and the verb propagandize must suffice for this week’s Text. For the record, propagandize is used both transitively and intransitively.

Mark’s Text Terminal hopes you are enjoying your summer.

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.

Attention Deficit Disorder

Monday morning seems like a pretty good time to draw teachers’ attention to this reading on attention deficit disorder and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I’ve tagged this reading as high-interest material, because it there is one thing I’ve frequently found among kids who struggle to sustain attention in the classroom, or who have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, it is they want to know more about the affliction that has made school so difficult for them. Over the years, kids under my instruction have asked repeatedly for these materials.

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.

Churlish (adj)

It’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, so here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective churlish. Not a particularly common word, and one with plenty of synonyms, so maybe not a word students need to 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.

Zeal (n), Zealot (n), and Zealous (adj)

Here are three context clues worksheets on the nouns zeal and zealot, and the adjective zealous. These are words that have appeared in a number of settings in the English and social studies classes I have taught over the years, and they usually passed without students ever really grasping their full meaning. If nothing else, these words will turn up in readings about, say, the Reformation or the French Revolution; in any case, they are frequently used words in the English language. In our hyper-politicized word, I would argue, these are words students ought to know and be able to use by the time they leave high school.

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.

The Weekly Text, June 28, 2019: A Lesson Plan on Argumentation

If there is anything better than Vermont in the summer, I guess I don’t know what it is. I’ve lived in this state on and off in my life; I’m now looking for a job here, and hope to stay here for the rest of my working life.

This week’s Text is a complete lesson plan on argumentation; more specifically (and as with the other lesson plans on argumentation I’ve posted, this one relies on Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff’s excellent They Say/I Say: The Move That Matter in Academic Writing), this lesson involves students in the use of rhetorical figures in argumentation to enter an ongoing debate. I begin this lesson, right after a class change, with this context clues worksheet on the Latinism nota bene, generally abbreviated as n.b. Users of other context clues worksheets from Mark’s Text Terminal will note that this document is a very slight departure from the usual format. Finally, here is the worksheet that is at the center 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.

Word Root Exercise: Gen/o, Gene, and Genesis

Here’s a worksheet on the Greek word roots gen/o, gene, and genesis. They mean–get ready for a list–production, formation, generation, origin, cause, birth, kind, and race. These are very productive roots in English, and you’ll find them at the basis of a vast number of words–e.g. genetics–in the life sciences.

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.

Anathema (n)

When I wrote this context clues worksheet on the noun anathema, I meant to write one on the verb anathemize, which kept turning up on some curriculum on medieval history that turned up in a social studies class I co-taught some years ago. This worksheet, I guess, would be easy enough to convert to the verb if one were so inclined.

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.