Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Vox Populi (noun phrase)

While I doubt you have much call for it, here, nonetheless, is a context clues worksheet on the Latinism vox populi. It’s a noun phrase meaning, just as it sounds, “voice of the people.”

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, April 5, 2019: A Lesson Plan on the Concept and Act of Simplifying in Mathematics

Several years ago, the school administration under which I then served tasked me with developing math and science vocabulary in a group of struggling students. I wrote a unit on the fly, and then never used it because that fall I was summoned to jury duty (a stint which ended up lasting two months) in Bronx County.

This complete lesson plan on the word simplify and the concept of simplifying is one of the fruits of my labor. As I say, I never had a chance to actually deliver this lesson in the classroom. In any case, I envisioned starting the lesson with this extended context clues worksheet on the transitive verb simplify. The center of this lesson is this worksheet on simplifying numbers that a math teacher and I collaborated on to develop–he actually ended up teaching this lesson in my absence, and so provided some revisions after he’d had a crack at it. Finally, here is a learning support with definitions of the verbs simplify and solve.

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.

Usury (n)

Here, on a fine spring morning, is a context clues worksheet on the noun usury.

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.

Friction

In response to student demand, I have begun producing some new materials for basic science literacy. To that end, here is a reading on friction 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.

Cultural Literacy: Carpe Diem

Not that most teenagers need any help understanding the sentiment, but here, nonetheless, is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Latin imperative carpe diem.

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.

Raise (vt/vi) and Raze (vt)

Here are five worksheets on the homophones raise and raze. These are a couple of words with which students I’ve served struggled.

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.

Urban (adj)

For some reason, when I lived in New York, high school freshmen would arrive in my classroom without knowing what the adjective urban means, which made teaching about ancient civilizations difficult. I wrote this context clues worksheet on the adjective urban in an attempt to deal with this gap in learning.

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.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Over the winter, I finished some materials for health literacy that I’d been procrastinated on for, literally, years. I’ll be posting these regularly over the next couple of years, I suppose–I have a total of 76 of them.

Anyway, this reading on oppositional defiant disorder and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet strike me as a good place to start: this has turned out to be relatively high-interest material to the students in whose interest I currently toil.

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, March 29, 2019, Women’s History Month 2019 Week V: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on J.K. Rowling

Today marks the end, on Mark’s Text Terminal, of Women’s History Month 2019. When I return on Monday, it will be April Fool’s Day. Here is a reading on J.K. Rowling and its attendant vocabulary building and comprehension worksheet.

I would think this is high interest material, as Ms. Rowling and her books remain interesting to kids.

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.

Princess Diana

OK, here is a reading on Princess Diana and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. I have been surprised at how many of the young women I teach took an interest in this.

But then, I guess I’ve never understand the appeal or allure of the British royal family. I know it’s harsh, but I have always concurred with Elvis Costello’s assessment of the royals, uttered in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. When asked about playing at a  Prince’s Trust benefit concert at Buckingham Palace, Costello replied: “No. I wouldn’t do anything with the royal family. They’re scum. Why do we subsidize this family of buffoons? What makes them so damn important? I just don’t understand why we subsidize people who seem to just go on holiday all the time. So no, you won’t be seeing Elvis Costello live at Buckingham Palace.”

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.