Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Anorexia

While it is far from a light topic of discussion, I nonetheless suspect that more than one teacher or guidance counselor will find a use for this reading on anorexia and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it.

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: Esprit de Corps

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the expression and concept of esprit de corps. This, I think, is something students should know before they graduate high school.

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.

Sashay (vi)

Like so many others of these on Mark’s Text Terminal, this context clues worksheet on the verb sashay originated as a word of the day from Merriam-Webster (right here in Springfield, Massachusetts!). This is hardly a word students in primary or secondary school need to know–though it might be a good way to illustrate the concept of onomatopoeia.

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Tragedy in the Bathroom”

Here, on this cool late spring morning, is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Tragedy in the Bathroom.”

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the American idiom “Play Possum.” For the lesson itself, you’ll need this PDF scan of the illustration and questions from Crime and Puzzlement Volume 1. Finally, here is the answer key to “Tragedy in the Bathroom,” which I’ve rendered in typescript in the event that you need to adjust it for English language learners or struggling readers.

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.

Sanitation (n) and Sanitary (adj)

A couple of days ago I posted a context clues worksheet on the verb sanitize. I’d forgotten, or overlooked, the other two members of the family of words I’d worked into context clues worksheets: so here are two more on the noun sanitation and the adjective sanitary if you need them.

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.

Acne

Here is a reading on acne, the bane of every teenager’s social existence, and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I’ve tagged this as an item of social and emotional learning–acne can be tough on kids, and understanding its chemistry and physiology can help kids feel less alone.

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.

Sanitize (vt)

I have recently posted, and will continue to post until they are gone, a series of readings and comprehension worksheets on health-related topics.

So this morning seems as good a time as any to publish this context clues worksheet on the verb sanitize. It is apparently only used transitively.

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.

D-Day

I meant to post this reading on D-Day and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet last Thursday, on the 75th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Europe. In my end of the school-year haze, alas, I spaced it out, as we liked to say in the 1970s.

Better late than never, I guess.

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: Epicureanism

It’s time to get out for a walk, so I’ll wrap up this morning with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on epicureanism.

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.

Sandbag

This context clues worksheet on the verb sandbag almost certainly results in a certain lack of judiciousness on my part when choosing which of Merriam-Webster’s Words of the Day merit or require worksheet treatment. In any case, this verb is used both transitively and intransitively.

In that worksheet’s context, sandbag means, as a transitive verb, sandbag to conceal or misrepresent one’s true potential, position, or intent, esp. in order to take advantage of; used intransitively, it means to hide the truth about oneself so as to gain an advantage over another. In other words, it means basically the same thing whether one uses it with a direct object of not.

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.