Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Teetotaler (n)

It’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, so here is a context clues worksheet on the noun teetotaler; there is probably an argument to be made to teaching this word to high schoolers, though the reasons, for me late on a Friday afternoon, look in my mind’s eye like pretty thin gruel. I haven’t worked with many students interested in the concept teetotaler and the lifestyle it represents.

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, January 18, 2019: A Lesson Plan on Using Coordinating Conjunctions

This week’s Text is a complete lesson plan on using coordinating conjunctions. I open this exercise with this homophone worksheet on the homophones desert and dessert; while I realize that these two words, properly pronounced, aren’t really homophones, these are nonetheless words that students (and adults for that matter) frequently confuse, so I think it’s worth taking a moment to help them sort out these two words. Should this lesson stumble into another day for any reason, here is an everyday edit on Ludwig van Beethoven–and if you like Everyday Edit worksheets, the generous people at Education World have a yearlong supply of them posted as giveaways.

This structured worksheet of modified cloze exercises is the mainstay of this lesson; here too (contrived for the teacher’s ease of use) is the the teacher’s copy and answer key for 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.

Satrap (n)

Because I got stuck on the word as an undergraduate (which in turn–getting stuck, that is–happened because I have a hamster wheel for a mind), when it turned up in several things I was reading for a couple of different history courses, I couldn’t resist to compose this context clues worksheet on the noun satrap. For the record, its primary meaning is the governor of a province in ancient Persia. But it can also mean ruler, subordinate official, and, weirdly, henchman.

Can you hear the dialogue in a pulp novel? “Louie! Rocco! Get on the horn and find us some satraps for the bank job.”

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.

Louis XIV

Let’s begin this morning with this reading on Louis XIV, the Sun King, and add the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that attends it. Remember that this is a key figure in European history, if only as an exemplar of the absurdity and excess of absolute monarchy, particularly as this self-serving, greedy, vain, and arrogant sovereign practiced 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.

Boycott (vt)

One thing you can say about Merriam-Webster: they know how to match their Words of the Day to the zeitgeist. Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb boycott the publisher’s choice from a couple of days ago. It is used transitively. Don’t forget your direct object: one must boycott something–a store, an agricultural commodity, the idiocy of loudmouthed politician–you get the picture.

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.

Jack the Ripper

A student just asked for it yesterday, so here today, hot off the press (or at least mildly warm off the inkjet printer) is a reading on Jack the Ripper and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that attends it. Creepy stuff, which of course makes it very interesting for students.

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.

Liaison (n)

Lately, I’ve been using Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day to guide my writing of context clues worksheets. Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun liaison which was yesterday’s word. Did you know the verb, used intransitively, is liaise?

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.

Mea Culpa (n)

Because it was Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day yesterday, and because it is arguably a term–and definitely a concept–students should understand, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun mea culpa. As it sounds, it is a Latin phrase and is an acknowledgement of one’s fault or error. Another way of thinking about is to remember that if you do something wrong, you are culpable for your action and its consequence.

If you find typos in  and 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 Great Gatsby

Several students in the school in which I serve expressed interest in the literature of the Jazz Age and Gatsby in particular, so here is a short reading on The Great Gatsby along with the vocabulary building and comprehension worksheet that attends 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.

Pedant (n), Pedantic (adj)

OK, one more thing on this very chilly Monday morning, to wit these two context clues worksheets on noun pedant and the adjective pedantic. A pedant is someone who “makes a show of knowledge,” so someone is pedantic when they are making a show of knowledge.

It’s worth mentioning that both of these words connote that the knowledge that the pedant shows off is often “one who is unimaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge.”

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.