Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Rote (n/adj)

Here, on a busy, wet Monday morning, is a context clues worksheet the word rote, which is used both as a noun and an adjective. This is a word I teach students so that on those rare occasions when I need them to learn by rote, they understand what I’m talking about.

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.

Joe Montana

Here is a relatively high-interest reading on quarterback Joe Montana and a reading comprehension worksheet to accompany 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.

Rogue (n)

OK, here’s one more post on a grey and quiet Saturday morning in Springfield, Massachusetts, to wit a context clues worksheet on the noun rogue. Does anyone use this word anymore?

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: Itis

If you have students looking at careers in health care, than this worksheet on the Greek root itis is de rigueur. As you have probably gathered–especially if you suffer from arthritisitis means inflammation. This is  a very productive root in English, needless to say.

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.

Ritzy (adj)

Because it was Merriam-Webster’s word of the day yesterday, here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective ritzy today. While this is adjective is arguably vernacular, it is part of the grain of American English vernacular; ergo, I suppose, there is an argument to be made for teaching it as such, particularly to English Language Learners, for whom a teacher might want to make the connection to the Ritz Hotels.

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, November 30, 2018: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Stock Market Crash of 1929

This week’s Text is a reading on the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. This is an important moment in global and United States history. The reading opens a number of conceptual questions about capital and investment, fiscal policy, fiscal irresponsibility, and the wages and price of capitalism–and those element of this ideology the New Dealer Thurman Arnold called “The Folklore of Capitalism.”

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.

Austerity (n) and Austere (adj)

Here are two context clues worksheets on the noun austerity and the adjective austere. I’m hard-pressed to imagine why high school students, especially seniors, whether college-bound or not, shouldn’t know these words. They will, I expect, be very much in the news in the not-too-distant future.

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: Ep-, Epi-

If you can use it, here is a worksheet on the Greek roots ep- and epi-. This one is complicated and requires a bit of interpretation, but the basic meanings of these two roots is on, upon, outside, over, among, at, after, and to. As you’ll see from the worksheet itself, this root forms the basis of many commonly used English words like epicenter, epilogue and epidemic; you’ll also find it in epilepsy and episode. This is one of the most difficult roots to connect to students’ own experience and to find the connecting tissue between these words. I don’t use this much, particularly not with struggling and emergent readers.

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.

Impromptu (adj)

If you need or want it–I do think this is a word high schoolers ought to know by their graduation–here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective impromptu.

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, November 20, 2018: Five Worksheets on Using the Homophones Prophet and Profit

As I head into the long holiday weekend, let me offer these five homophone worksheets on the nouns prophet and profit, which also use profit as an intransitive verb; the verb can also be used transitively in the sense of “to be of service to.”

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.