Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Brainstorming the College Application Essay

Here are a couple of things I whipped up this morning for use in class tomorrow: the first is a worksheet on brainstorming the college application essay; the second is this learning support 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.

Cultural Literacy: Altruism

This morning I’m working on some materials that attempt to inculcate understanding ot the idea of virtue and its manifestations in the world. So here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on altruism, a synonym for one of the cardinal virtues, charity.

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.

Lao Tzu

Here is a reading on Lao Tzu and a vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that deepens understanding of the reading itself.

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Greek Word Root Anthrop/o

It’s a very productive root in English, and at the root of a lot of words used in scholarly and academic discourse, so I expect this lesson on the Greek word root anthrop/o, which means man and human, should be useful to teachers in several disciplines. I start this lesson with this context clues worksheet for the noun humanity to provide a basis for the heuristic work this scaffolded worksheet with an independent practice assignment requires of students. The context clues worksheets can serve as the prior knowledge students will need to help them understand the meaning of this Greek word root.

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.

Term of Art: Virtue

“A virtue is a trait of character that is to be admired: one rendering its possessor better, either morally, or intellectually, or in the conduct of specific affairs. Both Plato and Aristotle devote much time to the unity of the virtues, or the way in which possession of one in the right way requires possession of the others; another central concern is the way in which possession of virtue, which might seem to stand in the way of self-interest, in fact makes possible the achievement of self-interest properly understood, or eudaimonia. But different conceptions of moral virtue and its relation to other virtue characterize Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic, Christian, Enlightenment, Romantic, and 20th-century ethical writing. These divisions reflect central preoccupations of their time and needs of the cultures in which they gain predominance: the humility, charity, patience, and chastity of Christianity would have been unintelligible as ethical virtues to classical Greeks, whereas the ‘magnanimity‘ of the great-souled man of Aristotle is hard for us to read as an unqualified good, Syntheses of Christian and Greek conceptions are attempted by many, including Aquinas, but a resolute return to an Aristotelian conception has been impossible since the emergence of generalized benevolence as a leading virtue. For Hume a virtue is a trait of character with the power of producing love or esteem of others, or pride in oneself, by being ‘useful or agreeable’ to its possessors and those affected by them. In Kant, virtue is purely a trait that can act as a handmaiden to the doing of duty, having no independent, ethical value, and in utilitarianism, virtues are traits of character that further pursuit of the general happiness.”

Excerpted from: Blackburn, Simon. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Elie Wiesel’s Night

If you can use it, here is a reading on Elie Wiesel and his classic memoir Night and the reading comprehension worksheet that attends it. At the school in which I currentlhy serve, we have always used this book in, if I’m not mistaken, sophomore English.

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.

Lessen (v) and Lesson (n)

Here on a rainy Monday are five homophone worksheets on the verb lessen and the noun lesson to build vocabulary, reinforce good English usage, and resolve confusion about these soundalikes.

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.

Fallacy (n)

Over the years, I’ve developed a variety of materials related to the composition of synthetic research papers, particularly around marshaling evidence, citing sources, and postulating theses. I developed this context clues worksheet on the noun fallacy for use in the service of the latter task.

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 Paleolithic Era

Alright: I have to run off an meet a friend from Wisconsin in Manhattan. Before I do, I’ll drink a quick cup of coffee and post this lesson plan on the paleolithic period of human history. I begin teaching this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the noun artifact and this one on the noun nomad. This short reading and comprehension worksheet on the paleolithic period is the mainstay 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: Omni

OK, it’s a Sunday morning and I’m preparing to send out a clutch of resumes for some positions that might be appropriate for me. On my coffee break at the moment, let me post this worksheet on the Latin word root omni. It means all. It is a very productive root in English, forming the basis of the adjectives omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, among many other words.

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.