Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Privative (n)

Posted on January 12, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Privative: Indicating lack of loss of, absence of, or negation, e.g., the prefixes ‘un-, ‘a-,’ ‘non-,’ and the suffix ‘-less.'”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

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The Weekly Text, January 12, 2018: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Inventor of Basketball, James Naismith

Posted on January 12, 2018 | Leave a comment

Springfield, Massachusetts, is the home of The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. I lived in Northern New England on and off for years, and I went to college in Amherst, Massachusetts, so I passed through Springfield many times in my travels. Each time, I noticed the Basketball Hall of Fame and wondered how it ended up in Springfield–of all places–and not in one of the bigger cities on the East Coast.

As it happens, the game was invented in Springfield by a man named James Naismith. Most of the young men I teach are interested in basketball, so your students may be as well. In any case, this week’s Text is a reading on James Naismith along with this comprehension worksheet to complement it. You might also find useful this Everday Edit worksheet on Basketball’s Beginnings (courtesy of the good people at Education World). Finally, and to risk making this whole post ephemeral by its tangents, here is a Culture Literacy exercise on the noun expletive, because it is used in the third Additional Fact in the reading.

Incidentally (and as the reading will explain to you and your students), the game of basketball in its original form prescribed 13 rules. A couple of years ago, I noticed that Sotheby’s had auctioned off James Naismith’s holograph manuscript of those original 13 rules for $4.3 million.

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.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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Shirk (vt/vi)

Posted on January 11, 2018 | Leave a comment

Here is a a short context clues worksheet on the verb shirk. It’s used both transitively and intransitively by teachers who are frustrated with students who refuse to engage in their schoolwork. Since this verb is often used with the noun responsibility, I submit to you it is a vital word for students.

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.

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Hinder (vt/vi)

Posted on January 10, 2018 | Leave a comment

On this Wednesday morning, you might find useful this context clues worksheet on the verb hinder, which can be used both transitively and intransitively. It is, I think, a word high school students ought to know.

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.

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A Greek Word Root Checklist for Students in the Healthcare Professions

Posted on January 9, 2018 | 2 comments

While I work in Lower Manhattan, I live way up in the the North Bronx. So, I have a long commute every day. Whether I take the 2 or the 5 train, I pass by 149th Street and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. The post office at that intersection has a Ben Shahn Mural in it; across the street is Hostos Community College, named after legendary Puerto Rican educator Eugenia Maria de Hostos and a part of our City’s respected engine of social mobility, The City University of New York, or CUNY.

Often, I will see Hostos students on the train, and I am aware that many of them are nursing students by virtue of the fact that they are wearing scrubs. The other thing that gives them away is their attention to their Greek word root flashcards, or by the fact that pairs of young people are drilling each other on those same Greek word roots. Ever since Hippocrates, and certainly before that, given that ancient Greece is the birthplace of science, philosophy, and the language in which those disciplines are expressed, the language of medicine has been Greek.

So for those of you pursuing careers in health care or the allied professions, here is a list of Greek word roots that form the basis of many words you will use in your professional lives. I hope you find it useful.

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.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Reference

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Cultural Literacy: Fascism

Posted on January 9, 2018 | Leave a comment

If WordPress’s statistics can be trusted, there has been a lot of traffic on Mark’s Text Terminal for a reading and comprehension sheet I posted a couple of months ago. To complement those documents, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on fascism.

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.

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A Short Exercise on the Greek Word Roots Esthes, Aesthes, Esthet and Aesthet

Posted on January 8, 2018 | Leave a comment

Here, for a Monday morning, is a short exercise on the Greek word roots esthes, aesthes, esthet, and aesthet. They mean feeling and sensation. This root is at the base of quite a few words used in discussion and inquiry in the humanities, particular art, literature, and religion.

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.

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Oath (n)

Posted on January 5, 2018 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun oath that I wrote for a lesson on the Tennis Court Oath, a key event in the French Revolution. In general, however, this is very commonly used word that students ought to know.

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.

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The Weekly Text, January 5, 2018: A Complete Lesson on Adverbs Modifying Sentences

Posted on January 5, 2018 | Leave a comment

The New Year blew in to New York City with a “cyclone bomb” yesterday, whatever that is. For my part, I went out to lunch about three blocks from my apartment building in The Bronx. Imagine, if you can, a violent midsummer thunderstorm; instead of warm temperatures and rain, however, it was twenty-two degrees with relatively wet (especially considering the temperature) and heavy snow driven by strong winds.

Anyway, Happy New Year!

This week’s Text is a complete lesson plan on adverbs modifying sentences. To begin this lesson, I use this Cultural Literacy worksheet on dogma. If the lesson runs into a second day, and you wish to use a short do-now exercise to get it started, here is a parsing sentences worksheet on adjectives. The mainstay of this lesson is this structured exercise on using adverbs to modify entire sentences. When teaching this lesson, I find students more often than not require (or at least benefit from) this word-bank learning support. Finally, for your convenience, here is the teacher’s copy of 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.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, Reference, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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Riot (n)

Posted on January 4, 2018 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on riot, used as a noun. I continue to debate whether or not I need this word presented as a verb as well in a worksheet such as this. What do you think?

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.

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