Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Cultural Literacy: Subsidy

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a subsidy. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one sentence and one comprehension question. Just the basics, but useful, I would think, for any introductory economics course as well as a range of topics in United States history.

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.

Write It Right: Demise for Death

“Demise for Death. Usually said of a person of note. Demise means the lapse, as by death, of some authority, distinction, or privilege, which passes to another than the one that held it; as the demise of the Crown.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, AmbroseWrite it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

The Weekly Text, 21 June 2024: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Chemical Elements

This week’s Text is this reading on chemical elements along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. The reading derives from the Intellectual Devotional series of books, whose readings I have found quite useful in classroom practice. Both documents are formatted in Microsoft Word so that you can easily convert them to a format of your choice as well as edit them for specific students or classroom use.

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.

Common English Verbs Followed by an Infinitive: Seem

OK, finally this morning, here is a worksheet on the verb seem when used with an infinitive. This worksheet seems to be intellectually lightweight.

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.

Communique

“Communiqué (noun): An official announcement or bulletin, usually addressed to the media or other official bodies rather than the public.

‘The communiqué contained—here you proceed at your own risk and probably would be well advised to have a companion—friendly and cooperative relations, harmonious relations, constructive relations, cooperative relations, the totality of varied relationships, a close and mutually beneficial relationship based on the principal of equality (it’s only the beginning folks, only the beginning), a common determination, an enhanced scope for creativity, the maintenance of peace and the evolution of a stable international order….The Tokyo communiqué somehow left out resolute action, which governments often promise to take and the end of meaningless meetings.’ Edwin Newman, A Civil Tongue”

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

Cultural Literacy: Obscenity

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of obscenity. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences (the last a compound separated by a semicolon) and three comprehension questions. While obscenity as a legal concept doesn’t much appear in the press anymore, mostly because it appears to be a settled legal issue, it certainly was in the news a great deal when I was in high school.

So this may currently be irrelevant material–something I learned about in school because it was current in a way that it no longer is.

But 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.

Modular

“Modular: Designed or constructed according to a standardized scale or parts, as in prefabricated building construction and furniture systems.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

The Weekly Text, 14 June 2024: A Lesson Plan on English Literary Periods from The Order of Things

This week’s Text comes from the pages of Barbara Ann Kipfer’s fascinating reference book (aside: I wish I had her job), The Order of Things: a lesson plan on English literary periods. This is a pretty simple lesson; it is intended, as everything under the header of The Order of Things on this blog is intended, for struggling and emergent readers as well as learners of English as a new language.

You’ll need this combined reading and comprehension worksheet (the reading is a list) to teach 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.

Common English Verbs Followed by an Infinitive: Request

Here is a worksheet on the verb request when it is used with an infinitive. They requested to work on something more substantial than the worksheet on the verb request.

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.

Cultural Literacy: Vicious Circle

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom vicious circle.  This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one longish compound containing a colon and a semicolon which might, obviously, be best revised for emergent readers and those working to acquire English as a new language. There is one simple comprehension question and one imperative to use vicious circle in a sentence.

In other words, a basic introduction to this very commonly used idiom in English.

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.