Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

Cultural Literacy: Jingoism

I’d like to think this is a timely post, what with country-and-western stars extolling their small towns with frankly racist music videos. Either way, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on jingoism. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one longish sentence that reads like a dictionary definition and two comprehension questions. While we’re on the subject of dictionary definition, Merriam-Webster’s defines jingoism as “extreme chauvinism or nationalism marked especially by a belligerent foreign policy.” The definition on the worksheet is a bit more expansive, but the “extreme chauvinism” aspect of this noun is what I would emphasize if I were using this.

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.

Colloquial

“Colloquial (adjective): Describing words or expressions common to language as it is spoken or to writing intended to be naturally conversational in effect; informal, rather than elevated; involving or characteristic of conversation. Adverb: colloquially; Noun: colloquiality, colloquialness, colloquialist; Verb: colloquialize.”

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

The Weekly Text, 1 September 2023: Styling Sentences Lesson 6, Repetition of a Key Term

This week’s Text is the sixth lesson plan of the Styling Sentences unit. This one deals, as headlined above, with the rhetorical device of the repetition of a key term.

This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on understatement. It’s a half-page worksheet with a reading of one-sentence reading–a longish compound with a colon separating the explanation of understatement with an example of its use. Finally, here is the worksheet with explanatory and mentor texts that stands as the principal work of this lesson. Nota bene, please, that as with most of the documents in this unit, this worksheet contains no sentence stems, cloze exercises, or other supporting apparatus. Students review mentor texts then set out to reproduce their structure by composing several sentences.

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: Hurry

Here is a worksheet on the verb hurry when it is used with an infinitive. The blogger hurried to publish a series of grammar worksheets he believed were of subpar in quality.

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: Cartel

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a cartel. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and three comprehension questions. The reading does mention Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which I think students should know about and understand.

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, 25 August 2023: Styling Sentences Lesson 5, Dependent Clauses in a Pair or in a Series (at the Beginning or End of a Sentence)

It’s Friday again, and the school year starts soon. Let’s continue with fifth lesson plan in the Styling Sentences unit, this one on dealing with dependent clauses in a pair or a series at the beginning or end of a sentence.

This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the direct object of the verb. You know, that thing that a transitive verb requires to complete its meaning: Omar buys a cup of coffee at the bodega every morning. And here is the worksheet with explanatory and mentor texts to guide students through developing their understanding of this relatively complicated sentence form.

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: Grow

Last but not least this morning, here is a worksheet on the verb grow when used with an infinitive. Perhaps if I used them more, and developed them further, I would grow to like these lackluster documents.

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: Throw the Book at Someone

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom throw the book at someone. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and two comprehension questions; a model, I hope, of effective symmetry and brevity.

The question arises, however: does anyone use this expression 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.

The Weekly Text, 18 August 2023: Styling Sentences Lesson 4, An Internal Series of Appositives or Modifiers (Enclosed by a Pair of Dashes or Parentheses) with an Excursus on the Dash and the Parentheses

Here is the fourth lesson plan of the Styling Sentences Unit. This one, as the header on this post indicates, deals with an internal series of appositives or modifiers enclosed by a pair of dashes and parentheses.

This lesson opens with this worksheet on parsing sentences to find the adjectives in each clause. And here is the worksheet with explanatory and mentor texts–the former, of course, the excursus on the use of dashes and parentheses. This worksheet contains no modified cloze  exercises or other supported materials, only mentor texts which students will use to draft their own prose using this relatively complicated sentence structure. Obviously, such supported work is possible here, but it will require a lot of thought and careful composition and editing.

Your thoughts?

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: Hope

Finally this morning, here is a worksheet on the verb hope when used with an infinitive. I hope to remember not to waste time developing curricular materials of dubious value.

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.