Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

The Weekly Text, 17 June 2022: Summer of Soul Lesson 3

If you’ve been following along for the past couple of Fridays, then here is the third lesson plan of the Summer of Soul unit I wrote last spring to take advantage of high interest in that superb documentary and the events it records and assesses. To carry out this lesson, the third of four, I begin with this short reading with three comprehension questions on the Baby Boomer generation as a do-now exercise. The primary work of this lesson involves this truncated reading on Woodstock and its accompanying discussion guide and note-taking worksheet.

If you would prefer longer-form materials on Woodstock, you’ll find those here. Otherwise, that’s it for another week.

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 Gerunds: Consider

Last but not least this morning, here is a worksheet on the verb consider as it is used with gerunds. I hope you will consider looking at it.

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: Commit Suicide

“Commit Suicide. Instead if ‘He committed suicide,’ say, He killed himself, or, He took his life. For married we do not say ‘committed matrimony.’ Unfortunately most of us do say ‘got married,’ which is almost as bad. For lack of a suitable verb we just sometimes say committed this or that, as in the instance of bigamy, for the verb to bigam is a blessing that is still in store for us.”

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

Chasten (vt)

This context clues worksheet on the transitive verb chasten was Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day at some point. This isn’t a particularly high-frequency word in English–nor is its noun, chaste–which is too bad, as these are useful words. For the purposes of this document, chasten means “to correct by punishment or suffering.” Remember that this verb is used only transitively, so don’t forget your direct object: the subject of your sentence must chasten something or someone.

(Incidentally, if you’re interested, chasten also means “discipline,” “purify,” “to prune (as a work or style of art) of excess, pretense, or falsity,” “refine,” “to cause to be more humble or restrained,” and “subdue.”)

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.

Rhetorical Irony

“Rhetorical Irony: A form of irony in which the attitude and tone of the speker or writer is the exact opposite of what is expressed. Such irony is common in the work of Swift, Voltaire, Samuel (Erewhon) Butler, and Antatole France.”

Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.

Cultural Literacy: Synonym, Antonym

Here is another pair of Cultural Literacy worksheets that belong in the same post: the first on synonyms, which is a half page worksheet with a reading of two short sentences and two comprehension questions. The second, on antonyms, also has two short sentences as a reading, and two comprehension questions.

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.

Circumvent (vt)

Last but not least this morning, here is a context clues worksheet on the verb circumvent. It means “to hem in,” “to make a circuit around,” and “to manage to get around especially by ingenuity or stratagem.” This verb is used only transitively, so don’t forget your direct object: what are you circumventing?

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: Rupt

Here is a worksheet on the Greek word root rupt. It means “to break, burst.” This productive root yields in the English language a number of high-frequency words like disrupt, corrupt, bankrupt, and rupture. I suppose there is really nothing more to say than that.

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: Comparative, Superlative

Here’s a pair of Cultural Literacy worksheets that must go out together: the the first on the comparative form of adjectives is a half-pager with a reading of two sentences, the second of them a long compound separated by several semicolons, and three comprehension questions . The second covers the superlative form of adjectives; this is a full-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences, the second a compound, with three comprehension questions and a fourth independent practice exercises

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 Gerunds: Celebrate

Alrighty then (as Ace Ventura is wont to say), classes have ended in New York City high schools, and we’re into a round of mindless though high-stakes testing to enrich corporate educational publishers. So, as we reach the end of the school year, now seems as good a time as any to post this document on the verb celebrate as it is used with gerunds following it.

Incidentally, celebrate has both intransitive and transitive use.

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.