Tag Archives: context clues

Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun annotation; I don’t know why I didn’t post it at the same time as this one on the verb annotate, which is used both intransitively and transitively.

I wrote these because I worked in a school in which students were assigned work compiling annotated bibliographies without ever learning what it means, as an act or academic practice, to annotate. I hope these help.

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.

Here are a pair of context clues worksheets on sober and sobriety, respectively an adjective and a noun.

In writing these, I sought to include both primary meanings of sober, i.e., where alcohol and intoxicants are concerned, “sparing in the use of food or drink,” “not addicted to intoxicating drink,” and “not drunk”; where an approach to life and its vagaries are concerned, “marked by sedate or gravely or earnestly thoughtful character or demeanor,” “marked by temperance, moderation, or seriousness,” and “showing no excessive or extreme qualities of fancy, emotion, or prejudice”

The noun sobriety simply means “the quality or state of being sober.” In the worksheet for this word, then, I also attempted to create prose that students could use to infer the above meanings of sober. As I prepared these for publication, I tried to remember why I wrote them, but couldn’t. So I don’t know if I intended to use them together in one sitting, or to use them discretely over a week’s time, and use sobriety to gauge understanding and retention of the previously used worksheet for sober.

In any case, they’re yours now if you want them, so you can use them as you will.

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.

It must have popped up as a Word of the Day at Merriam-Webster at some point, so here is a context clues on the adjective itinerant.

This is, I think, probably a word educated people should know and be able to use. For high school students, it will connect well with the noun itinerary, which probably turns up in a variety of places like material about the Lewis and Clark expedition or a popular music group’s tour of the United States or, indeed, the world. Before automated digital mapping, I’ll hazard a guess that itinerary turned up in common usage more than it does now. Has itinerant suffered the same fate (if indeed itinerary has)? That’s an interesting question that could yield interesting answers to an interested student.

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.

Alright, here is a context clues worksheet on the verb fathom, which is used both intransitively and transitively.

Inasmuch as this can mean “to penetrate and come to understand,” it is a learning word students probably ought to know and be able to 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.