Tag Archives: context clues

Heresy (n), Heretic (n), and Heretical (adj)

Because they came up frequently in various social studies classes I co-taught in New York City, I wrote these two context clues worksheets on the noun heretic and the adjective heretical. I was going to comment that I probably should have written another one on the noun heresy, but a glance in the folder that holds all these documents reveals I already did–it’s under that link.

It’s hard to imagine students understanding religious history, and particularly the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

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.

The Weekly Text, December 13, 2019: A Lesson Plan on Placing Quotes in a Synthetic Research Paper

Okay, Friday has rolled around again, and it is the end of a momentous week for this author. To make a long story short, I now own a car for the first time in almost 17 years.

This week’s Text, from my ongoing endeavor to write a couple of units on the art of argumentation and the craft of composing a synthetic research paper, is a complete lesson plan on the art of quoting in a paper. I wrote this context clues worksheet on criterion and criteria, which are, respectively, a singular and a plural noun, specifically for this lesson. As I look at this document today, I realize that depending on how one deals with it, and who one is teaching, that this worksheet could stand on its own as a lesson (and I have one on datum and data in the works). Finally, here is the worksheet that is at the center of this lesson and affords students an opportunity to try their hands directly at quoting within a larger body of text.

That’s it! It’s Friday the 13th, so step lightly and carefully.

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.

Hybrid (n)

Her, is a context clues worksheet on the noun hybrid. This is a word, I would think, that turns up in high school science classes.

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.

De Rigueur (adj)

I’ll spare you the details other than to say I just wrote this context clues worksheet on the adjective de rigueur. I don’t know how often this modifier shows up in speech, but it certainly is in common enough usage in prose to teach it to high school 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.

The Weekly Text, December 6, 2019: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Root Bene

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Latin word root bene. It means good and well, and as you have probably already figured out, it turns up as the root of such common words in English as benefit and benevolent. This context clues worksheet on the noun welfare with which I intended deploy a hint to point students in the right direction (and also to hint at the idea that government welfare benefits, which so many families in our nation now receive, are meant to keep us, as individuals and as a society, good and well). Finally, here is the word root worksheet that is the mainstay of 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.

Hypothesis (n)

Let’s start the day with this context clues worksheet on the noun hypothesis. And I’ll also begin the day with the assumption that the importance of this word in students’ lexicons starting in, say, fifth grade (at least that’s when I earned it), goes without saying.

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.

Hoodwink (vt)

Although Merriam-Webster’s designates its usage as “to blindfold” as archaic, this context clues worksheet on the verb hoodwink, which is only used transitively, will help students infer the demotic usage of this word, which is “to deceive by false appearance.”

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.

Gravity (n)

Rereading this context clues worksheet on gravity caused me to realize that because gravity, while it exists in the physical world (indeed, it’s a cornerstone of physics), is nonetheless a very difficult abstraction to explain, this document is not exactly the strongest I’ve ever composed. In any case, it is, like everything else on this website, in Microsoft Word, so you can edit or rewrite as you see fit.

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.

Frenzy (n)

Because it’s a word that well describes the snowfall here in Bennington, Vermont over the past forty hours or so. this context clues worksheet on the noun frenzy seems an appropriate choice to post this morning.

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: Pan, Panto

This worksheet on the Greek Word roots pan and panto–they mean all–guides students through an extremely productive root in English. You’ll find this root at the basis of words like panorama and pantheism–relatively commonly used words.

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.