Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

This Cultural Literacy worksheet on the pun as a literary device seems to me particularly useful if one is writing about literature, but may apply to other cultural forms as well–e.g. song lyrics and titles. This is a half-page document with a reading of four sentences and two comprehension questions.

A word about the reading: these sentences are long and complicated and may present significant challenges to struggling or emergent readers. I think you’ll see what I mean when you look at it. In fact, for the students I have historically served, this document is probably inappropriate; in the event that I wanted to teach kids about puns (and incidentally, here in New York City, I’ve never seen this done for the simple reason that knowledge of puns isn’t something that Regents Examinations test for; and yes, this is how idiotic this has become), I would probably significantly rewrite this is I were planning to administer it to struggling or emergent readers, or for students for whom English is a second language.

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.