Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

Common Errors in English Usage: Raise (vi/vt), Rear (vi/vt)

Posted on April 7, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is an English usage worksheet on on the use of raise and rear to describe the parental responsibilities owed to children.

N.B. that there are no sentences to evaluate on this document. Rather, this worksheet is designed to start and simulate among students the kind of conversations writers and other professionals (and therefore presumably advanced for high school students) conduct when discussing usage rules. Therefore, I hope, this worksheet will stimulate thinking in students about how to use language to produce the clearest communication possible.

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.

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Word Root Exercise: Cogn

Posted on April 5, 2021 | Leave a comment

Ok, after a couple of themed history months it has been a while since I posted one of these. So here is a worksheet on the Latin word root cogn. It means knowledge. As you can probably see, you will find this very productive root in English words like cognition, recognize, and incognito.

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.

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Term of Art: Auxiliary

Posted on April 4, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Auxiliary (Aux): A verb belonging to a small class which syntactically accompanies other verbs: distinguished as such from a lexical verb, of full verb. E.g. could and have are auxiliaries, accompanying a form of write, in He could have written it. The first belongs to a class of modal verbs that can stand alone, as in a sentence I could, only if a following verb is ‘understood.’ The second is an auxiliary related to the past participle (written); distinguished accordingly from have as a lexical verb, e.g. in I have the answer.

Auxiliaries usually mark modality, tense, or aspect: e.g. the construction of have with a past participle marks the perfect. Hence the same term has been applied to other grammatical words that mark such categories, whether or not they are verbs.”

Excerpted from: Matthews, P.H., ed. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

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Wright Brothers

Posted on April 4, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on the Wright Brothers along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Over the years, several students I’ve served were highly interested in aeronautics and aviation, so I’ve tagged these documents as high-interest material.

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.

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The Weekly Text, April 2, 2021: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Picture Gallery”

Posted on April 2, 2021 | Leave a comment

Since they continue as some of the most downloaded items on Mark’s Text Terminal, here is another case from the pages of the Crime and Puzzlement books, this one a lesson plan on the “Picture Gallery” whodunit.

I start this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Dylan Thomas’s immortal lines, some of the best-known in the history of poetry, “Do not go gentle into that good night…Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” I don’t teach younger children, but I’ll hazard a guess that this do-now exercise may well be inappropriate for them. Needless to say, your call. To conduct your investigation into the larceny at the picture gallery, you’ll need this PDF of the illustrations and questions that constitute the forensic material in this crime. Finally, to determine whether your detectives used evidence judiciously to allege a crime and arrest a suspect, here is the typescript of the answer key.

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.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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Luminary (n)

Posted on April 1, 2021 | Leave a comment

With Women’s History Month 2021 now past for another year, I’ll spend the month of April posting the usual melange of material from the warehouse here at Mark’s Text Terminal. May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, so you’ll find a daily post of related documents and quotes here throughout the month.

For today, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun luminary. It’s a common enough word in English that it’s worth teaching to students. Don’t forget that the Latin roots lumin and lumen (light, shine, torch, lamp, heavenly body) are richly productive in English, including several key scientific terms. In fact, making that link may be the the best use to which this worksheet could be put.

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.

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Cultural Literacy: Emily Dickinson

Posted on March 31, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Emily Dickinson. I’ve never seen her taught in the public schools in which I’ve served, which for a variety of reasons has always mystified me. 

For her poems, long out of copyright, are available at no charge to readers everywhere. And her work? It is commonly regarded as among the most original of all time. It may require some effort, but I do think it is possible to arouse interest in students in reading Emily Dickinson.

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.

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Cultural Literacy: Ruth Benedict

Posted on March 30, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Ruth Benedict, a towering figure in the study of anthropology in the United States. This is a short worksheet, three questions only, that doesn’t do justice to this path-breaking scholar.

Like Zora Neale Hurston, Dr. Benedict studied with Franz Boas at Columbia University. In fact, if Ms. Hurston’s Wikipedia page is accurate (I understand educators’ trepidation where Wikipedia is concerned, but entries like this–generally non-controversial–are reliable) she worked with Dr. Benedict at Columbia. Dr. Benedict and Ms. Hurston also worked with Margaret Mead, and Dr. Benedict apparently engaged in an intense romantic affair with Dr. Mead. Serving as president of the American Anthropological Association, Dr. Benedict was the first woman to lead a learned society in the United States. Her book Patterns of Culture became a standard text in the study of anthropology, and as far as I can tell remains an enduring classic.

In other words, Ruth Benedict is clearly an appropriate subject, in the hands of an interested student, for what was called a “college paper” in one high school in which I served.

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.

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Cultural Literacy: Girl Scouts of the United States of America

Posted on March 29, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Girl Scouts of the United States of America. This is a short worksheet, a half-pager, with three questions. In other words, there are two worksheet on every page. That said, you may alter or adapt this document for your use–it is in Microsoft Word and easily exportable to a word processing program of your preference.

I don’t know much about the Girl Scouts (though like many people, I expect, I am intimately familiar with their cookie varieties); I was a Boy Scout myself. In the little bit of research I’ve conducted about scouting for this post, I did notice that while The Girl Scouts have not been immune to sexual abuse scandals, although a review of the Scouting sex abuse cases discloses that this is primarily a problem in the Boy Scouts.

In general, I have only one question about this: what the hell is wrong with people?

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.

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The Weekly Text, 26 March 2021, Women’s History Month 2021 Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Second-Feminism

Posted on March 26, 2021 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text, for the final Friday of Women’s History Month 2021, is a reading on second-wave feminism along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

While I understood the historical divide between feminisms, my understanding was mostly intuitive and instinctive. This short reading explains well the difference between first-wave feminism, to wit the Women’s Suffrage movement which culminated in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and the second wave, which began in the 1960s. The second wave, incidentally, apparently continues to today, as reversals, or the threat of reversals, of the gains made necessitate the ongoing function of a feminist movement.

In any event, this reading summarizes this history concisely, as well as supplying students with a quick way to gain this vital piece of prior knowledge about United States history.

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.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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