Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

Cultural Literacy: Mixed Economy

I’m not sure if high-school economics classes get to the point of discussing them (when I worked and at an economics and finance themed high school, the topic never came up, which may mean something), but if one somewhere does, than here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a mixed economy.

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, June 26, 2020: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Roots Magn, Magna, and Magni

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Latin word roots magn, magna, and magni. They mean great and large and are very productive in English. Social studies teachers know they need not look much further than Charlemagne to see this root in action.

I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the adjective voluminous. Voluminous, as you most likely understand, means (among other things) “having or marked by great volume or bulk.” I chose this word for this lesson to offer both a hint about what the three roots here under study mean, but also to supply a near synonym. Finally, here is the scaffolded worksheet at the center of this lesson’s work.

Happy Friday! Wash your hands, wear a mask, stay safe.

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 Catcher in the Rye

Alright, moving right along on this fine Vermont morning, here is a reading on The Catcher in the Rye along with its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This is really more in the way of an introduction to the novel–and maybe a way of motivating reluctant or alienated learners to take a chance on the book.

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 Errors in English Usage: More and Most

Here’s an English usage worksheet on using more and most properly in the various grammatical constructions where they are needed.

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.

Term of Art: Adjective

“Adjective: A word that modifies, quantifies, or otherwise qualifies a noun or pronoun: Drizzly November; midnight dreary; only requirement.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

Omnipotent (adj)

It was Merriam-Webster’s word of the day yesterday (today’s is yokel, which I thought I’d pass on, since it has always struck me as an epithet, which we don’t need to teach our students), so here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective omnipotent.

Not to put too fine a point on this, but now strikes me as a pretty good time for people of all ages to know and understand this word, and to be skeptical of leaders who aspire to omnipotence.

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.

Term of Art: Subjunctive

“Subjunctive: Indicating expression of something not actual or real but rather a desire, demand, plan, doubt, requirement, conception, etc., e.g., ‘Were I your sister….’”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

Masterful (adj)

It was Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day yesterday, to here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective masterful–a nice sold modifier.

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.

On Planning Writing Assignments for Learning Disabled Students

“The fundamental fact is that LD [learning disabilities] is a topic largely ignored, displaced, or believed invalid by many members of the composition field. Any effort to make research within the field useful to the study of writing problems of students with learning disabilities, and possible solutions to these problems, must necessarily extrapolate from work done with other populations in mind, The questions of how to understand the writing difficulties of students with learning disabilities, and how best to serve them in the writing classroom or tutorial, are fundamentally marginalized.”

Gander, MacLean, and Stuart Strothman. Teaching Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities: A Landmark College Guide. Putney, VT: Landmark College, 2001.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Given that June 6 was the 75th anniversary of D-Day, this reading on Dwight D. Eisenhower and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet are a day late and a dollar short.

Better late than never, I guess.

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.