Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

Cultural Literacy: Manifest Destiny

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of Manifest Destiny in United States history. This ideological oddity, which is really more of a theological than a political and social concept, held that Americans were destined, perhaps by the will of God, to expand across America to the Pacific Ocean.

In other words, basically a garbage idea that was used to justify and conduct a genocide against the aboriginal inhabitants of this continent.

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, 8 November 2024, National Native American Heritage Month Week II: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Colonialism

OK, for the second Friday of National Native American Month 2024, here is a reading on colonialism along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I assume I needn’t belabor the disaster that colonialism visited upon indigenous peoples all over the world–the literature on the subject is vast (but if you need a recommendation, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown is an excellent place to start, as is King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild).

I have, at times, been highly irritated and offended at the way colonialism is soft-pedaled in the high school social studies curriculum, particularly as, historically, I have tended to serve students predominantly with familial and ancestral roots in former colonies who know, with their families, of course, they are being fed (and then tested on, for what else is the point of learning something if you can’t pass a test on it?) a line of crap in their global studies courses.

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.

Cultural Literacy: Iroquois League

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Iroquois League. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of on sentence and one comprehension question. In other words, a short, basic introduction to this indigenous nation.

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, 1 November 2024, National Native American Heritage Month Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Pequot War

Today begins National Native American Heritage Month 2024. Unlike this blog’s (therefore my own) woeful deficiencies during Hispanic Heritage Month 2023 last month and in September, I have a full raft of materials to post this month–which contains five Fridays.

So the Weekly Text for today, Friday, 1 November 2014, is this reading on the Pequot War along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

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 English Verbs Followed by an Object and an Infinitive: Allow

Here is a worksheet on the verb allow when used with an object and an infinitive. The New York City Subway does not allow passengers to smoke in stations and trains.

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.

Concepts in Sociology: Assimilation

A couple of years ago, I was assigned a sociology elective at my school. In the inimitably brilliant style of my school’s chief administrator, I learned of this three days before classes began. And of course there was, again typically, no curriculum for this course.

So I needed to come up with something in a hurry. I did, but let’s face it: developing a curriculum for a high school sociology course, let alone mastering its teaching, is a process that takes years: I really only had days, so I needed to move this process along quickly. I have a fair amount of material, but I fear it is of mixed quality. So, here is a worksheet on assimilation, the process by which immigrants integrate into their adopted nations and societies.

I would be particularly interested, if you use any of this material, and especially if you happen to know anything about sociology (I do, but clearly not enough for the endeavor to which I was deployed), to hear from you about it.

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, 25 October 2024: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Like other avid readers, I expect, I have been watching the long overdue public advance of Percival Everett’s career. While I have yet to actually read his books, I did see American Fiction (based on his novel Erasure),  heard him interviewed in various places, and read a profile of him in The New Yorker. To call him interesting would be to considerably understate the case.

His most recent novel, James, re-imagines Mark Twain’s classic–and now controversial–American novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, from the perspective of Jim, the escaped slave who travels with Huck. Jim’s humanity and his moral uprightness, as the novel proceeds, informs Huck’s morality and therefore criticizes the immorality, hypocrisy, and just plain horror of slavery.

So, it seeks like a good enough time to post as a Weekly Text this reading on the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

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 English Verbs Followed by an Object and an Infinitive: Advise

Here is a the verb advise as followed by an object and an infinitive.The teacher advised his students to disregard the poorly designed material he presented.

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.

Copy Editing

“Copy Editing: The reading and correcting of manuscripts before setting of type, usually entailing attention to grammar, spelling, punctuation, style and format consistency, and factual particulars such as names and places mentioned. Noun: copy editor; Verb: copy edit. ALSO COPY READING”

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

Common Errors in English Usage: Lend and Loan

From Paul Brians’ excellent book Common Errors in English Usage (to which, to remind readers once again, he allows free access at his webpage at Washington State University), here is a worksheet on the use of the verbs lend and loan. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of two long compound sentences (which might be better chopped up for emergent or struggling readers, or students for whom English is not a first language) and ten modified cloze exercises.

The gist of the work here involves students judging whether both of these are best used as verbs, or if lend is the verb and loan is the object being lent–and therefore only used as a noun.

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.