Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

Word Root Exercise: Volv, Volu, Volut

Let’s begin this day with this worksheet on the Latin word roots volv, volu, and volut. They mean roll and turn (you know, as in revolve, etc). This is a very productive root in English, and it forms the basis of a lot of 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.

Independent Practice: African Slave Trade

Wrapping up for today, here is an independent practice worksheet on the African slave trade. I find myself struggling to post this catalogue of indignities that Americans of African descent have endured. I’m down to the last few of them, and I begin to see why I have hesitated to post them over the years.

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.

Everyday Edit: Thurgood Marshall

Here is an Everyday Edit worksheet on Thurgood Marshall. If you want more of these, check with the eleemosynary spirits at Education World, who give away a year’s supply of them at their site.

My usual caution and entreaty on typos doesn’t apply here: there are a number of spelling, grammar and punctuation errors on each of these worksheets; the task is to fix them.

Write It Right: Authoress

“Authoress. A needless word—as needless as ‘poetess.’”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

Circumspect (adj)

After another day of edifying young minds (I hope), here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective circumspect. I guess it’s not a particularly commonly used word, but maybe it should be.

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.

Cultural Literacy: The Compromise of 1850

Here’s a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Compromise of 1850, which of course was a debate about how much further the commodification of persons of African descent in the burgeoning United States in the middle of the nineteenth century. This worksheet is a full page–longer than most of these exercises I’ve drafted, so it is perhaps useful for independent practice work.

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.

Everyday Edit: Juneteenth

OK, let’s wrap up this Tuesday with an Everyday Edit worksheet on the Juneteenth holiday in observance of Black History Month 2020. Incidentally, if you like these kinds of exercises, the good people at Education World will gladly hand over a year’s supply of them for free.

And if you find typos in this document, fix them! It’s an Everyday Edit worksheet, after all.

Battle of Antietam

OK, social studies teachers, here is a short reading on the American Civil War Battle of Antietam along with a vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet to go with it.

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.

An Independent Practice Worksheet on Ibn Battutah

Ok: very quickly, on this busy Tuesday morning, and in the ongoing observation of Black History Month 2020 at Mark’s Text Terminal, here is an independent practice worksheet on Ibn Battutah.

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: Gam/o, Gamet/o, and -Gamy

Here is a worksheet on the Greek word roots gam/o, gamet/o, and -gamy. This is a complicated but nonetheless productive set of roots that mean marriage, sexual union, gamete, and united. Science teachers, I would guess that some of these words turn up in your classroom.

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.