Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

A Lesson Plan on Learning

OK, moving right along on this beautiful morning in southwestern Vermont, here is a lesson plan on learning. You’ll need this short reading and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. If you need or want them, here are slightly longer versions of those documents.

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: Plessy v. Ferguson

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Plessy v. Ferguson. That’s the Supreme Court decision, to refresh memories that probably don’t really need it, that made “separate but equal” the law of the land in the United States for almost six decades–and legitimized racism.

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.

Write It Right: Redound for Conducive

“Redound for Conducive. ‘A man’s honesty redounds to his advantage.’ We make better use of the word if we say of one (for example) who has squandered a fortune, that its loss redounds to his advantage, for the word denotes a fluctuation, as from seeming evil to actual good; as vilification may direct attention to one’s excellent character.”

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

Common Errors in English Usage: Admission/Admittance

Here is an English usage worksheet on the nouns admission and admittance if you have any call for it. This is mostly about practice and meeting the usage standard in the Common Core English Standards.

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, February 21, 2020, Black History Month 2020 Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Muddy Waters

For the end of Week III of Black History Month 2020, here is a short reading on the late, great Muddy Waters along with the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that attends it.

[Addendum: first, here is a very cool image of Muddy Waters by the great illustrator Drew Friedman; if it weren’t sold out, I would definitely buy it–I’ve already collected a few of Mr. Friedman’s prints. Second, here is Muddy Waters’ appearance at the farewell concert of The Band in 1976, “The Last Waltz.”]

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.

Term of Art: Heuristic

“Heuristic (adjective): Serving as the discovery of truth or furthering investigation, as in the case of a useful and stimulating (if not logical or conclusive) method, presentation, or argument, and especially one used by a student to learn for himself. Adverb: heuristically; noun: heuristic.

‘My coarse distinctions between two kinds of fiction are useful heuristically, but they give a damaging impression of clear boundaries and a misleading impression of two armed camps.’ Annie Dillard, Living by Fiction”

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

Word Root Exercise: Gastr/o

Moving right along on this chilly afternoon, here is a worksheet on the Greek root gastr/o. It means, as you probably already inferred, stomach. It’s a very productive root in the English language, particularly for people entering the health sciences and culinary arts professions.

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 Kansas-Nebraska Act

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which in a short paragraph, and with your expert teaching, will illustrate for your students how the kidnapping, subjugation, forced labor, and murder of persons of African descent is intimately bound up with the economic growth and development of the United States.

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.

Prime Numbers

OK, here is a short reading on prime numbers along with the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies 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.

Consul (n)

If you happen to be teaching a unit or lesson an ancient Rome, this context clues worksheet on the noun consul might be helpful, particularly concerning Julius Caesar’s activities in the that city in and around 44 BC.

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.