Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Snow Cover”

Posted on November 6, 2019 | Leave a comment

It has been a busy week already, but I’m forcing a few minutes of time this morning to publish this lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Snow Cover.”

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Apollo with which I open this lesson. The center of this lesson is, of course, this PDF of the illustration and questions that drive the case. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key that solves the case.

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, Worksheets

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The Weekly Text, November 1, 2019: A Lesson Plan on the Use of Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

Posted on November 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on differentiating and using transitive and intransitive verbs. I think it’s important that students understand these kinds of words because if they decide to study an inflected language, they will need to understand how to decline the direct objects of verbs, which often take the accusative case in such languages. I ran into this while studying Russian all those years ago.

In any case, the first do-now exercise for this lesson is this Cultural Literacy worksheet on transitive verbs. If this lesson, for whatever reason, goes into a second day, then here is an Everyday Edit worksheet on Dr. Seuss; if you and your students like that document, then you can find a yearlong supply of them for free from the good people at Education World. Finally, here is the scaffolded worksheet at the center of this lesson.

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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Physique (n)

Posted on November 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

I would think this context clues worksheet on the noun physique would have application somewhere (if nowhere else) in a physical education curriculum.

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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David Lodge on Narrative

Posted on November 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Narrative, whatever its medium, holds the interest of the audience by raising questions in their minds and delaying the answers…. The questions are broadly of two kinds, have to do with causality (e.g. whodunit?) and temporality (what will happen next?).”

David Lodge

The Art of Fiction

Excerpted from: Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1998.

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Posted in Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

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Word Root Exercise: Mono, Mon

Posted on November 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Greek word roots mono and mon if you can use it. They mean, of course, one, single, and alone. These are two very productive roots in English, and show up in words used across the domains of the common branch curriculum, e.g monocyte, monotheism, monosyllable, and monopoly, as well as in commonly used words in social discourse like monotony and monologue.

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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Vitamin C and Scurvy

Posted on November 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

For health teachers (and for social studies teachers who want, improbably, their students to understand what life on the high seas was like for English sailors, and how they came by the epithet “Limeys”), here is a reading on vitamin c and scurvy and 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.

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A Halloween Lesson Plan on Vlad the Impaler

Posted on October 30, 2019 | Leave a comment

While I have posted these materials elsewhere on Mark’s Text Terminal, I have not included (because I just wrote it yesterday) this lesson plan on Vlad the Impaler. He is the model for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. He also offers a glimpse into the mentality of some of those European knights who went on Crusade in the Holy Land. His biography also offers some insight into the privileges and prerogatives of European nobility in the fifteenth century. And of course, there are his horrifying crimes against humanity, though they would not have been called that at the time (see “privileges and prerogatives of European nobility”).

Anyway, here is a context clues worksheet on the verb impale (it’s only used transitively). This short reading on Vlad is the center of the lesson. Finally, here is the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies the reading.

And with that: Happy Halloween! Go easy on the candy, eh?

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, Essays/Readings, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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Perspicacious (adj)

Posted on October 30, 2019 | Leave a comment

It’s a word that I didn’t learn until a professor of mine at Hampshire College wrote it in an evaluation of my Division II work (which was very gratifying), so maybe high schoolers need not learn it. If you think they should, though, then here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective perspicacious. It means “of acute mental vision or discernment.”

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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A Lesson Plan on Culture and Religion as Causes of History

Posted on October 29, 2019 | Leave a comment

Last but not least this morning is this lesson plan on culture and religion as causes of history. I start this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the noun epidemic. This lesson is a brainstorming and note-taking activity, so, accordingly, you’ll want this (or some iteration of it you make) this brainstorming and note-taking worksheet for students to use.

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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Two Vocabulary-Building Worksheet on Aviation Terms

Posted on October 29, 2019 | Leave a comment

In response to student demand and therefore hot off the press, here are two vocabulary-building worksheets on aviation terms. I suspect this is both the beginning and end of this enterprise, but if demand for this material returns, there may me more of 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.

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