Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

The Greatest Game Ever Played

Posted on December 18, 2019 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on “The Greatest Game Ever Played,” which, in the opinion of many, apparently, was the December 1958 contest in Yankee Stadium between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants. This vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet  accompanies the reading. This short reading characterizes this football game as the birth of the modern NFL.

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, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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Word Root Exercise: Retro

Posted on December 18, 2019 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Latin root retro. It means back, backward, and behind–but you probably already figured that out. You probably also already understand that this is a very productive root in English, giving us words like retroactive and retrofit.

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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Cultural Literacy: The Quality of Mercy

Posted on December 18, 2019 | Leave a comment

OK, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Portia’s “Quality of Mercy” speech from The Merchant of Venice. I did find it interesting, when I went to check my recall of the character in the play who gave the speech (I’ve only seen the play once), and searched for “who gives the quality of mercy speech in the merchant of venice,” what I got as far as “who gives” and Google auto-filled with “a crap.”

Such cynical times we live in!

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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Term of Art: A Priori

Posted on December 17, 2019 | Leave a comment

“A priori: From the previous: proceeding form cause to effect, or reasoning form a premise or assumption to its logical conclusion; deductive, or according to rational consequences, rather than from the facts of experience; preliminary of prior to examination; accepted without question or examination; arbitrary or presumptive (contrasted with a posteriori). Adj. aprioristic; adv. a priori, aprioristically; n. a priori, apriorist.

‘Sometimes she went even further by insisting he had had a crisis when he thought he had merely a bad cabdriver, but when he accused of her of a priori reasoning, she simply reminded him that he was a classic wunderkind and that all wunderkinder tend to deny they have mild-life crises.’ Nora Ephron, Scribble, Scribble”

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

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Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

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Impinge (vi)

Posted on December 17, 2019 | Leave a comment

Last but not least this morning, here is a context clues worksheet on the verb impinge, which is apparently only used intransitively.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Worksheets

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Giuseppi Garibaldi

Posted on December 17, 2019 | Leave a comment

It’s time for me to wrap this up and trudge into downtown Bennington to run a couple of errands. If you teach social studies, particularly European history in the 19th century, you might find this reading on Giuseppe Garibaldi and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet of some use in your classroom. Garibaldi, when it comes to European nationalism, remains a representative figure.

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 Essays/Readings, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Wedding Day”

Posted on December 17, 2019 | Leave a comment

This lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Wedding Day” is the finale of the first of three units I wrote to accompany this material; believe it or not, I have 48 more of these lessons to post.

To teach this lesson, I generally start, after the meshugaas of a class change, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the American idiom “Get Someone’s Goat.” You’ll need this PDF of the illustration and narrative of the case of the “Wedding Day” to guide students through it. 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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Cue (n, vi/vt) Queue (n, vi/vt)

Posted on December 17, 2019 | Leave a comment

Here are five worksheets on the homophones cue and queue. Both are used as nouns and verbs, and as verbs they can be used both intransitively and transitively. These words are in common enough use in English that I think these words ought to be able to find a place in most English classrooms, particularly for English language learners.

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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Word Root Exercise: Peri-

Posted on December 17, 2019 | Leave a comment

I don’t know that I’ve ever used this worksheet on the Greek word root peri–it means around–in my classroom, but that is mostly because I have so many of these things, and many of them simply take priority. As you will see, the words on this worksheet (other than perimeter) aren’t exactly part of our daily vernacular in this country–though if you are older, you may, like me, find yourself using periodontal more than you would prefer.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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Cultural Literacy: Rites of Passage

Posted on December 17, 2019 | Leave a comment

Alright: like Dwight Yoakam, I feel like I’m a thousand miles from nowhere this morning.

And here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on rites of passage. Just off the top of my head, I can think of several places where this would fit into either the English or social studies 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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