Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

Cultural Literacy: Stamp Act

Ok, finally on this beautiful Friday morning in early August, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Stamp Act. This is a piece of legislation from the British Parliament that was a contributing factor to the American Revolution.

In other words, vital prior knowledge for understanding the origins 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.

New Kids on the Block

They were huge in 1990 when I first began working with adolescents. Now I wonder if anyone remembers them. I know the Wahlbergs  (Donnie was a member of New Kids on the Block and his brother Mark enjoyed a solo career as a rapper with the group “Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch; both are now actors) have parlied their success in the entertainment business into a reality show and, of all things, a burger joint franchise called Wahlburgers.

I usually don’t mention such things on this blog, but I find the fact that Mark Wahlberg became a rapper ironic indeed, given his history of racist violence. He also appears to have confused the action-star roles he plays with reality when he made these idiotic comments about the flights that were used as terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, in the United States.

In any case, here is a reading on the New Kids on the Block and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet if you have students who can’t live without this knowledge of this product of the publicity-industrial complex–a brilliant locution for which I thank the peerless journalist Ron Rosenbaum.

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.

Surrogate (n)

For the first time in about a week, I needn’t drive anywhere today. That’s a relief.

Here, if you can use it, is a context clues worksheet on surrogate in its use as a noun. I imagine this document could be easily converted to show this word’s use as an adjective as well.

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, 9 August 2019: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Root Cent

This week’s Text, delivered from Vermont, the only place to be in this month, is a complete lesson plan on the Latin word root cent–which means, you will instantly recognize, and your students will before long, hundred. I use this context clues worksheet on the noun myriad to open this lesson–it gives students a hint about where to look for the meaning of cent. Finally, here is the scaffolded worksheet that is the mainstay of this lesson. It includes cognates, so if you’re working with Spanish-speaking students–or students who speak any or the other Romance languages–they will find words they already know in that list.

You are, I hope, enjoying your summer.

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.

Taut (adj) and Taught (vi/vt)

Here are five homophone worksheets on the adjective taut (it’s also, interestingly, used as a transitive verb to mean mat and tangle in Scots English) and taught, the past tense and past participle of the verb teach, which is used both intransitively and transitively.

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: Tax Deduction

Here’s a Cultural Literacy worksheet on tax deductions. This is a concept graduating seniors probably ought to understand as they begin their adult lives.

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.

Mot Juste

“Mot Juste (mo zhust): The perfect, fitting word or phrase; precisely apt expression. Plural: mots justes.

‘It was a straight answer and Ezra had never given me any other kind verbally, but I felt very bad because here was the man I liked and trusted the most as a critic then, the man who believed in the mot juste—the one and only correct word to use—the man who had taught me to distrust certain adjectives as I would later learn to distrust certain people in certain situations; and I wanted his opinion on man who almost never used the mot juste and yet had made his people come alive at times, as almost no one else did.’

Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

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

Mania

For social-emotional learning, here is a reading on mania and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that attends 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.

Solicit (vi/vt)

Here’s a context clues worksheet on the verb solicit, which is used both intransitively and transitively. This is a pretty commonly used word in English, so students should probably learn it before graduating high school.

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Footsteps in the Dark”

Moving right along this morning, here is another lesson plan on a Crime and Puzzlement case, “Footsteps in the Dark.”

I begin this lesson, to get students settled after a class change, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom money burning a hole in one’s pocket. Students and teacher will need the PDF of the illustration and questions of this case to investigate and solve it. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key for this 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.