Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

A Halloween Lesson Plan on Vlad the Impaler

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.

Perspicacious (adj)

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.

A Lesson Plan on Culture and Religion as Causes of History

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.

Two Vocabulary-Building Worksheet on Aviation Terms

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.

Dance Marathons

Last year, to my great surprise, this reading on dance marathons and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet became high-interest materials in my classroom in Springfield, Massachusetts. As a teenager, I read They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? By Horace McCoy, so I have always found this cultural phenomenon interesting.

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.

Pentagon (n)

When I look at this context clues worksheet on the noun pentagon I see that I tried to write a worksheet that dealt with this noun both as a geometric shape and the headquarters of the United States military. I’m not sure it succeeds on either score, but it’s easily revised if you need to use it.

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: Which for That

“Which for That. “The boat which I engaged had a hole in it.” But a parenthetical clause may rightly be introduced by which; as, The boat, which had a hole in it, I nevertheless engaged. Which and that are seldom interchangeable; when they are, use that. It sounds better.”

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

Word Root Exercise: Melan/o

That last post took a while to assemble, so let me quickly offer this worksheet on the Greek root melan/o; it means black. You find this root at the basis of a lot of words, many of them with negative denotative or connotative meanings melancholy comes to mind), which gives one pause, I should think, to consider the origins of 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.

Cultural Literacy: Sociology

OK, it’s Monday again, and cool and damp in southwestern Vermont. Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on sociology if you need your students to understand (and who doesn’t I guess, particularly those of us charged with teaching the social sciences) the concept and academic discipline.

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, October 25, 2019: A Trove of Documents for Teaching Vocabulary in the Culinary Arts

Circumstances have emerged in my new job that have impelled me into one of my favorite tasks as a teacher, namely, creating differentiated instruction. This week, I began work on a course of study for a student who is interested in pursuing a career in the culinary arts. This enterprise begins with the construction of a lexicon of words, adjectives, nouns, and verbs, to be specific.

So, this week’s Text is a trove of initial documents for this endeavor. Here is the lexicon that informs this early phase of this work. You’ll find most of the words in that lexicon on these four worksheets on adjectives, this set of four worksheets on nouns, and these four worksheets on verbs. If you want to make your own worksheets, then you might need these four different worksheet templates that form the basis of all this work.

As with virtually everything on Mark’s Text Terminal, all of these documents are in Microsoft Word; ergo, you may adjust them to your students’ needs. If you’ve ever considered commenting on this blog, may I ask you to do so viz this material? I am really curious if it has utility elsewhere, or (gulp!) merit.

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.