Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Bankward Ho!”

Since these continue to be a very popular item on Mark’s Text Terminal, here is a complete lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Bankward Ho!”

I start this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “You Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks.” To conduct this lesson, of course, you will need this PDF of the illustration and questions that are the center of the “case.” Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key.

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.

The Weekly Text, September 27, 2019, Hispanic Heritage Month 2019 Week II: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Augusto Pinochet

This week’s Text, in Mark’s Text Terminal’s ongoing observance of National Hispanic Heritage Month 2019, is a reading on Augusto Pinochet and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Pinochet–along with Trujillo, the Somoza family, and in general a disturbingly long list of despots–is one of the great villains of Hispanic History. When I was in high school, Pinochet was kind of our version of the bogeyman.

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.

Armament (n)

Because it turns up often enough in the social studies curriculum, I found it necessary some years back to write this context clues worksheet on the noun armament. It’s most commonly used, I guess, in its plural form, so this worksheet may present, as an aside, an opportunity to assist students in developing deeper a understanding of the difference between singular and plural nouns.

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.

Everyday Edit: Pablo Picasso

Here, in observation of Hispanic History Month 2019, is an Everyday Edit worksheet on Pablo Picasso. If you like this kind of exercise, the good people at Education World very generously offer at no charge a year’s supply of them–that hyperlink will take you to them.

If you find errors in this document…well, then you’re doing good work! Finding and correcting copy errors is kind of the point of this material.

Adduce

“Adduce (verb) To bring up as proof or an example; introduce for consideration or discussion; cite. Adjective: adducible, adduceable.

‘Sir Arthur Quiller Couch (‘Q’)…adduced the whole body of English literature in order to maintain that American literature was a provincial appendage and that its most distinguished litterateurs proved the primacy of the English language bye being well within the mainstream of the English of England.’ Alastair Cooke, in On Mencken.”

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

Pierre de Fermat

OK, if you have some more advanced math students on your hands, this reading on Pierre de Fermat–with an excursus on his Last Theorem–might be of some use to you. This vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet accompanies the reading.

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.

Libido

I’m not sure where this reading on the Freudian concept of libido and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet fit into the curriculum. Health education seems the logical choice, but if you’re an English teacher trying to teach students to speak in a more sophisticated manner of, uh, intimate affairs, this might be the material for that.

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: E Pluribus Unum

Finally on this Monday morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Latin phrase e pluribus unum, the motto of the United States, appearing on the nation’s great seal. Unfortunately, this elegant phrase was never codified as the nation’s motto, so in 1956, in a counter-enlightenment move, “In God We Trust” was passed into law at the official motto 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.

Apposite (adj)

If you teach kids the appositive noun to improve writing skills, then you might find this context clues worksheet on the adjective apposite helpful in getting that enterprise started.

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.

Red Blood Cells

Alright, moving right along on this relatively balmy Monday morning in southwestern Vermont, here is a reading on red blood cells and 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.