Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

A Learning Support on Transition Words

In the last year, I published a thousand blog posts; that’s as many as I published in the preceding three years. As a result, I have basically emptied my English Language Arts Learning Supports folder, which comes as a bit of a surprise to me. I don’t for a minute doubt that I will continue to create new supports, but for now, besides this learning support on transition words, I only have one more to post–a glossary of poetic terms that really is a differently designed version of something I already posted here.

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.

Largesse (n)

On a rainy summer morning in Western Massachusetts, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun largesse. It seems like a word high school students should know by the time they graduate.

But what do you think?

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.

Gender Identity

Rounding out this morning’s labors will make this the tenth post I’ve published on this Monday in late July. So, here is a reading on gender identity 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.

Independent Practice: Justinian I

Here’s an independent practice worksheet on the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I if you happen to teach world history, global studies, or whatever your district calls this subdomain of social studies.

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.

Word Root Exercise: Macro

Here is a worksheet on the worksheet on the Greek word root macro. It means large and long. It shows up, as this exercise will demonstrate for your students, in a number of important nouns in English (many of which also morph into adjectives) representing concepts.

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.

Kinetic (adj)

Here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective kinetic. While I’ve only just developed it, I can think of a myriad of uses for it in the classroom. If you have students bound for a physics class, this is a good word for them to know as they near that destination.

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, July 19, 2019: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “The Lunchroom Murder”

It’s Friday again, so again it’s time for the Weekly Text at Mark’s Text Terminal.

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “The Lunchroom Murder.” This Cultural Literacy worksheet on “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”, the first line of Shakespeare’s 18th sonnet. Direct from the pages of the first Crime and Puzzlement book, here are the illustration and list of questions that drive this lesson. Finally, you’ll need the answer key to solve this mystery.

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.

Term of Art: Vernacular

Vernacular (noun): Native or regional idiom, on nonstandard or substandard language, as opposed to the established, cultured language of a society; spoken, as opposed to literary, usage; everyday speech; a lingo. Adjective: vernacular; adverb: vernacularly; noun: vernacularity.”

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

H.H. Richardson

One of the great pleasures of the last eight months I’ve passed in Springfield, Massachusetts, has been my walks along Mattoon Street. It was on my way to work and back, so it was rare that I didn’t pass along the block at least once a day. Springfield has wisely and carefully preserved the general area in which this residential street is located, the Quadrangle-Mattoon Street Historic District. The neighborhood is a gem in an otherwise–I use this word advisedly, and only because I’ve seen it in the local press, and indeed, even used by the City of Springfield itself, enough to take my own liberties with it–blighted city.

Earlier this year I learned a couple of things about the North Congregational Church on Mattoon Street. First, it was one of the earliest designs of the storied American architect H.H. Richardson, that it is rendered in his characteristic style, Richardson Romanesque, and contains Tiffany windows. Second, I learned that this amazing piece of United States history is actually for sale for an asking price of $600,000.

As this reading on H.H. Richardson explains, he remains one of the most important and influential architects ever to work in the United States. Here, if these materials are of any interest to your students, is the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that attends this short 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.

Coney Island

An email from the NYCDOE this morning aroused my thoughts and feelings about New York City, and possibly returning there to teach. Here is a reading on Coney Island, one of my favorite places in Brooklyn, and its attendant 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.