Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

Sanitation (n) and Sanitary (adj)

A couple of days ago I posted a context clues worksheet on the verb sanitize. I’d forgotten, or overlooked, the other two members of the family of words I’d worked into context clues worksheets: so here are two more on the noun sanitation and the adjective sanitary if you need them.

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.

Acne

Here is a reading on acne, the bane of every teenager’s social existence, and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I’ve tagged this as an item of social and emotional learning–acne can be tough on kids, and understanding its chemistry and physiology can help kids feel less alone.

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: Explicit Grammar Instruction

“Instruction in the descriptive terminology and and prescriptive rules of a given language, including syntax and the function of different parts of speech.”

Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.

Sanitize (vt)

I have recently posted, and will continue to post until they are gone, a series of readings and comprehension worksheets on health-related topics.

So this morning seems as good a time as any to publish this context clues worksheet on the verb sanitize. It is apparently only used transitively.

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.

D-Day

I meant to post this reading on D-Day and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet last Thursday, on the 75th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Europe. In my end of the school-year haze, alas, I spaced it out, as we liked to say in the 1970s.

Better late than never, I guess.

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: Epicureanism

It’s time to get out for a walk, so I’ll wrap up this morning with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on epicureanism.

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.

Sandbag

This context clues worksheet on the verb sandbag almost certainly results in a certain lack of judiciousness on my part when choosing which of Merriam-Webster’s Words of the Day merit or require worksheet treatment. In any case, this verb is used both transitively and intransitively.

In that worksheet’s context, sandbag means, as a transitive verb, sandbag to conceal or misrepresent one’s true potential, position, or intent, esp. in order to take advantage of; used intransitively, it means to hide the truth about oneself so as to gain an advantage over another. In other words, it means basically the same thing whether one uses it with a direct object of not.

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.

Term of Art: Verb Phrase

1. Also verbal phrase. In traditional grammar, a term for the main verb and any auxiliary or combination of auxiliaries that precedes it: can spell; may have cried; should be paid; might have been transferred2. In generative grammar, a term roughly equivalent to the traditional predicate. It includes the traditional verb phrase with (at least) any complements of the verb, such as the non-bracketed parts of the following sentences: (They) have understood his intention); (Susan) was very patient.”

Excerpted from: McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Word Root Exercise: Dox

Here is a worksheet on the Greek word root dox. It means belief and praise, so the word orthodox suddenly makes a lot more sense, as do the other words on this relatively short exercise.

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.

War of the Worlds

The story of Orson Welles’ broadcast of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds fascinated me as a grade-schooler. I think I was first exposed to it in around fifth grade. But even at that tender age, I was surprised that people were taken in by it–but also sympathetic that they were. I remember trying to imagine myself in the place of the folks who thought Welles was delivering news, rather than a science-fiction story. I could, but only barely.

Any way, here is a reading on Orson Welles’ broadcast of War of the Worlds along with 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.