Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

A Writing Prompt from Edmonton, Alberta

[Here’s a writing prompt from the Great White North.]

“Imagine that your Uncle is a Hollywood film producer and has asked for your ideas for a possible new movie. Because many movies are based on books, he has asked you to tell him about a book you’ve read that you think would make a good movie. Write a letter to your uncle and describe a book that you enjoyed and explain why you think it would make a good movie.

Excerpted from: Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1998.

Word Root Exercise: Mal, Male

Here is a worksheet on the  Latin roots mal and male. They mean, as any Spanish speaker can tell you, bad, evil, ill, and wrong. These are very productive roots in English, yielding, among many, others, malevolent and malpractice.

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 Learning Support on Aesthetic Criteria for Reviews

A little over a decade ago, I worked for a couple of years in a middle school in the North Bronx. While there, I developed a short unit on writing reviews. Somewhere in along the way, across that ten-year span, I lost the unit (it took me a while, as a slow learner on these things, to master data storage), but somehow hung onto its templates. Those are in a folder awaiting redevelopment; I do think teaching students to write reviews is a good way to guide them to a broader understanding of culture in general, and the elements of culture in particular.

While rummaging around in some old folders, I found this learning support on aesthetic criteria for writing reviews. I remember distinctly that these lists were student generated. I acted only as a Socratic foil by asking questions to clarify terms.

At some point, I’ll get back to writing the unit this document was meant to support, and post its lessons in these pages.

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, April 26, 2019: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Vaccines

Earlier in the week, I had begun work on this Text with the idea of posting a complete lesson plan of some kind. However, as the news of a national measles outbreak in the United States, I changed my mind.

Because I can think of no better time than now to post this reading on vaccines 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.

Vex (vt)

While it isn’t much used anymore, this context clues worksheet on the verb vex goes some distance, I’d like to think, on demonstrating why this verb, used transitively only, apparently, remains a solid and useful word.

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: Curiosity Killed the Cat

Finally, on this cool but rosy Thursday morning, here is a Culture Literacy worksheet on the idiom “curiosity killed the cat.” The expression remains current in American English and therefore its discourse, and is probably something students ought to know.

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.

Independent Practice: Clovis

At one point, Clovis had a role to play in the freshman global studies courses I co-taught in New York City; then he disappeared. He represents a number of key elements of early European history, not the least of which is the spread of Christianity into “barbarian” kingdoms.

In any case, I doubt this independent practice worksheet on Clovis has great utility in New York any longer. But perhaps someone, somewhere, might have a student keen to know more about this transitional figure. I’ve had more surprising and unusual requests for reading material than this.

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.

Vestige (n)

Moving right along this morning (light now appears at about 5:30 am, which suits me just fine!), here is a context clues worksheet on the noun vestige. There are a number of uses for this across common branch domains; in any case, it is almost inarguably a word students should know, so that they can master the concept of vestiges.

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 Clash

A couple of hundred years ago, when I was in my late teens and early twenties, The Clash liked to call themselves “the only band that matters“: indeed, it was emblazoned across the front of their towering record “London Calling.” Last week while on spring break, I listened to a podcast series on The Clash, hosted by Chuck D of pioneering Hip-Hop group Public Enemy (an inspired choice, by the way) on the streaming music service to which I subscribe. It brought back great memories of a very different time in this world of ours.

Here is a reading on The Clash and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. When I’ve given this to alienated students to read, it has aroused, almost to a one, their interest. Whatever you think of punk rock and The Clash, there is no doubt that their music carries a message of rebellion and its concomitant, hope and action to create a better, more just world.

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.

Word Root Exercise: Cracy and Crat

Here is a worksheet on the Greek roots cracy and crat. Unsurprisingly, they mean government, rule, and power–you know, like democracy, physiocrat, and kakistocracy.

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.