Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

A Student Self-Assessment and Reflection Tool

This student self-assessment and reflection form has been kicking around my to-do folder for a couple of years now for a couple of reasons. The first is that I could never determine the best way to categorize and tag it (and I post it now because I have decided to take a much more casual attitude toward categories and gags, mostly because I realized this blog has a search function); the second is that this material, I am confident, remains solidly in the authors’ copyright.

Who are, to wit, Jay McTighe and Carol Ann Tomlinson. The book is Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design (Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2006). If you’re interested in curriculum design in general and in particular, in this case differentiating for struggling or idiosyncratic learners (or both), you probably know the names of these two distinguished experts. The book is excellent: I read it twice, taking extensive notes both times. Then I passed it along to assistant principal under whom I served. Every time I visited his office, I noticed that the book was close at hand.

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.

Guerilla (n/adj)

This context clues worksheet on guerilla affords students the opportunity to see this word used as both a noun and an adjective. I’ve often wondered if, at some point, I should write short application exercises–say, using the word defined in a few extemporaneously written declarative sentences–to complement some of the context clues worksheets I write. This one might be a good place to start with such practice.

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.

Beatlemania

That the students I serve took the interest they did in this reading on Beatlemania came as a surprise to me. Here also is a worksheet to aid comprehension.

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: Archetype

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on archetype as it is generally conceptualized; it’s nice to see–however brief–the excursus on Carl Jung’s psychology in this passage.

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.

Peak (n) and Peek (n/vi)

Moving right along: if your students need help differentiating them, here are five worksheets on the homophones peak and peek. You probably already know this, but peek as a verb is used only intransitively.

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.

Gentry (n) and Gentrify (vi/vt)

When I worked in New York City, I found that these two context clues worksheets on gentry and gentrify could occasion interest even in the most difficult-to-reach students. That says something about relevance in the classroom, I think. If you work in the inner city, I would think at some point, if current trends continue, this material will be de rigueur for your students.

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.

Nineteenth Amendment

Here is a reading on the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution as well as a comprehension worksheet to use with it. This amendment, you will recall, enfranchised women.

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, December 21, 2018: A Literacy Lesson on the Word and Concept Factor

Today is the Winter Solstice, so the days now begin to lengthen. Spring is on the horizon.

This week’s Text is a complete lesson plan on the word factor that I developed on the fly (which shows, I fear) three years ago. The purpose of the lesson is to help students understand this complicated, polysemous word so that could use it in all the settings where it becomes, well, a factor.

For reasons I don’t entirely recall, I conceived of this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the noun axiom as the do-now, or opener of this lesson. I suspect I sought merely to introduce another concept from mathematics for the sake of consistency. The first worksheet for this lesson is three context clues worksheets on factor: in the first instance students will identify it as a noun, in the second as a verb, and in the third and final worksheet, it is once again used as a noun. To support this activity, here is a learning support in the form of definitions of factor in the order it appears on the context clues worksheets; this can be distributed to students as appropriate, or to your class linguist. Because I wasn’t sure how long any of this would take (the institute class for which it was written was a little over an hour long), I threw in this reading and comprehension worksheet on factorials as a complement. Parenthetically, I’ll just say that I think this lesson is incomplete; in fact, before I could consider it complete, I would want to run it by a math teacher or two.

And that’s it. This is the final Weekly Text from Mark’s Text Terminal for 2018. I plan to spend the next week doing just about anything but looking at a computer screen.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

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: Diagramming Sentences

“A means of picturing the structure of a sentence by placing the words on a horizontal line that is divided in two. The subject goes on the left side of the line, and the verb goes on the right side. Adjectives, adverbs, and other parts of speech are placed on separate lines under the subject or verb in such a way that illustrates how they modify those words. Many students find that diagramming sentences is like a game and that it helps them understand how sentences are constructed, how the different parts of speech function, and why it is important to be thoughtful in placing adjectives and adverbs in a sentence.”

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

Cultural Literacy: Any Port in a Storm

If you need it, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “any port in a storm.”

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.