Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

Frenetic (adj)

It was Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day yesterday, so here today is a context clues worksheet on the adjective frenetic. It’s not an especially common word, but for the right time and place it is indispensable.

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: Kine, Kinet, Kinemat

Ok, it’s pouring rain on a Friday morning in late December, and it’s forty-two degrees at 4:49 in the morning.

Here is a worksheet on the Greek roots kine, kinet, and kinemat. They mean motion and division (think kinetic).

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.

Bruce Springsteen

I’m not entirely confident high school students take any interest in him, but if they do, here is a reading on Bruce Springsteen with a comprehension worksheet to accompany it. He has effortlessly kept himself relevant since I first heard his music in 1975.

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.

Write It Right: Responsible

“‘The bad weather is responsible for much sickness.’ ‘His intemperance was responsible for his crime.’ Responsibility is not an attribute of anything but human beings, and few of these can respond, in damages or otherwise. Responsible is nearly synonymous with accountable and answerable, which, also, are frequently misused.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

Fraudulent (adj)

In the event you have a call for it, here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective fraudulent. It seems like an important word to know at the moment.

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.

Whitney Houston

Here is a comprehension worksheet on Whitney Houston that I wrote to attend the Wikipedia article on the singer and actress. A student in one of the ELA intervention classes I co-teach requested it, so I whipped it up.

A couple of things about this document: first, it follows the Wikipedia article very closely as one scrolls down through it. Even though it looks like the user will have to perform wide and careful searches–and they do, even following the order of the article as closely as this sheet does–all he or she will really need to do is read the article and follow along with the questions. Second, it is long, so I’ve compressed all the material onto one page for the teacher’s convenience. The worksheet will need to be formatted properly, but it can also be edited easily for differentiation in whatever way is appropriate for your student or students.

In any case, the student for whom I developed this expressed her satisfaction with it.

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: Anthropomorphism

In my classroom, we recently completed a vocabulary building exercise using the Greek word roots anthro– and anthropo-  (they mean man and human) as a starting point. Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on anthropomorphism to deepen understanding of this particular concept if anyone is interested.

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.

Wayne Gretzky

At the beginning of another work week (for me, one of the odder pleasures of getting older is no longer dreading Monday mornings), here is a reading on Wayne Gretzky and the comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. I’ve been producing quite a few new readings and worksheets, particularly high interest stuff, so they’ll be showing up here from time to time.

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: Alexander the Great

This independent practice worksheet on Alexander the Great probably fits into the social studies curriculum somewhere between grades six and nine. You can always adapt it; like everything else here, the document is in the easily manipulable Microsoft 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.

Hear (vt/vi) and Here (n)

These five worksheets on the homophones hear and here might be useful in a variety of settings, and I think English language learners might benefit from them. One thing is beyond dispute, I submit: these are two words students really must be able to use properly.

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.