Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

Perennial (adj)

It was the Word of the Day at Merriam-Webster yesterday, so here today is context clues worksheet on perennial used as an adjective. Gardeners know this word as a noun, so I am aware of this document’s limitations–including the fact that it doesn’t include, ah, some of the strongest context ever to flow from my pen.

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: Aristotle

Here’s an independent practice worksheet on Aristotle. Just posting it on this chilly (21 degrees) December morning in Massachusetts brings to mind a sun-drenched agora in Athens, where philosophers passed afternoons discussing the nature of the universe.

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.

Pong

Recent circumstances have required me to produce a lot of short readings, including this one on the arcade game Pong as well as its accompanying comprehension worksheet. If you have kids interested in video games (are there any kids now who aren’t interested in video games?), this is a reading on the very first video game. Do you remember it? I do. And I had no interest whatsoever in 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.

Galumph (vi)

I do understand that it’s hard to believe that this context clues worksheet on the verb galumph  represents a real word. It does: it’s used intransitively and means, you might not be quite as surprised to hear, “to move with a heavy, clumsy tread.” If nothing else, it’s a word that would suffice well, I think, to introduce or reinforce the concept of onomatopoeia.

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.

Isle (n) and Aisle (n)

Monday again, so I’ll begin another week with these five worksheets on the homophones isle and aisle. They’re both nouns, and words students should know and 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.

The Rosetta Stone

Wrapping up on a dark Saturday morning (is there anything better, incidentally, on a winter morning, than strong black coffee?), here is a reading on the Rosetta Stone and a 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.

Word Root Exercise: Cent

This worksheet on the Latin word root cent will help students learn and apply some key words in English, I think. It means, your students will quickly infer (I hope) hundred. This is a very productive root that students really must 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.

Plutocracy (n)

Now seems to be the perfect moment, or as perfect as moments get for such things, to post this context clues worksheet on the noun plutocracy. Don’t forget that it morphs to plutocrat and plutocratic, a couple of other good words that nicely represent our zeitgeist.

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: Supply and Demand

Here’s a Cultural Literacy worksheet on supply and demand if you can use it. I can think of a number of ways and places to use this document–it does, after all, introduce students to a fundamental concept in economics.

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: Albrecht Durer

If memory serves, I whipped up this independent practice worksheet on Albrecht Durer at a student’s request. I don’t think he ever turned up in the global studies courses I co-taught in New York, even as a representative figure of the Northern Renaissance–which of course he is.

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.