Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

The Weekly Text, 12 April 2024: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Batteries

Posted on April 12, 2024 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is this reading on batteries along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Since most if not all students now carry a smart phone, this reading, to my surprise, has become a high-interest item; thus, I have tagged it as such.

Students want to know, apparently, how to keep these high-tech toys going.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

Tagged , , , , ,

Cultural Literacy: Pythagorean Theorem

Posted on April 5, 2024 | Leave a comment

OK: Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Pythagorean theorem. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences and four comprehension questions. I’m not a math teacher–it has been, historically, a difficult subject for me–so I can’t vouch for the cogency of this reading. I can say that the first sentence, a long compound of 40 words with multiple comma breaks, is a doozy; for emergent and struggling readers, this might best broken up.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged , , ,

Common English Verbs Followed by an Infinitive: Begin

Posted on April 5, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the verb begin as used with an infinitive. I begin to doubt the efficacy of this strand of curricular materials.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged ,

The Weekly Text, 5 April 2024: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Root Retro

Posted on April 5, 2024 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the word root retro. It’s of Latin origin and means, as you might have already guessed, “back,” “backward,” and “behind.” The commonly used English words retrofit, retrograde, retroactive, and retrospect grow from this root.

I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the adjective vintage. This scaffolded worksheet, replete with cognates from the Romance languages, is the principal work of this lesson.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,

Cultural Literacy: Annie Oakley

Posted on March 29, 2024 | Leave a comment

This Cultural Literacy worksheet on Annie Oakley seems like kind of an odd place to end this year’s Women’s History Month, but she is a woman and part of United States history, so here we are. This is a half-page document with a three-sentence reading, all of them of reasonable simplicity, and three comprehension questions.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,

Cultural Literacy: Julia Ward Howe

Posted on March 29, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” This is a half-page document with a reading of two sentences, the first of which is long and might needed to be edited to a more manageable length for English language learners and emergent readers, and three comprehension questions.

Ms. Ward was an abolitionist and social reformer–a significant figure in her time. So I mean no respect when I say that when I hear the the melody of “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” I hear Allan Sherman’s rendition of it, i.e. “Harry Lewis.”

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,

The Weekly Text, 29 March 2024, Women’s History Month Week 5: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Emmeline Pankhurst

Posted on March 29, 2024 | Leave a comment

For this, the final Friday of Women’s History Month 2024, here is a reading on Emmeline Pankhurst with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This is a surprisingly thorough account, for a single page of text, of the legendary suffragist and social reformer.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,

Cultural Literacy: Sarah Bernhardt

Posted on March 21, 2024 | Leave a comment

OK, it’s just about time to leave for school, but finally this morning here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Sarah Bernhardt. This is a half-page document with a reading of two sentences and two comprehension questions. In other words, the sparest of introductions to this major figure in French culture.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged , , , , ,

Cultural Literacy: Jane Eyre

Posted on March 21, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Jane Eyre. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of four simple sentences and four comprehension questions. A basic, symmetrical, introduction to this landmark novel by Charlotte Bronte.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,

The Weekly Text, 22 March 2024, Women’s History Month Week 4: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Mrs. Dalloway

Posted on March 21, 2024 | Leave a comment

On this, the penultimate Friday of Women’s History Month 2024, here is a reading on Mrs. Dalloway, the novel by Virginia Woolf, and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I rather doubt anyone is teaching this book at the secondary level. I confess I have found this book, at which I’ve taken several passes, more than a bit of a challenge. Still, these materials introduce the novel, and in so doing introduce Virginia Woolf herself, a significant figure in women’s history.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

Tagged , , , , ,