Tag Archives: diction/grammar/style/usage

Cultural Literacy: Cartel

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a cartel. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and three comprehension questions. The reading does mention Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which I think students should know about and understand.

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, 25 August 2023: Styling Sentences Lesson 5, Dependent Clauses in a Pair or in a Series (at the Beginning or End of a Sentence)

It’s Friday again, and the school year starts soon. Let’s continue with fifth lesson plan in the Styling Sentences unit, this one on dealing with dependent clauses in a pair or a series at the beginning or end of a sentence.

This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the direct object of the verb. You know, that thing that a transitive verb requires to complete its meaning: Omar buys a cup of coffee at the bodega every morning. And here is the worksheet with explanatory and mentor texts to guide students through developing their understanding of this relatively complicated sentence form.

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.

Common English Verbs Followed by an Infinitive: Grow

Last but not least this morning, here is a worksheet on the verb grow when used with an infinitive. Perhaps if I used them more, and developed them further, I would grow to like these lackluster documents.

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: Throw the Book at Someone

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom throw the book at someone. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and two comprehension questions; a model, I hope, of effective symmetry and brevity.

The question arises, however: does anyone use this expression anymore?

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, 18 August 2023: Styling Sentences Lesson 4, An Internal Series of Appositives or Modifiers (Enclosed by a Pair of Dashes or Parentheses) with an Excursus on the Dash and the Parentheses

Here is the fourth lesson plan of the Styling Sentences Unit. This one, as the header on this post indicates, deals with an internal series of appositives or modifiers enclosed by a pair of dashes and parentheses.

This lesson opens with this worksheet on parsing sentences to find the adjectives in each clause. And here is the worksheet with explanatory and mentor texts–the former, of course, the excursus on the use of dashes and parentheses. This worksheet contains no modified cloze  exercises or other supported materials, only mentor texts which students will use to draft their own prose using this relatively complicated sentence structure. Obviously, such supported work is possible here, but it will require a lot of thought and careful composition and editing.

Your thoughts?

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.

Common English Verbs Followed by an Infinitive: Hope

Finally this morning, here is a worksheet on the verb hope when used with an infinitive. I hope to remember not to waste time developing curricular materials of dubious value.

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: Zodiac

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the zodiac. This is a half-page document with a reading of two sentences and two comprehension questions. In other words, another succinct, but relatively thorough, introduction to this conception of the heavens.

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, 11 August 2023: Styling Sentences Lesson 3, An Introductory Series of Appositives (with a Dash and a Summarizing Subject) with an Excursus on Appositive Nouns

Here is the third lesson of the Styling Sentences Unit. This one, as the header indicates, prescribes a sentence structure with an introductory series of appositives (with a dash and a summarizing subject) that includes an excursus on appositive nouns.

I open this lesson with this parsing sentences worksheet for nouns, which, as it sounds, calls upon students to parse a series of sentences to find the nouns in them. Finally, here is the worksheet with explanatory and mentor texts that is the primary work of this lesson. Once again, there are no modified cloze exercises on this worksheets; rather, there are mentor texts, sentences in the form the lesson seeks to help students learn to write. Unlike other lessons in this unit, I am still less than certain how I might go about developing some structured practice for sentence structures this complicated.

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.

Common English Verbs Followed by an Infinitive: Help

OK, here is a worksheet on the verb help when used with an infinitive. The teacher hopes to avoid producing anymore questionable material on instruction in grammar and style.

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: Zeus

Moving right along this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Zeus. This is a full-page document with a reading of three sentences and a parenthetical element, and four comprehension questions. This is one of a series of new Cultural Literacy materials I developed this summer, and I’m trying out some new strategies in composing the questions. As almost always on this blog (but for a few PDFs floating around), this document is formatted in Microsoft Word, so you can manipulate it to suit the needs of your classroom.

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.