Tag Archives: foreign languages/linguistics

Cultural Literacy: Quid Pro Quo

If there is a better time to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Latin phrase quid pro quo, I cannot imagine when that would be.

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.

De Rigueur (adj)

I’ll spare you the details other than to say I just wrote this context clues worksheet on the adjective de rigueur. I don’t know how often this modifier shows up in speech, but it certainly is in common enough usage in prose to teach it to high school students.

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, December 6, 2019: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Root Bene

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Latin word root bene. It means good and well, and as you have probably already figured out, it turns up as the root of such common words in English as benefit and benevolent. This context clues worksheet on the noun welfare with which I intended deploy a hint to point students in the right direction (and also to hint at the idea that government welfare benefits, which so many families in our nation now receive, are meant to keep us, as individuals and as a society, good and well). Finally, here is the word root worksheet that is the mainstay 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.

Homer

I have to assume that people somewhere in the nation–even with its rapidly declining and increasingly unsophisticated literacy–are still teaching The Iliad and The OdysseyThat means someone, somewhere, unless I very much miss my guess, might need this short reading on Homer as well as its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

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: Pter/o, Pteryg, and Pteryx

Moving right along this morning, here is a worksheet on the Greek roots pter/o, pteryg, and pteryx. They mean wing and fin. You can probably see pterodactyl arising from these; you’ll have to open the worksheet to see the rest.

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: Psych/o

This worksheet on the Greek word root psych/o–which means mind, soul, and mental process–takes students through a series of words that grow from this very productive root in English.

Do I need to say that anyone considering a career in mental health services in particular, and healthcare in general, should know this root? They’ll  need it to understand fully the meanings of psychologist and psychiatrist.

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: Pan, Panto

This worksheet on the Greek Word roots pan and panto–they mean all–guides students through an extremely productive root in English. You’ll find this root at the basis of words like panorama and pantheism–relatively commonly used words.

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.

Propertius on Propinquity

Semper in absentes felicior aestus amantes.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

PropertiusElegies bk. 2, elegy 33, 1. 43

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Word Root Exercise: Greg

Here is worksheet on the Latin root greg is the only thing I’ll post this week. It means flock, but if you look at the words in English that grow from it–e.g. congregate–you’ll see that the document is quite appropriate for the holiday season.

I’ll be back next week, however, with a round of new posts.

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: Para

Here’s a worksheet on the Greek root para. It means, variously, beside, beyond, abnormal, variation, and assistant. If you’re serving a special needs population, chances are you’re working with a paraprofessional who works in parallel with you. And if you’re teaching science, especially, you know and probably even use paradigm in your classroom.

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.