Tag Archives: homophones

The Weekly Text, 5 August 2022: A Lesson Plan for the Final Assessment of the Conjunctions Unit

Ok, here is the final lesson plan of the conjunctions unit, which is a sentence-writing review as a unit-concluding assessment. I open this lesson with this worksheet on the homophones peak and peek; if the unit goes into a second day (it very likely will, and perhaps even a third), here is an Everyday Edit the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, which Melba Patillo Beals experienced first hand as one of the Little Rock Nine, and about which she has written eloquently.

This sentence-writing practice assessment worksheet is the final assessment for this unit.

And with this post, the entire cycle of units I wrote to teach the parts of speech is now available on Mark’s Text Terminal. I don’t know how many lessons in total it is, but if it is not 100, it’s close. I hope you find some or all of this material useful. After seven years of piecemeal posting of these materials, they’re all here.

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 Weekly Text, 29 July 2022: A Lesson Plan on Correlative Conjunctions (Part 2)

This week’s Text is the second of two lessons on using correlative conjunctions. The first was published here last Friday. If you scroll down eight or so posts below this one, you’ll find it.

I open this lesson with this Everyday Edit worksheet on Charles R. Drew, the surgeon and researcher on blood transfusions. (And don’t forget that you can help yourself to a yearlong supply of Everyday Edit worksheets over at Education World.) If the lesson spills over into a second day, here is a second do-now worksheet on the homophones peace and piece.

This scaffolded worksheet is the center of this unit, and I expect that this teacher’s copy of the worksheet will make delivering the lesson a bit easier for you.

That’s it. I’ll post the final lesson in this unit–and the final lesson of all the Parts of Speech Units on this blog–next week.

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 Weekly Text, 22 July 2022: A Lesson Plan on Correlative Conjunctions (Part 1)

This week’s Text is first of two lessons on correlative conjunctions–the second will appear here next Friday.

I use this usage worksheet on its and it’s as the do-now exercise to open this lesson. Should the lesson go into a second day, here is a second do-now, this one an Everyday Edit worksheet on bullying. And to give credit where it is so abundantly due, don’t forget that the proprietors of the Education World website distribute a yearlong supply of Everyday Edit worksheets–free for the taking. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: for certain students I have served over the years, these Everyday Edit worksheet have been quite satisfying.

This scaffolded worksheet on using correlative conjunctions is the principal work of this lesson. And to make delivering the lesson a little easier on you, here is the teacher’s copy of same.

That’s it. As above, the second part of this two-part lesson will appear here next week.

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 Weekly Text, 15 July 2022: A Lesson Plan on Subordinating Conjunctions (Part 2)

This week’s Text is the second of two related lessons on subordinating conjunctions. The first appeared last week, and so is several posts down.

This lesson opens with this Everyday Edit worksheet on Booker T. Washington. And as always remember that the good people at Education World generously distribute a yearlong supply of these documents at no cost to teachers. If the lesson continues into a second day, here is a second do-now exercise on the homophones grate and great; n.b. please that grate here is dealt with both as a noun and a verb.

To teach this lesson, you’ll need this scaffolded worksheet; I imagine this teacher’s copy of same will be useful while working through all of this.

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 Weekly Text, 8 July 2022: A Lesson Plan on Subordinating Conjunctions (Part 1)

This week’s Text is the first of two related lessons on subordinating conjunctions; the next one will appear here next Friday.

I open this lesson with this worksheet on the homophones feat and feet. In the event that the lesson spills over into a second day, here is a second do-now worksheet, this one an Everyday Edit exercise on Bessie Coleman. If you and your students enjoy (I’ve taught students who derived great satisfaction working with these) Everyday Edit worksheets, incidentally, the good people at Education World give away a yearlong supply of them at no cost.

To execute this lesson, you’ll need this scaffolded worksheet. Finally, you might find this teacher’s copy of the worksheet useful.

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 Weekly Text, 27 August 2021: A Lesson Plan on Using the Reciprocal Pronouns

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on using the reciprocal pronoun. In addition to the broad use of language the lesson aims to help students develop, the narrow objective of this lesson is to help students understand usage, in this case that the two reciprocal pronouns are, each other, which refers to two people, and one another, which refers to more than two people. 

I generally open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Latinism mea culpa (i.e. “my fault” or “I’m to blame,” or, as I’ve heard some students say, “my bad”; you can probably see the root of culpability in this phrase). This is a half-page worksheet with a two-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. If the lesson goes into a second day, or if you simply prefer it, here is a homophones worksheet on you’re and your. This is also a half-page worksheet, with six modified cloze exercises.

This scaffolded worksheet is the principal work of this lesson. It starts with a series of modified cloze exercises, then calls upon students, to practice independently (i.e. homework) by writing sentences demonstrating they can align the proper number of subject with its proper reciprocal pronoun. To make teaching this a little easier, here is the teacher’s copy of the 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.

The Weekly Text, 25 June 2021: A Lesson Plan on the Demonstrative Pronoun

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the demonstrative pronouns. What are the demonstrative pronouns? They are four simple words: this, that, these, and those. 

I open this lesson with this worksheet on the homophones to, too, and two. In the event the lesson continues into a second day (an eventuality for which I always prepare), here is a second do-now, this one a Cultural Literacy worksheet on italics. The principle work for this lesson is this scaffolded worksheet. To make teaching the lesson a bit easier, here is the teachers copy of the same worksheet I prepared for my own use.

This lesson gives students an opportunity to try out their procedural knowledge, which the lessons prior to this one introduced in various ways, of subject-verb agreement in declarative sentences. These four words have simple, but elegant rules: this and that always govern the use of a singular noun and singular verb form; these and those, of course, govern the use of a plural noun and a plural verb form. I worked in college writing centers for several years, and one of the most common writing lapses that moved people to visit was subject-verb agreement in number. So–stress this skill, I would say.

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 Errors in English Usage: Unkept (adj), Unkempt (adj)

Here is an English usage worksheet on the adjectives unkept and unkempt. These are a couple of solid modifiers in sufficiently frequent use in the vernacular to teach them to students. This is an English usage worksheet, so one of its purposes besides introducing vocabulary students may not know is to familiarize students with the concept of proper usage. They’re sufficiently near in sound to each other that I’ve tagged this post as containing homophones.

You’ll find ten modified cloze exercises on this page. As always, this is a Microsoft Word document, so you can adapt it to your students’ needs.

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.

Common Errors in English Usage: Perspective (n), Prospective (adj)

Here is a worksheet on sorting out the use of the noun perspective and the adjective prospective. These are a couple of words worth knowing and being able to use properly–especially for high school seniors who are in the process of becoming prospective students at post-secondary institutions. Incidentally, since these are very near homophones, and may indeed sound like homophones to English language learners, I’ve tagged this post as such.

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.

Term of Art: Homonymic Clash

“homonymic clash: A clash between two homonyms, either of which could be used in similar contexts. A classic example is a posited clash in parts of southwest France between a word gat ‘cat’ derived from Latin cattus, and an identical form gat ‘cock,’ predicted by regular processes of sound change from Latin gallus. In fact, the second was replaced by other forms that changed or extended their meaning: faisan, historically ‘pheasant,’ vicaire ‘curate,’ and others. The explanation, proposed by Gillieron, is that these replacements avoided the misunderstandings that the clash would often have caused.”

Excerpted from: Matthews, P.H., ed. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.