Tag Archives: learning supports

Term of Art: Subtractive Bilingualism

“subtractive bilingualism: A description of a bilingual program in which students become proficient in a second language, which replaces their first language in the curriculum. Contrast additive bilingualism.

Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.

A Learning Support on Verbs and Objects

Here is a learning support on verbs and objects, or using direct objects with verbs. This is one-third page of text from what I consider the best grammar manual going, particularly for high-school students, Grant Barrett’s Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking (Berkeley: Zephyros Press, 2016).

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.

A Learning Support on Infinitives and Whether or Not to Split Them

Here is a learning support on infinitives and whether or not to split them. This is a reading of about two-thirds of a page adapted from a current grammar manual.

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.

A Learning Support on Using Pronouns with Gerunds

Here is a learning support on using pronouns with gerunds. This is a half-page reading from Paul Brians’ excellent book Common Errors in English Usage, which you’ll find available to you, at no cost, under that hyperlink.

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.

A Learning Support on Gerunds and Infinitives

Here is a learning support on gerunds and infinitives that accompanies a raft of new material I’ll be posting in the next several months on mastering the use of gerunds and infinitives in English prose. This thing, as it should be, I suppose, is self-explanatory.

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, 15 April 2022: A Lesson Plan on Using Prepositions

The Weekly Text on this Tax Day (actually, Tax Day this year is on Monday, 18 April) is the penultimate lesson, a sentence writing review, of seven-lesson unit on the use of prepositions. Without further ado, then, here is the lesson plan.

I open this lesson with this Everyday Edit worksheet on author Yoshiko Uchida; in the event the lesson stretches into a second day, here is another on Basketball’s Beginnings. (And to give credit where it is so deservedly due, the good people at Education World allow access at no cost to a calendar year’s worth of Everyday Edit worksheets, should you find these useful documents work well for your students.) Here is the sentence-writing review worksheet. If you need it, here is the learning support for commonly used prepositions that I work to keep by students’ sides throughout this unit. Finally, here is the teacher’s copy of the worksheet.

Next week I’ll publish as the Weekly Text the assessment lesson for this unit. Then Mark’s Text Terminal will be able to offer a complete seven-lesson unit on using prepositions in prose.

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.

An Elegantly Simple Cooking Conversion Chart

Elsewhere on this blog I posted a batch of documents on building a lexicon of culinary arts terms. Recently, I purchased a wooden recipe box, and inside was this simple cooking conversion chart. I couldn’t resist scanning it (I did this with my phone, and I think it looks better than the images my flatbed scanner currently produces) and posting it.

Anyway, there it is if you can use it.

The Weekly Text, 28 January 2022: A Lesson Plan on Using Prepositions with Pronouns in the Objective Case

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on using prepositions with pronouns in the objective case. I open this unit with this Everyday Edit worksheet on Charles R. Drew, the African-American physician who was a pioneer in blood storage and transfusion. Should the lesson require a second day of instruction, here is another on Gwendolyn Brooks, the great American poet. Incidentally, if you and your students enjoy using Everyday Edits (a number of students I have served over the years have found them both fun and satisfying), the good people at Education World give away at no charge a yearlong supply of them.

You might find this learning support on pronouns in the nominative and objective cases useful in executing this lesson. This scaffolded worksheet is the centerpiece of student work for this lesson, therefore de rigueur. Finally, here is the teachers copy of same.

That’s it for January. February is Black History Month 2022. As always, Mark’s Text Terminal will observe the month with a myriad of posts on topics related to the history of global citizens of the African diaspora. I hope to see you here.

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.

A Learning Support on Gray Areas in Comma Use

Last but not least, here is a learning support on gray areas in comma use. This is the fifteenth of fifteen posts carrying learning supports–presented seriatim in the order, sorted by major subheadings, from the punctuation manual from which they are excerpted. If you click here, you will end up back at the first posted support, titled “An Introductory Learning Support on Using the Comma.” From there, you scroll up to find them in order. Each post indicates which is which in the sequence.

If you want it, here is the table of contents for all fifteen of the learning supports in this chain.

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.

A Learning Support on Comma Placement Relative to Other Punctuation

Here is a learning support on comma placement relative to other punctuation. This is the fourteenth of fifteenth learning supports, presented seriatim as they were presented in the punctuation manual from which they were excerpted. (You can find an excursus on this choice of publishing practice here.)

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.