Name
Date
Focus on One Word Worksheet: Empirical (adjective). This is a short worksheet to help you use context
(which means “the parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its meaning”) to
learn a new word. This is a whole class activity, so you will be asked to read these sentences aloud. We will
work together as a class to determine its meaning.
1. Having seen **** with *** Justin Bieber lunchbox, ****** had empirical evidence that **** had stolen
**** lunch.
2. Scientists, when they publish the results of their research, always have empirical evidence to support
their claims.
3. **** saw **** dump a whole bottle of hot sauce into the soup, so **** had empirical evidence that the
soup would be spicy.
4. ****** smelled curry, so **** had empirical evidence that someone was preparing Indian food.
5. Because **** had stickers of Rihanna on **** binder, Mr. Feltskog gathered empirical evidence that
****** was a fan of the singer.
The adjective empirical means
Name
Date
Focus on One Word Worksheet: Empiricism (noun). This is a short worksheet to help you use context (which
means “the parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its meaning”) to learn a
new word. This is a whole class activity, so you will be asked to read these sentences aloud. We will work
together as a class to determine its meaning.
1. Because of **** belief in empiricism, **** wasn’t going to believe that **** had a pet lion until ***
saw it.
2. As an empiricist, ***** really needed to experience something rather than just hear about it.
3. Scientific experiments are empiricism in action.
4. Most people understand the world through their own experience, which pretty much defines empiricism.
5. Not all knowledge comes from empiricism, but most does.
The noun empiricism means
Do Now, Focus on One Word: Questioning Procedure to Elicit, from a
Reading in Context, the Meanings of Empirical and Empiricism
Questioning/Rationale: Empirical and empiricism are two important philosophical and
educational terms that students really should possess as they leave high school to enter
college. These two abstractions challenge young learners, despite the fact that the
words represent, provided they are adequately and appropriately presented, relatively
easy concepts to understand. The questions below are designed to help teachers of
struggling learners and readers to elicit the meanings of these words as they can be
inferred from the context in which they are embedded.
Teachers might consider explaining to their students that these are relatively advanced
words; indeed, they are at the college level, and therefore the class may need a few
minutes, and a few guiding questions, to infer their meanings from the context.
Teachers may be pleasantly surprised to find that by using the questions below, they
afford their students a chance to engage in reasoning in pursuit of the meaning of these
words. In my classroom, the effect of students’ success in figuring out the meanings of
these words was a boost to individual students’ confidence in their ability to learn, as
well as in classroom morale.
Both of these words, it probably goes without saying, would complement or supply
context for teaching on the Scientific Revolution that attended the Renaissance and
Enlightenment.
I.
Empirical (adjective): 1: originating in or based on observation or experience
2: relying on experience or observation alone often without due regard for
system and theory
A. Remind students that an adjective describes (or limits, or modifies; choose
your words here based on your knowledge of what the students you’re
teaching will best understand) a noun, and basically answers the questions
“what kind of?” Point to a student’s shirt or backpack or other object and
take note of its color. Point out to students that the color of the object is the
adjective. Now, point to an object and say “John is wearing a black shirt.”
Then ask students what the adjective in the sentence is, and what noun it is
modifying. They will identify black as the adjective and shirt as the noun.
B. Now ask students which words on their worksheet the adjective empirical
modifies.
C. Students will notice that the adjective empirical is modifying the noun
evidence.
D. Ask students what evidence is. They should arrive at the answer proof (of
something).
E. Direct students’ attention to the verbs in these sentences, which indicate
that the subjects in them gathered the proof in these statements by way of
their senses. Therefore, empirical evidence is proof that has been gathered
through the direct experience of the senses.
F. Ask students to define empirical. With a few hints and some gentle
prodding, they will come very close to the first definition, above.
II.
Empiricism (noun): 2 a: the practice of relying on observation and
experiment, especially in the natural sciences 3: a theory that all knowledge
originates in experience
A. In general, particularly with struggling learners, it’s probably best to teach
empiricism as soon as possible after you’ve taught empirical. Ask students if
they remember what empirical means. This question, incidentally, gives you
an opportunity to assess the longevity and capacity of students’ memories—
did they retain your teaching of empirical? For how long? To what extent?
B. Reminding students of their understanding of the word empirical, and using
that definition as well as the sense of the sentences on the empiricism
worksheet, ask students what they think empiricism might mean. This gives
you an opportunity to point out to students the importance of prior
knowledge as a tool for understanding new material, and how to use prior
knowledge for that purpose.
C. If students don’t remember the meaning of empirical (and, again, depending
on how much time has elapsed since the class worked on the empirical
worksheet, you can observe how well—particularly for how long—students
retain their learning), you might consider allowing students to use their
empirical worksheets as learning supports to complete this empiricism
worksheet.
D. If you choose not to allow students to use their empirical worksheet as a
support, then you’ll need to proceed in the Socratic style to assist students
in inferring the meaning of empiricism. The questions are roughly the
same—and meant to arouse the same capacity to reason as the empirical
worksheet.
1. For the first sentence: What did the subject’s belief in empiricism
require him or her to do to confirm the existence of the pet lion (see it).
2. For the second sentence: As an empiricist (see below for an excursus on
this word), what does the subject require as proof of something (to
experience it directly).
3. For the third sentence: When a scientist conducts an experiment, what
is he or she doing? (Proving or disproving something by way of direct
experience.)
4. For the fourth sentence: What is it that pretty much defines empiricism?
(Direct experience of the world.)
5. For the fifth sentence: From where does most knowledge come? This
gets a bit trickier, but it also gives you an opportunity to make students
aware, via questioning, of how they gain knowledge of the world.
Therefore, you might want to ask them some questions along the line of:
a. How do you know what time it is? (By direct observation of a clock.)
b. How do you know what the weather is on any given day? (By looking
or going outside.)
c. How do you know a class period has ended? (You hear the bell ring.)
d. And so on.
6. As students work their way through the line of reasoning these questions
begin, they will infer, perhaps with a bit more aid from you, that empiricism
means, as in definition 3 above, “a theory that all knowledge originates in
experience.’
7. Empiricist: n.b., please, that this word is included in sentence 2 of this
worksheet. Ask students if they can infer from the meanings of empirical and
empiricism what an empiricist is. By this point they ought to be sufficiently
familiar with these words to answer easily—someone who practices
empiricism.
Definitions adapted from: Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition.
Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2009.