Places in Black History: St. Nicholas Avenue, Harlem, New York, New York

Posted on January 30, 2026 | Leave a comment

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The Algonquin Wits: Aleck Woollcott and Charles MacArthur Take a Vacation

Posted on January 30, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Aleck Woollcott and playwright Charles MacArthur once took a voyage to Europe together. After their ship had been two days at sea, MacArthur emerged onto the deck to join Aleck, confiding to him, ‘I can’t get over the feeling that I’m on a boat.’”

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.

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Common English Verbs Followed by an Object and an Infinitive: Warn

Posted on January 30, 2026 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the verb warn when followed by an object and an infinitive.

The announcement in the subway station warns riders to stand back when a train enters the station.

The teacher warned the students to study for their high-stakes tests.

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.

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Term of Art: Social Promotion

Posted on January 30, 2026 | Leave a comment

“social promotion: The policy of promoting students from one grade to the next with their age group even though they have not mastered the skills and knowledge that are considered appropriate for the next grade level. See also promotion. Contrast retention.

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

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Cultural Literacy: Rosenberg Case

Posted on January 30, 2026 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Rosenberg Case. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences and three comprehension questions. The information in the reading is out of date, as it is quite clear at this point that Julius Rosenberg was in fact spying for the Soviet Union. Ethel’s case, on the other hand, is not so clear cut.

This is a case in which I have been intermittently interested in over the years. When I saw Sidney Lumet’s 1983 film of E.L. Doctorow’s novel The Book of Daniel, I recognized immediately that it was a thinly fictionalized account of the Rosenberg Case. Likewise, of course, Doctorow’s novel. This encounter then led me to Louis Nizer’s book The Implosion Conspiracy, a study of the Rosenberg Case.

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.

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Concepts in Economics: Central Planning

Posted on January 30, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Central planning: The operation of an economy through centralized decision-taking whereby the decisions are taken at the center and orders issued to enterprises concerning their production and investment plans. While in theory such a system should allow the use of all resources in an economy in the public interest, without wasteful duplication of effort, the amount of information required to achieve efficiency is too great, and the incentives to supply the center with viable information are too poor. As a result, centrally planned economies, such as those of the former Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries, were not able to perform as well as a decentralized system based on competition between independent decision makers, and had to abandon central planning in the late 1980s in favor of the market economy.”

Excerpted from: Black, John, Nigar Hashimzade, and Gareth Miles. Oxford Dictionary of Economics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

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The Weekly Text, 30 January 2026: The Writing Revolution Learning Supports II; Abbreviations and Symbols

Posted on January 30, 2026 | Leave a comment

As we approach Black History Month 2026, this will be the last–for the moment–of the Writing Revolution Learning Supports I will publish. I have a few documents remaining that I’ll distribute over three Weekly Texts in April. For the next two months, you’ll find materials related to Black History Month (February) and Women’s History Month (March).

For today, however, here is the table of contents–not that you’ll need it as there are only two documents. However, depending on how you organize your own files, you might want this document to copy and paste from if you decide to assemble your own table of contents for all this material.

And here, of course, are the documents:

II-A*Abbreviations and Symbols Learning Support 1

II-B*II-A*Abbreviations and Symbols Learning Support 2

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.

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Voltaire with Some Timely Words on Government

Posted on January 23, 2026 | Leave a comment

“In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.”

Voltaire

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

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Common English Verbs Followed by an Object and an Infinitive: Want

Posted on January 23, 2026 | Leave a comment

As I am soon to run out of this particular run of documents (two more after this one), about which I remain skeptical, I offer this worksheet on the verb want when used with an object and an infinitive.

The students want their teacher to help them understand concept of post-colonial literature.

The teacher wants financial support to assist her in buying Apple computers for her 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.

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Dialect

Posted on January 23, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Dialect (noun): A special or regional strain of a language, usually oral in its dissemination, that is distinctive in its idiom, pronunciation, or grammar and is one of several varieties of a common tongue; the language peculiar to a social class, foreign-born group, or the like; idiosyncratic or nonstandard speech. Adjective: dialectical; adverb: dialectically.

‘It was a hard school. One could not learn geography very well through the medium of strange dialects, from dark minds that mingled fact and fable and that measured distances by “sleeps” that varied according to the difficulty of the going.’ Jack London, ‘Lost Face'”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

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