Action Painting

“Action Painting: Term coined by the American critic Harold Rosenberg to describe the dynamic, impulsive Abstract Expressionism of Jackson Pollock.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

A Learning Support to Aid Writing on Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

Are you familiar with Lawrence Kohlberg’s  Theory of the Stages of Moral Development? My excellent co-teacher in the years I worked in his senior English Language Arts class, Jason Zanitsch, developed a clever unit in which students apply their understanding of Kohlberg’s framework to assess a character from the fiction and dramatic texts–the characters in August Wilson’s magisterial play Fences were favorites for this work–that we had dealt with in this class.

I developed this learning support for a mid-term examination, which was the composition of an essay on the above, for students to use. I don’t know how useful it would be for you. But if you’re dealing with Kohlberg in any way, this document is in Microsoft Word (like practically everything else on this blog) and can be easily manipulated for your classroom 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.

Battle of Agincourt

“Battle of Agincourt: (1415) A battle in northern France. The English army defeated the more numerous, better armed French. It is the setting for Shakespeare’s Henry V and Michael Drayton’sThe Battle of Agincourt‘ (c1605).”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

A Learning Support to Accompany Stephanie Ericsson’s Essay “The Ways We Lie”

One of the most consistently downloaded items since I published it in 2021 is this set of documents on Stephanie Ericsson’s essay “The Way We Lie.” Last year, I developed this learning support to abet deeper thinking (I hope) and further written work on this essay.

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.

August Strindberg on Society

“Society is a madhouse whose wardens are the officials and police.”

August Strindberg

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

A Learning Support for Thinking and Writing About the Human Process of Socialization

Once again, from the annals of Jason Zanitsch’s senior English Language Arts class, which afforded me the professional pleasure of co-teaching with Jason for several years, here is a a learning support in the form of a series questions to drive thinking and writing about human socialization processes.

I don’t know how useful this will be to users of this blog, but this again was Jason’s successful attempt to elicit deep thinking and cogent writing from our students. Rather than toss this, I post it here to add to what still seems like an amount of data storage I will never use.

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.

Dozens (Playing the)

Dozens (Playing the): In the culture of American blacks, a contest of mutual insults concerning relatives, especially the opponents mothers, sometimes in rhymed couplets and often graphically sexual or scatological (the ‘dirty dozens’). See also SIGNIFYING.

‘His broad cultural approach to prizefighting is also illuminating. A discussion, for example, of the style of black boxers invokes jazz, “bad n****r” folk figures and form of insult known as “the dozens.” Diane McWhorter, The New York Times”

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

A Lexicon of Igbo Words to Accompany a Reading of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novel Purple Hibiscus

I don’t know why, but for some reason, when I published this blog post several years ago, with a trove of materials I developed to accompany a reading of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Purple Hibiscus, I didn’t include this lexicon of Igbo words, names, and phrases. So here it is now.

This is where I usually ask for feedback on a document, especially for alerts on typos. But since I know nothing of Igbo orthography, I must ask you to trust, as I do, the unnamed author or authors of this document.

Term of Art: Reverbalization

“reverbalization: A strategy in which and individual restates a message out loud to enhance memorization and ensure understanding. Similar to paraphrasing, where individuals restate a message using their own words (usually in writing); in reverbalizing, the individual repeats information out loud to promote long-term memory.

For individuals with short-term memory or auditory processing difficulties, reverbalizing information can enhance learning through rehearsal.

Diagnostically, reverbalizing can be an effective way for instructors to monitor whether students have accurately received information.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

Three Documents to Support Written Analyses of Like Water for Chocolate

Continuing with a mishmash of documents I developed to support students, here are, again from the senior English Language Arts class I co-taught with Jason Zanitsch, some documents to support student work for a reading of Laura Esquivel’s novel Like Water for Chocolate. Jason’s goals for this unit were twofold and well focused: to introduce students to the genre of magical realism, and to use the story to induce students to write in a lively way about food–with a goal, of course, to arouse their thinking about lively descriptive writing in general. Over the years, I enjoyed watching Jason elicit some excellent prose from students using this unit.

So, here is a graphic organizer to track chapters, a brainstorming worksheet (consisting of ten modified cloze exercises) for using lively words to describe food with a lexicon of food-related words attached. Finally, here is the lexicon of lively words to describe food as a freestanding document.

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.