Monthly Archives: July 2019

H.H. Richardson

One of the great pleasures of the last eight months I’ve passed in Springfield, Massachusetts, has been my walks along Mattoon Street. It was on my way to work and back, so it was rare that I didn’t pass along the block at least once a day. Springfield has wisely and carefully preserved the general area in which this residential street is located, the Quadrangle-Mattoon Street Historic District. The neighborhood is a gem in an otherwise–I use this word advisedly, and only because I’ve seen it in the local press, and indeed, even used by the City of Springfield itself, enough to take my own liberties with it–blighted city.

Earlier this year I learned a couple of things about the North Congregational Church on Mattoon Street. First, it was one of the earliest designs of the storied American architect H.H. Richardson, that it is rendered in his characteristic style, Richardson Romanesque, and contains Tiffany windows. Second, I learned that this amazing piece of United States history is actually for sale for an asking price of $600,000.

As this reading on H.H. Richardson explains, he remains one of the most important and influential architects ever to work in the United States. Here, if these materials are of any interest to your students, is the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that attends this short reading.

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 Algonquin Wits: Franklin Pierce Adams on Nostalgia

“Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory.”

Franklin Pierce Adams

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

Coney Island

An email from the NYCDOE this morning aroused my thoughts and feelings about New York City, and possibly returning there to teach. Here is a reading on Coney Island, one of my favorite places in Brooklyn, and its attendant vocabulary building and comprehension 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.

Term of Art: Essentialism

“A movement that began in the late 1930s and was led by William C. Bagley, a leading teacher educator and educational psychologist at Teachers College, Columbia University. Essentialism emphasized high-quality curriculum for all students, teachers as knowledgeable authorities in the classroom, and strong teaching profession rooted in high-quality teacher education. Bagley and other Essentialists opposed progressive ideas, such as child-centered classrooms and the assertion that problem solving should replace academic subject matter.”

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

The Weekly Text, July 12, 2019: Two Context Clues on Propaganda (n) and Propagandize (vi/vt)

Because I find myself in an advanced, and badly needed, state of relaxation, and eager to sustain this state, these two context clues worksheets on the noun propaganda and the verb propagandize must suffice for this week’s Text. For the record, propagandize is used both transitively and intransitively.

Mark’s Text Terminal hopes you are enjoying your summer.

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.

Kitsch

“Kitsch: A strict dictionary definition describes kitsch as a ‘something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste.’ By the 1960s, pop artists were ushering in changed attitudes as they appropriated these once-denigrated mass-produced objects for use in their works. Contemporary artists like Jeff Koons continue to walk a fine line between the good taste of bad taste and outright bad taste.”

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

Independent Practice: John Calvin

It’s a cool and overcast Thursday morning in southeastern Vermont. with thunderstorms in the forecast.

Here is an independent practice worksheet on John Calvin. It might pair (as they say in the hipper bistros) well with any of the context clues worksheets posted below on the words zeal, zealot, or zealous, if zeal is a concept you need students to understand. Calvin was, after all, a textbook zealot.

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.

Language, Learning, and Social Integration

“Verbal communication is the basis for everything that occurs in classrooms, whether this is the delivery of new information or the regulation of behavior. Although language skills are biologically primary, their development in children of the same age can be highly uneven, Further, a significant proportion of children in any class may have developmental language disorders, which may or may not have been formally diagnosed. Such disorders typically impact a student’s success with written or spoken language.”

Ashman, Greg, and Pamela Snow. “Oral Language Competence: How it Relates to Classroom Behavior.” American Educator Vol. 43, No. 2 (Summer 2019): 37-41.

Attention Deficit Disorder

Monday morning seems like a pretty good time to draw teachers’ attention to this reading on attention deficit disorder and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I’ve tagged this reading as high-interest material, because it there is one thing I’ve frequently found among kids who struggle to sustain attention in the classroom, or who have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, it is they want to know more about the affliction that has made school so difficult for them. Over the years, kids under my instruction have asked repeatedly for these materials.

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.

Term of Art: Anachronism

“(Greek ‘back-timing’) In literature anachronisms may be used deliberately to distance events and to underline a universal sense of verisimilitude and timelessness—to prevent something being ‘dated.’ Shakespeare adopted this device several times. Two classic examples are the references to the clock in Julius Caesar and to billiards in Antony and Cleopatra. Shaw also does it Androcles and the Lion when the Emperor is referred to as ‘The Defender of the Faith.’”

Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.