Monthly Archives: November 2019

Propertius on Propinquity

Posted on November 27, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Semper in absentes felicior aestus amantes.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

Propertius, Elegies bk. 2, elegy 33, 1. 43

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Word Root Exercise: Greg

Posted on November 27, 2019 | Leave a comment

Here is worksheet on the Latin root greg is the only thing I’ll post this week. It means flock, but if you look at the words in English that grow from it–e.g. congregate–you’ll see that the document is quite appropriate for the holiday season.

I’ll be back next week, however, with a round of new posts.

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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Justice Powell on the First Amendment

Posted on November 22, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Under the First Amendment there is no such thing as a false idea. However pernicious an opinion may seem, we depend for its correction not on the conscience of judges and juries but on the competition of other ideas.”

Lewis F. Powell., Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974)

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Sheer (adj/vt/vi), Shear (n/vt/vi)

Posted on November 22, 2019 | Leave a comment

As I was writing this mornings posts, I noticed that with the Weekly Text and the quote that tops it, Mark’s Text Terminal had reached 2,500 posts. So, to start out on the downhill slope to 3,000, here is a set of five homophone worksheets on sheer and shear.

Because the worksheets themselves explain the use of these words, I’ll say only that I had only the vaguest knowledge that sheer operated as a verb–both transitively and intransitively.

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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Frederick Douglass on Education

Posted on November 22, 2019 | Leave a comment

“A little learning, indeed may be a dangerous thing, but the want of learning may be a calamity to any people.”

Frederick Douglass (1817?-1895)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

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The Weekly Text, November 22, 2019: Four Context Clues Worksheets on Symmetry (n), Asymmetry (n), Symmetrical (adj) and Asymmetrical (adj)

Posted on November 22, 2019 | Leave a comment

Alright, I’m reaching the end of today’s burst of publishing. This week’s Text is a series of four context clues worksheets starting with the noun symmetry and continuing with the noun asymmetry, then the adjectives symmetrical and aysmmetrical. These are heavily used words in a variety of learning domains; students really ought to know them, which is why they merit their own Weekly Text. Put another way, the concepts these words represent cut across fields of knowledge to such an extent that these words are quintessential to learning itself.

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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Book of Answers: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Posted on November 22, 2019 | Leave a comment

What are Jekyll and Hyde’s first names? In the 1886 work by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Henry Jekyll is the London doctor who creates the potion that turns him into Edward Hyde.

Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

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A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Kidnap”

Posted on November 22, 2019 | Leave a comment

OK, moving right along on this Friday morning, here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Kidnap.”

I open this lesson, after the fractiousness of a class change, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “bee in one’s bonnet.” You’ll need this PDF of the reading and questions that drive the case. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key that solves the case.

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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The Algonquin Wits: George S. Kaufman Listens to Ruth Gordon

Posted on November 22, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Ruth Gordon once described to G.S.K. [George S. Kaufman] a new play in which she was appearing: ‘In the first scene I’m on the left side of the stage, and the audience has to imagine I’m eating dinner in a crowded restaurant. Then in scene two I run over to the right side of the stage and the audience imagines I’m in my own drawing room.’”

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

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Posted in English Language Arts, New York City, Quotes, Reference

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Jerry Seinfeld

Posted on November 22, 2019 | Leave a comment

While I have to assume that Seinfeld remains in syndication, new episodes left the airwaves long ago; in fact, the last episode was broadcast over 20 years ago on May 14, 1998. Since he remains something of a global cultural icon, this reading on Jerry Seinfeld and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet might remain of interest to students.

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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