Monthly Archives: December 2019

Mari Evans on Education

Posted on December 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Education is the jewel casting brilliance into the future.”

Mari Evans

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

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The Weekly Text, December 20, 2019: A Lesson Plan on the Demonstrative Adjective

Posted on December 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

Tomorrow is the winter solstice; the day sure seems to come up fast this year. After tomorrow, the days will begin to lengthen, which means warmer weather and more light is on the way. And who doesn’t want that? I like a few deep, dark winter nights, but a little, in the end, goes a long way.

This week’s Text, the last of 2019, is a lesson plan on the demonstrative adjective. I open this lesson with this Everyday Edit on worksheet on “Edison’s First Movie Set” (and if you and your students like working with Everyday Edit worksheets, the good folks at Education World give away a year’s supply of them under that hyperlink). If the lesson runs into a second day, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on slang. Finally, here is the scaffolded worksheet on the demonstrative adjectives that is the gravamen of this unit.

That’s it. Happy Hanukkah, Happy, Kwanzaa, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I’ll be back on Friday, January 3 with the first Weekly Text for 2020.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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5 Freedoms of Psychoanalysis

Posted on December 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Unimportant * Irrelevant * Nonsensical * Embarrassing * Distressing

Patients undergoing Freudian psychoanalysis must be free to say whatever comes into their head, however unimportant, irrelevant, nonsensical, embarrassing, or distressing it might seem to be, and yet be sure of receiving the same level of intent listening from their analyst.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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Posted in Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

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Gregor Mendel

Posted on December 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

Science teachers, can you use this reading on Gregor Mendel and its accompanying 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.

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Alfred North Whitehead on Instructional Procedure

Posted on December 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

“This discussion rejects the doctrine that students should first learn passively, and then, having learned, should apply knowledge. It is psychological error. In the process of learning, there should be present, in some sense or other, a subordinate activity or application. In fact, the applications are part of the knowledge. For the very meaning of things known is wrapped up in their relationships beyond themselves. Thus, unapplied knowledge is knowledge is knowledge shorn of its meaning.”

Alfred North Whitehead

Essays in Science and Philosophy

Excerpted from: Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1998.

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Word Root Exercise: Scrib, Script

Posted on December 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

As I prepare to post this worksheet on the Latin word roots scrib and script–they mean, which you’ve already determined, to write–it occurs to me that I have a full lesson plan somewhere to go with this document. Stay tuned, I guess…

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: Apercu

Posted on December 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Apercu (AA PER SUE): The term would be used by an analyst in a structure such as ‘The writer here presents, as apercu, that women, on the average, are shorter than men.’ That is to say, the comment is that the writer does not present her statement merely as an observation, but instead as if it were an insight, as if it were a particularly astute perception. ‘And then it came to me, women are shorter than men.” This example is deliberately unsubtle because what I mean to stress is that to describe a presentation as apercu is to talk about the manner of presentation rather than to make a comment on the actual ‘insightfulness’ of the comment itself. Like objectivity, apercu describes a rhetorical pose rather than confers a positive evaluation. See also EPIPHANY.

A second meaning of apercu is as a name for a summary, outline, or synopsis.

Excerpted from: Trail, George Y. Rhetorical Terms and Concepts: A Contemporary Glossary. New York: Harcourt Brace, 2000.

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Cultural Literacy: Short-Term Memory

Posted on December 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

Moving right along on this frigid morning (two degrees when I left my building at 6:03 a.m.), here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on short-term memory.

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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Rotten Reviews: A Tom Wolfe Omnibus

Posted on December 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

“The Kandy-Kolored, Tangerine-Flake, Streamlined Baby (1965)

One want to say to Mr. Wolfe; you’re so clever, you can write so well, tell us something interesting.

Saturday Review

The Painted Word (1975)

There is plenty of hot air in this particular balloon, but I don’t see it going anywhere.

John Russell, New York Times Book Review

Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.

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Industry (n)

Posted on December 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

Let me end the day by posting this context clues worksheet on the noun industry, which students really need to know to understand, at the very least, the social studies curriculum. But there is also the figurative use, which might be handy in a locution like “You are a portrait of industry today,” addressed to your loved one who is making you holiday cookies.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Worksheets

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