Monthly Archives: December 2019

Megavitamins and ADHD

megavitamins and ADHD: the use of very high doses of vitamins and minerals to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is based on the theory that some people have a genetic abnormality that requires higher levels of vitamins and minerals.

However, there is a complete lack of supporting evidence for megavitamin treatment for learning disabilities, and there are no well-controlled studies supporting these claims. Both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have concluded that the use of megavitamins to treat behavioral and learning problems is not justified.”

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

Henchman (n)

Despite the fact that it remains a piece of the American vernacular, I don’t know how important it is that student know this word. Nonetheless, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun henchman. I will say this, as I consider this document: when I taught in New York City, the vanishingly few upperclassmen I taught, almost to a one, tended to refer to their youngest peers in the institution as “freshmans.” This worksheet might be best, I suppose, paired with the plural “henchmen” somehow to make sure students understand that the noun “man” declines, in the plural, to “men,” not matter where in a word it is found.

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.

4 Continents

“Europe * Asia * Africa * America

The four continents might seem to fit into the ancient sacred categories of 4 very neatly, but the concept is comparatively recent. Before the maritime discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the fundamental concept was of three continents–Asia, Europe and Africa–knitted together by such lynch-pins of the world as Jerusalem and Constantinople, Antioch or Alexandria.”

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.

Carbohydrates

Snow day! And it is coming down at a pretty good clip out there. For health teachers, if this is something you cover, here is a reading on carbohydrates and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it.

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.

Write It Right: Admission for Admittance

“Admission for Admittance. ‘The price of admission is one dollar.’”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

A Glossary of Terms from Martha Stone Wiske’s “Teaching for Understanding”

Last week, after reading a few pages each morning with my coffee before leaving for work, I finished Martha Stone Wiske’s (ed.) Teaching for Understanding: Linking Research to Practice (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997); yesterday I finished its companion, The Teaching for Understanding Guide by Tina Blythe (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997). From the latter, I cribbed this glossary of Teaching for Understanding terms if you’re inclined to use this planning and instructional framework.

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.

Generative Topics in Teaching for Understanding

“Generative topics have several key features: They are central to one of more disciplines or domains. They are interesting to students. They are accessible to student (there are lots of resources available to help students pursue the topic). There are multiple connections between them and students’ experiences both in and out of school. And perhaps most important, they are interesting to the teacher.”

Excerpted from: Blythe, Tina, et al. The Teaching for Understanding Guide. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998.

Cultural Literacy; Rip Van Winkle

Monday morning again, and here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Rip Van Winkle. This character, from the pen of Washington Irving, is an essential piece of American mythology.

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.

H.L. Mencken on Platitudes

“Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true.”

H.L. Mencken

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

Imbroglio (n)

While it’s probably not a word students need to know before they leave high school, this context clues worksheet on the noun imbroglio might nonetheless be of some use. If nothing else, the word possesses a nice onomatopoeic quality.

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.