Monthly Archives: January 2020

The Devil’s Dictionary: Benevolence

“Benevolence, n. Subscribing five dollars towards the relief of one’s aged grandfather in the alms house, and publishing it in the newspaper.” 

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000. 

Cultural Literacy: White Elephant

Here’s a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “white elephant” if you think you’re students need to know the concept. With Tag Sale Season fast approaching in Vermont, this might be a useful piece of vocabulary for kids in this part of the world.

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.

Romanticism

“Romanticism: (romantic art): A style prevalent in the first half of the 19th century, particularly in painting, in which imagination played the dominant role. Referring more to a state of mind then to a style, romanticism was a marked reaction against the rationalism associated with Neoclassicism. One of the chief concerns of the romantic artist was the illustration of literary themes, often derived from contemporary romantic writings. Leading romantic artists included Eugene Delacroix, William Turner, and Caspar David Friedrich.”

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

Soar (vi) and Sore (adj)

Here are five worksheets on the homophones soar and sore.

Soar is an intransitive verb, though it also has use as a noun, meaning “the range, distance, or height attained in soaring” and “the act of soaring: upward flight.” The noun isn’t tagged as archaic in Merriam-Webster’s; I don’t know about you, but I’ve never used soar as a noun.

Sore, of course, is an adjective, and it’s how you feel after an injury or other trauma, or after intense exercise.

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.

Russell Baker on Progress

“Usually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things.”

Russell Baker

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

A Lesson Plan on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Here is a lesson plan on post-traumatic stress disorder along with the short reading and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that comprise the work of this lesson. If you’d like a slightly longer version of the reading and worksheet, you can find that here.

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.

Ralph Tyler on Organizing Curricula

“In identifying important organizing principles, it is necessary to note that the criteria, continuity, sequence, and integration apply to the experiences of the learner and not to the way in which these matters may be viewed by someone already in command of the elements to be learned. Thus, continuity involves the recurring emphasis in the learner’s experience upon these particular elements; sequence refers to the increasing breadth and depth of the learner’s development; and integration refers to the learner’s increased unity of behavior in relating to the elements involved.”

Ralph W. Tyler

Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction

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

Word Root Exercise: Radic, Radix

If you can use it, here is a worksheet on the Latin roots radic and radix. They mean root. I imagine teachers in both mathematics and the hard sciences recognize these roots. They are at the base of terms of art in your domains such as radical as well as some big words related to neuropathic disease.

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.

Learning Support: The Possessive Singular of Nouns

“Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding ‘s.

Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write,

Charles’s friend

Burns’s Poems

The witch’s malice

Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names ending in –es and ‘is, the possessive Jesus’, and such forms as for conscience’ sake, for righteousness sake. But such forms as Moses’ Laws, Isis’ temple are commonly replaced by

The laws of Moses

The temple of Isis

The pronominal possessives hers, its, theirs, yours and ours have no apostrophe. Indefinite pronouns, however, use the apostrophe to show possession.

One’s rights

Somebody else’s umbrella

A common error is to write it’s for its, or vice versa. The second is possessive.

It’s a wise dog that scratches its own fleas.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

John Gotti

Over the time I’ve offered them, I’ve found this reading on John Gotti and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet to be relatively high-interest material among the students I serve.

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.