Monthly Archives: March 2020

Term of Art: Cognitive Sociology

“Cognitive Sociology: A version of ethnomethodology which examines the problematic nature of ‘meaning’ in everyday life, and seeks to integrate ethnomethodology with linguistics (deep structures), on the one hand, and traditional sociology (normative or surface rules) on the other. The major proponent is the American sociologist Aaron V. Cicourel, who has studied many apparently diverse phenomena—including crime, deafness, education, and research methods—in an attempt to identify the underlying social organization and ‘negotiated order’ of everyday life.”

Excerpted from: Marshall, Gordon, ed. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Word Root Exercise: Lun, Luni

Here is a worksheet on the Latin word roots lun and luni. They mean, you will probably not be surprised to hear, moon. These show up quite a bit in English (lunar, lunatic, interlunar, etc.).

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.

Zora Neale Hurston on the Life of Men

“Ships at a distance have every man’s with on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others, they sail forever on the same horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the real life of men.”

Zora Neale Hurston

Their Eyes Were Watching God ch. 1 (1937)

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

Everyday Edit: Maya Angelou

Moving right along on this late winter morning, here is an Everyday Edit worksheet on Maya Angelou. I cannot in good conscience–even though if you find these worksheets on Mark’s Text Terminal, you have already read this ad nauseum–post this material without both thanking and directing you towards the Education World website, where you can find a yearlong supply of Everyday Edit worksheets.

1066 and All That

1066 and All That: A classic humorous survey of British history (1930) by W.C. Sellar (1898-1951) and R. J. Yeatman (1898-1968), comprising ‘a subtle mixture of schoolboy howlers, witty distortions, and artful puns.’ The book was designed to satirize the smugness of the English and the teaching of history by rote, but ironically itself became a cultural icon. A typical definition is ‘The Cavaliers (Wrong but Wromantic) and the Roundheads (Right but Repulsive).’ 1066, as the date of the Norman Conquest, probably still remains the best known date in British history, ‘all that’ being the blur of dates and events that occurred before and after it.

Ten for 66 and All That is the title of the autobiography of the Australian leg-spin bowler Arthur Mailey (1886=1967), punning on the title of Sellar and Yeatman’s books and celebrating his feat of taking ten wickets  for 66 runs for the Australians against Gloucestershire in 1921. In 2001 England’s World Cup hat-trick hero, Sir Geoff Hurst, published an autobiography with the punning title 1966 and All That.”

Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.

A Lesson Plan on War, Revolution, and Peace

Here is a lesson plan on war, revolution, and peace as causes of history. I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the noun agriculture. This is a discussion, brainstorming, and writing lesson, so here is a structured brainstorming and note-taking blank to use in the execution of this lesson.

And yes, for those in the know, I did crib the title of this lesson from the Hampshire College course (taught by Michael Klare when I took it in the fall of 1991) of the same name, part of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at that fine institution.

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: Digression

Digression (noun): A turning aside or straying from the main discourse or topic; departure from the theme; excursive passage. Adjective: digressive, digressional; adverb: digressively; verb: digress.

‘He got a D plus because they kept yelling “Digression!” at him all the time. For instance, he made this speech about this farm his father bought in Vermont. They kept yelling “Digression!” at him the whole time he was making it, and his teacher, Mr. Vinson, gave him an F on it because he hadn’t told what kind of animals and vegetables and stuff grew on the farm and all.’” J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

Pray (vi/vt), Prey (n/vi)

Here are five worksheets on the homophones pray and prey. They are used, respectively, as a transitive and intransitive verb, and a noun and intransitive verb. These are two commonly used, and equally commonly confused words, in the English language.

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.

Ted Sizer on Understanding

“Understanding…[is] the development of powers of discrimination and judgment…. Understanding is more stimulated than learned. It grows from questioning oneself and being questioned by others.”

Theodore Sizer

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

Kurt Godel

Here is a reading on Kurt Godel along with its attendant vocabulary building and comprehension worksheet. There is room in the document–and the latitude, as, like most other things on Mark’s Text Terminal, these are Word documents that can be edited for your students’ needs–to deal with some of the abstractions Godel’s work deals with.

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.