Monthly Archives: April 2020

History Painting

“History Painting: Painting with themes from or allusions to important historical events, classical literature, and the Bible. From the Renaissance to the 19th century, it was regarded in academies as the highest, most worthwhile kind of painting. Only toward the end of the 18th century did themes from contemporary history become acceptable. Compare NARRATIVE ART.”

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

A Lesson Plan on Historical Disciplines and the Division of Labor within Them

Here is a lesson plan on the division of labor within academic historical disciplines. I start this lesson off with this context clues worksheet on the adjective scarce. If the lesson goes into a second day on account of classroom conditions, I keep this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of class struggle nearby. As I think about it, I think I made a point of either teaching this with the lesson, or perhaps assigning it as independent practice (i.e. homework). This scaffolded worksheet is at the center of the unit; here is the teacher’s copy of it to get you through the lesson with something resembling ease.

Incidentally, I wrote this lesson because there were, for the several years I taught the subject in New York City, a couple of questions at the beginning of the New York State Global Studies and Geography Regents Examinations on who might perform a specific task in a historical inquiry. I took this a step further because I wanted to build a literacy lesson as well as give students a preview of potential college areas of study and majors.

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: Declarative

“Declarative: Constituting a statement or assertion that may be either true or false, e.g., ‘Language must continually change.’”

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

A Lesson Plan on the Greek Word Root Hetero-

Last but not least this morning, here is a lesson plan on the Greek word root hetero. It means different and other. This is a relatively productive root in English, giving us words like heterogenous and heterosexual. The first of those adjectives, science teachers, is something you probably want students to know; more broadly, you certainly want them to understand the concepts of otherness and difference. That said, these concepts traverse the entire curriculum in primary and secondary schooling.

I open this lesson, hinting at the meaning of hetero, with this context clues worksheet on the adjective diverse. Lastly, here is the the scaffolded worksheet that is the primary work of this lesson.

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.

Kismet

“Kismet: A musical play (1953) based on a play (1911) by Edward Knoblock about a poet turned beggar who has a series of adventures reminiscent of The Arabian Knights. The music of Alexander Borodin was arranged by Robert Wright and George Forrest. The title comes from the Turkish qismet (‘portion’ or ‘lot’) and is now commonly understood to mean ‘fate.’ Kismet is sometimes advanced as a more becoming alternative to ‘Kiss me” in Horatio Nelson’s putative last words, ‘Kiss me, Hardy.’”

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

Term of Art: Auditory Perception

“auditory perception: The ability to process and make sense of information that is received as sound. Involving recognition and interpretation, rather than hearing itself, auditory perception is related to the ways in which the brain recognizes and discriminates sounds in order to make sense of them.

Problems with auditory perception are frequently associated with language disorders and may have significant effect on an individual’s language development in areas such as reading, expressive language, and receptive vocabulary. These problems are a major factor in language learning disabilities.”

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

Uterus

OK, health teachers, here is a reading on the human uterus along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

I guess there’s not much to say other than that.

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.

Aesop’s Fables: “The Bear and the Travelers”

Here is a lesson plan on the Aesop’s Fable “The Bear and the Travelers.” You and your students will, of course, need the the reading and comprehension questions that are the center of this short lesson.

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.

5 Wizards in Lord of the Rings

“Saruman the White * Gandalf the Grey * Radagast the Brown * Alatar also named Morinehtar * Pallando also named Romestamo

The Five are known as Wizards by men, and as the Istari by Elves, and their role is to assist Middle-Earth. Saruman is the man of skills; Gandalf is the elf of the staff; the dreamer; Radagast is the friend of birds and tender of beasts; Alatar (also named Morinehtar) and Pallando (Romestamo) are the sky-blue wizards who journey into the east and out of the story.”

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.

A Lesson Plan on Using Linking Verbs

Here is a lesson plan on using linking verbs, which is the first part of two lessons on using these kinds of verbs with predicate adjectives. This is a very common syntactical structure in English, so I have a number of lessons, using a number of strategies and parts of speech, that aim to help students develop their own mastery over this kind of sentence.

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on intransitive verbs; in the event that the lesson goes into a second day, I keep this homophones worksheet on the adjectives hardy and hearty nearby. This learning support is a word bank of predicate adjectives to use with this scaffolded worksheet that is the center of the lesson. Finally, here is the teacher’s copy of the 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.