What work by Christopher Isherwood was the basis for the musical Cabaret (1968)? Cabaret was based on the play I Am a Camera (1951) by John Van Druten, which was in turn based on Isherwood’s “Sally Bowles,” a story appearing in Goodbye to Berlin. Isherwood lived in Berlin in the early 1930s.
Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Woodrow Wilson. This is a two-page worksheet with a reading of ten sentences (a full paragraph, in other words) and eight comprehension questions. As usual, the editors of The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy render with economy a complex biography of a public figure. The reading, you probably won’t be surprised to hear, neglects to mention President Wilson’s racism, which is a critical question well worth exploring.
Anything, I suppose, to strike a blow against the hideousness of American exceptionalism.
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.
“syllabus: A summary outline of a program of study that explains in detail what teachers will teach, what students are expected to learn, and what the examination for the course will cover.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
Here is a lesson plan on the Latin word roots patr, patri, and pater. You may perceive–correctly–that these mean “father.” This is a productive root in English yielding such commonly used words as patriotism and paternity, as well as some less common, but quite useful, words like patrimony and patrilineal.
I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the noun founder. It means, in the context of the sentences in the document, “one that founds or establishes.” Finally, here is the scaffolded worksheet on these Latin roots that serves as the mainstay of this lesson’s work.
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.
“…the men are all fatuous and self-centered creatures. This is then a woman’s novel in a narrow and constricting way.”
Saturday Review
Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes
Tagged fiction/literature, humor, literary oddities
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a friend of the court. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences (the second of which is a compound–two clauses separated by a semicolon) and two comprehension questions. In other words, this is a basic introduction to an important concept in jurisprudence, particularly at the level of the Supreme Court. Right now, given the sleaze we’re seeing from at least two associate justices, i.e. taking lavish trips funded by individuals with business before the court, the Supreme Court needs all the friends it can get.
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.
“Definitely for Definitively. ‘It was definitely decided.’ Definitely means precisely, with exactness; definitively means finally, conclusively.”
Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.
It was the Word of the Day yesterday at Merriam-Webster, so here is a context clues worksheet on the noun bon vivant. It means “a sociable person who has cultivated and refined tastes especially with respect to food and drink.”
I’d given myself a semi-firm promise that I wouldn’t indiscriminately prepare these documents every time a flashy word came over the transom–or in this case the Merriam-Webster app on my phone. But I cannot resist Gallicisms, so here you are. Besides, I think educated people use bon vivant on the right occasion. So shouldn’t our students be able to work with this useful and euphonious noun?
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.
“Cognate (adjective): Related or common ancestry, as two words having the same derivation; descended from the same verbal root; intrinsically similar. Noun: cognate, cognateness.
‘The vulgarity of a lot of writing about food is cognate with the vulgarity of a lot of writing about sex.’ Anthony Burgess, The New York Times”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
Here, on an oppressively humid Monday morning in Brooklyn, is a reading on Robert De Niro along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This has tended to be high-interest material, especially among young men, so I have so tagged it.
Nota bene, please, that the reading cites “eight collaborations” between Mr. De Niro and Martin Scorsese. In fact, at least two more collaborations–The Irishman and the forthcoming Killers of the Flower Moon between these towering figures in American cinema have occurred since this reading was published. In other words, as film history continues to unfold where it concerns Scorsese and De Niro, this reading will need revision.
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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