“A generous, sensitive, intelligent and literate book that despite its generosity, sensitivity, humanity, and literacy, manages to be a deadly bore.”
The New Yorker
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
While I fear it falls far short of the standards to which I like to think this blog conforms, here, nonetheless, is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Tin Pan Alley. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences–the first a compound separated by a semicolon, the second a longish declarative sentence–and three questions. The reading presents the term “Tin Pan Alley” as metaphorical and notes that it is “not used as much today as it was a generation or two ago” to refer, generally, “to the popular music industry in the United States.”
My problem is this: Tin Pan Alley is a metaphor, yes, but it was also a real place in Manhattan. So, and I think this especially true for those of us who teach in the Five Boroughs, our students ought to know about the literal (to use an overworked adjective) Tin Pan Alley.
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.
“standard English: The language that is used by the vast majority of newspapers, magazines, and books published in the United States, as well as by most television networks, government agencies, universities, and employers. Critics object that requiring students to learn standard English discriminates against those who do not speak or write standard English and privileges those who do. Yet the ability to read, speak, and comprehend standard English is necessary for anyone who hopes to advance in school, higher education, the professions, or the business world.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
It’s been awhile since I posted any materials I adapted from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s The Order of Things, so here, before we begin Black History Month 2024 (which starts next week on this blog), is a lesson plan on painting and sculpture, the first of two. This one is really more about periodicity in art history. Here is the worksheet with reading and comprehension questions.
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.
“Mobile: A kinetic sculpture that consists of forms connected by wires or rods and wire. Because it hangs free, it is set in motion by air currents. Devised in 1932 by Alexander Calder.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
Here is a worksheet on the verb promise as used with an infinitive. I promise to stop thinking I am clever by devising dubious curricular material such as this.
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.
“Answers: A mechanism for avoiding questions.
This might be called obsessional avoidance or a manic syndrome. It is based on the belief that the possession of an education—particularly if it leads to professional or expert status, and, above all, if it involves some responsibility or power—carries with it an obligation to provide the answer to every question posed in your area of knowledge. This has become much more than the opiate of the rational elites. It may be the West’s most serious addiction.
Time is of the essence in this process. An inability to provide the answer immediately is a professional fault. The availability of unlimited facts can produce an equally unlimited number of absolute powers in most areas. Memory is not highly regarded. Right answers which turn out to be wrong are simply replaced by a new formula. The result of these sequential truths is an assertive or declarative society which admires neither reflection nor doubt and has difficulty with the idea that to most questions there are many answers, none of them absolute and few of them satisfactory except in a limited way.”
Excerpted from: Saul, John Ralston. The Doubter’s Companion. New York: The Free Press, 1994.
In this age of super-duper video games, I doubt there would be much call for this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Three Musketeers. In middle school, I loved the swashbucklers, but it doesn’t appear they are much read anymore. I suppose, if nothing else, this half-page document with its three-sentence reading and three comprehension question might play a role in some sort of instruction in literary history, especially where Dumas is concerned.
And it seems to me that most people in the world would benefit from dedicating some thought to the Three Musketeers’ motto: “All for one and one for all.”
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.
“Commonplace (noun): An obvious or trite comment or opinion; routine, unremarkable observation.
‘When he first noticed me, he tried to flummox me by addressing me in Latin, but I was equal to that dodge, and after a few commonplaces, we changed to English.’ Robertson Davies, Fifth Business”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Latin word roots quadr, quadri, quadru, and quadra. They mean, of course, four, and they are at the roots of high school words like quadratic (equation) and more general purpose English words like quadrangle and quadrant.
I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the verb quarter. I’m not sure why I chose the verb, as it has nothing to do with the meaning of the root on this worksheet, but rather means, in the context supplied, “to provide with lodging or shelter.” The verb also means “to cut or divide into four equal or nearly equal parts,” and I think this document would probably best be rewritten to furnish that context for inferring this word’s meaning.
Unless of course you’re teaching a lesson on the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution,, i.e. “No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.” In that case, the above-linked context clues worksheet may have some utility for you.
Finally, here is 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.
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