Monthly Archives: December 2024

Monolith

Posted on December 13, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Monolith: A single block of stone carved into a pillar, statue, or column. Large size is implied.”

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

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Common English Verbs Followed by an Object and an Infinitive: Cause

Posted on December 13, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the verb cause when used with an object or an infinitive. A flea bite causes the dog to scratch his back constantly.

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.

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Copywriting

Posted on December 13, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Copywriting (noun): The writing of promotional, public relations, or advertising copy. Noun: copywriter.

‘The narrator’s admission that he is using the language of the advertising copy-writer is a revealing one, and he resorts, later, to the same jargon: “The Aston-Martin started with a deep, healthy roar.”’ David Lodge, Language of Fiction”

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

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Cultural Literacy: Entropy

Posted on December 13, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on entropy. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of six sentences (of which, more below) and six comprehension questions.

Entropy  is a complex concept, and in six sentences, as usual, the editors of The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy acquit themselves competently and even elegantly with their explanation. However, should you use this material, it might be worth looking at a couple of the longer compound sentences in the reading. It won’t take much work to shorten them, and therefore simplify them without simplifying the ideas they convey.

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.

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Leviathan

Posted on December 13, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Leviathan: A word from the Hebrew, meaning literally ‘that which gathers itself in folds,’ and given in the Bible to a mythical sea serpent (Job 41:1; . 27:1; Ps. 104:26). The name is also applied to the whale and the crocodile, and by extension it has come to mean something vast and formidable of its kind.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

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The Weekly Text, 13 December 2024: A Lesson Plan on Boxing Weight Divisions from The Order of Things

Posted on December 13, 2024 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text, from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s excellent reference book The Order of Things, is a lesson plan on boxing weight divisions. And here is a list as reading and five comprehension questions that serves as the reading and writing work for this lesson. Keep in mind, as I mention each time I publish one of these lessons, that this work is designed for students who struggle with understanding information presented in two symbolic information systems–in this case numbers and letters. Think of students who struggle with word problems in math classes, and you’ll have a clear idea whose confidence this relatively simple work is meant to bolster.

As this material deals with boxing–specifically the amateur boxing weight divisions used in the Olympics–I believe it will be of high interest to students, so I have tagged it as such.

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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Oscar Wilde on Experience and Mistakes

Posted on December 6, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.”

Oscar Wilde

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

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Common English Verbs Followed by an Object and an Infinitive: Ask

Posted on December 6, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the verb ask when used with an object or an infinitive. The student asked her teacher to supply her with some more substantial and rigorous work.

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.

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Term of Art: Strand

Posted on December 6, 2024 | Leave a comment

“strand: A group of related themes or concepts within an overall curricular area. For example, a social studies curriculum might be divided into such strands as citizenship, history, economics, geography, legal systems, political systems, and so on.”

Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.

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Cultural Literacy: Diamond in the Rough

Posted on December 6, 2024 | Leave a comment

Moving right along this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “diamond in the rough.” This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences (and beware the first one, which is a long compound separated by a colon) and three comprehension questions. A short, but thorough, introduction to this commonly used idiom–in English, at least.

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.

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