“In what war did Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) serve? He served in the Crimean War (1853-1856), though he is best known for his treatment of the Napoleonic Wars in War and Peace (1863-69).”
Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
Moving right along on this spring morning, here is a worksheet on the Latin word root post. It means, of course, “after” and “behind.” I feel confident that I need not belabor the productivity of this root–and as I write this, I wonder why I didn’t include this root in the two yearlong (one lesson per week) cycles of word root lessons for building vocabulary I wrote for freshman and sophomore English classes. In fact, as you certainly know, post can be attached to just about any noun to form the meaning of “after something.”
This worksheet, in any case, asks students to infer the meaning of the root from such high-frequency English words as postdate, posterior (which also gives us posterity, which is not on this document), and posthumous.
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.
“Antonym (noun): A word opposite in meaning to a given word. Adj. antonymous; n. antonymy.
‘The Greeks used caco-and dys- to manufacture the antonyms to eu-compounds.’ Philip Howard, Words Fail Me”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged diction/grammar/style/usage
This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the denominations of paper currency in the United States from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s excellent reference book, The Order of Things. For students, here is the combined reading and comprehension worksheet to use for this lesson.
Nota bene please that I conceived of and prepared this material for students who find it a challenge to navigate and manipulate two symbolic systems–that is, numbers and letters–at the same time. This is a comfortable way to ease into more complicated work like word problems in math–or at least I like to think it is.
But what do you think?
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 most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.”
H.L. Mencken
Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged humor, literary oddities, philosophy/religion
Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun argot. It means “an often more or less secret vocabulary and idiom peculiar to a particular group.” I assume this was a Word of the Day at Merriam-Webster at some point, because this is not exactly a high-frequency word in the English language. In fact, I think there is a case to be made that argot is a linguistic term of art rather than a noun in everyday use.
So, unless you are teaching a unit on, or mounting a production of, Guys and Dolls (or if you need to explain the patter in a Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, or Chester Himes novel, or explain the use of an adjective like “two-bit”) I expect this document will have little utility in the primary or secondary classroom. But what the hell, I wrote it, I have basically unlimited storage capacity on this blog, and maybe someone can use it.
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.
“perseveration: Persistent repetition of a behavior or activity regardless of the result, or having trouble switching from one activity to another. Extreme examples of perseveration may be seen in individuals with a developmental disability or autism., for whom repetitive hand motions, rocking, or other movements are common characteristics. More typical examples in childhood might involve singing a song from a video again and again.
In a school setting, perseveration can be used to describe the fixation on a specific element in a broader task, such as spending all of the time of an exam on a single essay question. Psychologists often encounter perseveration in students they evaluate for learning disabilities. For example, if a student is told to copy six small circles in a straight row, the student may make all the circles all the way across the width of the page, drawing 30 or more. Teachers and parents often report perseverative behaviors among students with learning disabilities and ADHD. For example, if they ask the student to hop four times on the left foot, the student may hop 20 or more times or until he or she lose balance.
This type of behavior may be caused by inflexible strategies and problems in shifting from one task to another.”
Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
Elsewhere on this blog I posted a batch of documents on building a lexicon of culinary arts terms. Recently, I purchased a wooden recipe box, and inside was this simple cooking conversion chart. I couldn’t resist scanning it (I did this with my phone, and I think it looks better than the images my flatbed scanner currently produces) and posting it.
Anyway, there it is if you can use it.
Posted in English Language Arts, Reference
Tagged career/technical education, learning supports, numeracy
“The Magic Mountain: (German title: Der Zauberberg). A novel (1924; English translation 1927) by Thomas Mann (1875-1955). The densely symbolic story is centered on a young man, Hans Castorp, who goes to visit his cousin at Haus Berghof, a high-altitude sanatorium for people with tuberculosis at Davos in the Swiss Alps. Castorp is fascinated by the place, and ends up staying there for years, searching for self-knowledge while prevaricating between the demands of reason and action on the one hand, and mysticism and decadence on the other. The novel is ultimately a symbolic study of the uneasy situation in Europe before the outbreak of the First World War, and explores the isolation of the world of art and philosophy (the mountain) from the crisis of contemporary existence below.”
Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.
Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb administer. It is used both intransitively and transitively. The sentences in this document, however, are keyed to this verb’s first transitive definition, “to manage or supervise the execution, use, or conduct of.” Ergo, you will note that all the sentences on this worksheet use administer with a direct object–i.e. transitively.
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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