Category Archives: English Language Arts

This category contains domain-specific material–reading and writing expository prose, interpreting literature etc.–designed to meet the Common Core standards in English language arts while at the same time being flexible enough to meet the needs of diverse and idiosyncratic learners.

Characterization

Posted on August 27, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Characterization (noun): Portrayal or description so as to distinguish; the creation and representation of characters in fiction; delineation; the use in journalism of descriptive or categorical words as modifiers, sometimes irrelevantly (physical value judgments) and sometimes prejudicially (subtly moralistic or pejorative words). Adjective: characterizable; verb: characterize.

‘Characterization, too, can border on opinion, and should be excluded from the news columns. A paragraph about the President’s conference contained this sentence: “The ambiguity of his replies sent some men away convinced that the major policy change was indeed in prospect, but the White House later took pains to explain that this was not the case.” Strike out the words “the ambiguity of” and your retain the same meaning without the editorial flavor.’ Theodore Bernstein, Watch Your Language”

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

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Cultural Literacy: Golden Parachute

Posted on August 27, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a “golden parachute.” This is a half-page worksheet with a short, dense reading of three compound sentences and three comprehension questions.

I haven’t heard the expression “golden parachute” in some time, and I tend to listen often to economics and finance radio programs and podcasts. People my age will remember this term as a part of the vernacular, particularly in the 1980s, when they became increasingly common, as The Business Professor explains. The word is still in use, at least as recently as five years ago, as this 2016 Harvard Business Review article demonstrates. In any event, paying executives to leave companies (especially if there is malfeasance, failure, or both) is so commonplace now that the concept remains, whatever term describes it–as this one aptly does.

I don’t know if your students need to know about this. I worked for some time in a business- and finance-themed high school, so I must assume I wrote this worksheet for my work there. In any case, you can do what you want with this document as it is formatted in Microsoft Word (as just about everything on this site is–ergo open source).

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: Visual Perception Disabilities

Posted on August 27, 2021 | Leave a comment

“visual perception disabilities: Students with visual perception disabilities have trouble making sense out of what they see, not because they have poor eyesight but because their brains process visual information differently.

Children with this problem have trouble organizing, recognizing, interpreting, or remembering visual images. This means that they will have trouble understanding the written and picture symbols they need in school—letters, words, numbers, math symbols, diagrams, maps, charts, and graphs.

Because this type of visual problem is subtle, it is often undiscovered until the child starts having problems in school. Visual perception problems include the ability to recognize images a person has seen before and attach meaning to them; to discriminate among similar images or words, and to separate significant features from background details; and to recognize the same symbol in different forms (understanding, for example, that the letter ‘D’ is the letter ‘D’ whether it is uppercase or lowercase, in different colors or fonts). Sequences are another important visual perception skill; a child with a visual sequencing problem may not understand the difference between the words ‘saw’ and ‘was.’

Students with visual perception problems are usually slow to learn letters and numbers, and often make mistakes, omissions, and reversals. They often have trouble with visual memory and visualization and may be extremely slow readers.”

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

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Amenable (adj)

Posted on August 27, 2021 | Leave a comment

It’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, so here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective amenable. It means “willing to agree to or accept something that is wanted or asked for,” and that is what the context in the worksheet seeks to elicit.

There is more to this word, however. As Merriam-Webster emphasizes, the “Collegiate Definition” of this word carries a bit more nuance: “liable to be brought to account,” “answerable,” “capable of submission (as to judgment or test)” “suited,” “readily brought to yield, submit, or cooperate,” and, as above, “willing.”

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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William Bennett on the Responsibility of Elementary Schools

Posted on August 26, 2021 | Leave a comment

“The elementary school must assume as its sublime and most solemn responsibility the task of teaching every child in it to read. Any school that does not accomplish this has failed.”

William J. Bennett “Report on Condition of Elementary Schools” (1986)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

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States of Matter

Posted on August 26, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on states of matter along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

Once again from the Intellectual Devotional series, this is a good general introduction to solids, liquids, and gases, and their molecular behavior. The reading and worksheet are in Microsoft Word, so you can edit and manipulate them for your needs. I’m not a science teacher, so I’m not sure why I wrote this. Probably because I had a couple of, uh, free days during the pandemic.

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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Write It Right: Chivalrous

Posted on August 23, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Chivalrous. The word is popularly used in the Southern States only, and commonly has reference to men’s manner toward women. Archaic, stilted, and fantastic.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

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Common Errors in English Usage: Freshman (n), Freshmen (n)

Posted on August 23, 2021 | Leave a comment

Moving right along on a damp, post-tropical-storm morning in New York, here is a worksheet on the nouns freshman and freshmen. They are, respectively, singular and plural nouns. This is a full-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading and ten modified cloze exercises.

In the last school in which I served in Lower Manhattan, students frequently used freshmans as the plural (and, interestingly, WordPress’s spell checker doesn’t indicate that “freshmans” is a spelling error) of “freshman.” Students understand the difference in number between man and men, but couldn’t extend or apply that knowledge when the word fresh preceded them. In any event, the reading for this worksheet points out that only freshman—singular–is the adjectival form.

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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The Devil’s Dictionary: Acquaintance

Posted on August 23, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Acquaintance, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor to obscure, and intimate when he is rich and famous.” 

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000. 

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Word Root Exercise: Anth/o

Posted on August 23, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Greek root anth/o. It means, simply, flower. And while it is at the root of anthology for some reason, this worksheet uses words like anther, chrysanthemum, perianth, and polyanthus. In other words, all nice, solid, Greek, flower-related words.

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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