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.

Cultural Literacy: Freudian Slip

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of the Freudian Slip. This is a half-page worksheet with a single-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. I cannot, for the life of me, remember why I wrote this. Usually, that means I put some together in response to student interest; that is all but certainly the case here.

This might be too abstract or advanced an idea for some students–and, depending on one’s thoughts about such things, it might also be a bit risque. I don’t know. I do know that it’s worth mentioning that there is a more clinical term for the Freudian Slip, to wit, parapraxis. This worksheet, as it is in Microsoft Word, could easily be recast to call upon students to understand the concept of parapraxis.

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.

Rotten Reviews: Annie Dillard

 “Rotten Reviews: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

‘I have never seen frogs in Virginia ‘shout and glare’…”

Loren Eiseley, Washington Post Book World

Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.    

Common Errors in English Usage: Flounder (vi), Founder (vi/vt)

Here is a worksheet on differentiating between the verbs flounder and founder,  informed by Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage (which he makes available at no charge on the Washington State University website). This worksheet contains a single-paragraph reading from Professor Brians’ book, with ten modified cloze exercises. However, since it is a Microsoft Word document, you can manipulate it to meet the needs of your classroom.

These are two intransitive verbs (founder has a transitive use, “to disable (an animal) especially by excessive feeding,” of which I was unaware, clearly because this word is seldom used in American English to convey this ghastly meaning) which are frequently confused. Once again, Professor Brians summarizes them elegantly: “If you’re sunk, you’ve foundered. If you’re struggling, you’re floundering.”

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.

Term of Art: Thinking Skills

“thinking skills: The way in which an individual acquires, interprets, organizes, stores, retrieves, and applies information, also known as cognitive skills.”

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

Word Root Exercise: Du, Duo

Here is a worksheet on the Latin roots du and duo. They mean two. These are very productive roots in English (indeed, duo stands on its own, meaning “pair” and “duet”), providing the basis of high-frequency words like dual, duplex, and duplicate–and less high-frequency words like duodenum and duodecimal, which do turn up on things like the SAT.

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.

J. Lloyd Trump on Today and Tomorrow in Our Classrooms

“Events in our classrooms today will prompt world events tomorrow.”

J. Lloyd Trump (1908-1985) As quoted in The Teacher and the Taught (1963)

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

Tousle (vt)

It’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, so here is a context clues worksheet on the verb tousle. It means “dishevel” and “rumple.” It’s only used transitively, so don’t forget your direct object. You, or someone or something else, must tousle something.

This is one of those words that yields a pair of definitional words that students, particularly English language learners, may not know. Since I just wrote this document this morning, I haven’t used it in a classroom (and may never, since this isn’t a high-frequency or essential academic word). But if I did, I would look for students to be able to articulate from context–which is relatively strong in this worksheet–a general sense of “wrinkle,” or “mess up,” or “tangle,” or something along those lines.

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.

Frieze

“Frieze: The middle section of the entablature between the architrave and the cornice, where relief sculpture was sometimes applied. Also, in interiors, the broad band between wall paneling and ceiling.”

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

Plague (n)

OK, last but not least today, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun plague. It means, in the context in which it is presented on this half-page document, “an epidemic disease causing a high rate of mortality.”

I wrote this, I am sure, to introduce the word to students ahead of a lesson on the European Black Death of the mid-fourteenth century. The context is reasonably strong, but it can always use a little help. So if you rewrite this, I would appreciate seeing your version of it. In fact, I will add it to this post. Incidentally, the bubonic plague, the cause of the Black Death, remains alive and well and occasionally breaks out, as it has intermittently in Madagascar, among other places around the globe.

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.

Figurative Language

“Figurative Language: Language which uses figures of speech; for example, metaphor, simile, alliteration (qq.v). Figurative language must be distinguished from literal (q.v.) language. ‘He hared down the street’ or ‘He ran like a hare down the street’ are figurative (metaphor and simile respectively). ‘He ran very quickly down the street’ is literal. See HYPERBOLE; METONYMY; SYNECHDOCHE.”

Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.