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.

Charles Manson

Posted on October 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

Charles Manson’s death in late 2017 prompted a flurry of questions from the students I was serving at the time. As I do whenever students demonstrate an interest in something, I worked up some new materials, to wit, this reading on Charles Manson and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

And while I’m neither proud of or happy with the fact, these documents quickly became high-interest materials in my classroom. Ergo, they appear here. Did I mention I’m not exactly happy about students’ interest in this monster?

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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The 4 Games of Ancient Greece

Posted on October 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Pythian * Isthmian * Nemean * Olympic

The Pythian Games were held in honour of Apollo at Delphi; the Isthmian Games, at Corinth for Poseidon; the Nemean Games, at Nemea in honour of Zeus. But the most famous in the ancient world were the Olympic Games, held in honor of Zeus at Olympia in the Peloponnese, which attracted city states from across the Greek (and later Roman) world.

Each of these PanHellenic Games were held at intervals of either two or four years and were arranged so that each year there was at least one competition open to any free-born Greek. The first recorded winner is from 776 BC though the practice was considerably more ancient. The Games seem to have been designed to select the very best in order that they could offer up a sacrifice that would be the most pleasing to the Gods. This also explains the sacred truce, the cult of heroic nudity, the simple garlands awarded to the victors and the decision of the Christian emperor Theodosius to close down the games in 394 BC.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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Word Root Exercise: Ax

Posted on October 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

Moving right along this morning, here is a worksheet on the Latin word root ax. It means, simply, axis. If you click on that hyperlink, however, you’ll see that “simply” isn’t the right word: axis is a complex polysemous word in English. In any case, I suspect this document would be useful in a certain kind of math class, or perhaps a mechanical drawing course. At the same time, it is also a general vocabulary-building exercise.

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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A Lesson Plan on Data Storage from The Order of Things

Posted on October 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

As you get older, you take it for granted, but it’s still fun to experience synchrony. A friend of mine and I land on synchrony quite often while texting–often using the same words simultaneously. In this case, the same day I interviewed with some very nice, clearly talented, unusually engaged and deeply committed folks at a computer-themed career and technical education high school in the North Bronx, I pulled out this lesson plan on data storage, adapted from text I grabbed from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s The Order of Things. I expect this would work well at a school such as theirs. I hope they find their way to it.

For your students, here is the list as reading and comprehension questions, which is the 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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Term of Art: Ability Test

Posted on October 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Ability test: A test that measures a person’s current level of performance or that estimates future performance. The term sometimes denotes an achievement test, sometimes and aptitude test, and sometimes and intelligence test.”

Excerpted from: Colman, Andrew M., ed. Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

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Kiln (n)

Posted on October 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

If you are of a certain age, you wouldn’t need this context clues worksheet on the noun kiln because you would have had an art class, where you would have had a chance to shape clay and fire it into a ceramic object–using a kiln. Now, however, since we as a society appear to have resolved that children don’t need arts instruction, kids have fewer and fewer interactions with industrial objects like kilns. So we can’t count on their knowing what a kiln is or what it does.

In any case, it was the Word of the Day today at Merriam-Webster; as you can see, I couldn’t let it pass without comment or context clues worksheet.

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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E.O. Wilson on the Importance of Insects and the Relative Unimportance of Humankind

Posted on October 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

“If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed then thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.”

Edward O. Wilson

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

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Mendelian Genetics

Posted on October 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

In general, I don’t teach science. But I’ve spent sufficient time in the company of the discipline, especially that middle-school and high-school level, that I know this reading on Mendelian genetics and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet are the foundations of a broader inquiry into genetics.

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: Avoid for Avert

Posted on October 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Avoid for Avert. ‘By displaying a light the skipper avoided a collision.’ To avoid is to shun; the skipper could have avoided a collision only by getting out of the way.”

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

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Cultural Literacy: Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Posted on October 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

Because a our legislative branch is interviewing a candidate for a job on the United States Supreme Court, now seems like a good time to publish this Cultural Literacy worksheet on cruel and unusual punishment, more specifically the fact that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution forbids 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.

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