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.

Forebear (n)

Because it’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, and because it is a nice solid noun that turns up in several registers of discourse in English, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun forebear. N.B. that Merriam-Webster advises that this noun is generally used in the plural; I’ve used it that way in this worksheet in all the context clues sentences.

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.

Write It Right: At for By

“At for By. ‘She was shocked at this conduct.’ This very common solecism is without excuse.”

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

Common Errors in English Usage: Regime (n), Regimen (n)

They are two commonly used words in English, so here is a worksheet on differentiating the use of the nouns regime and regimen–two nouns that look a lot alike, but mean different things, indeed quite different things. So, if you want to start with a new exercise regimen, don’t call it a regime, which better applies where politics and government are concerned.

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.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

“Ancient Near Eastern Art: Collective term for the art of ancient cultures (ca. 3500 B.C. to ca. 650 A.D.) in Mesopotamia, Iran, and the Levant. Some of the most important were Sumerian (Mesopotamia), Assyrian (Mesopotamia, the Levant), Hittite (Anatolia), and Achaemenian, Parthian, and Sassanian Persian (Iran).”

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

Akbar the Great

He’s an important, indeed representative figure, of the Mughal Empire, so here is a reading on Akbar the Great along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

At this writing, with the rising tide of Hindu Nationalism engendered by the current Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), this is a timely reading. That the BJP has worked to revise Indian social studies texts to minimize and trivialize the role of Muslims (like Akbar) makes this vital reading.

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.

Term of Art: Prepositional Phrase

“Prepositional Phrase: A group of words consisting of a preposition, its object, and any of the object’s modifiers. Georgia on my mind.”

Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

Nonpareil (adj)

I don’t think I can defend it as a word students must know, but since it popped up as Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day on a morning when I felt like writing one, I can offer you this context clues worksheet on the adjective nonpareil. In addition to describing a certain kind of confection (“a small flat disk of chocolate covered with white sugar pellets” or “sugar in small pellets of various colors”–in other words, think of Nestle’s Sno-caps at the movie theater), this worksheet, using context, uses the definition “an individual of unequaled excellence” and “paragon.”

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.

Cultural Literacy: First Amendment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. If now isn’t a good time to spend some time reading, thinking, and writing about the rights guaranteed by this Amendment, I don’t know when would be.

If I were teaching this important topic in civics this fall, I would be sure to emphasize the Establishment Clause as well as the guarantee of the right “of the people peaceably to assemble.” As Kevin Phillips’ nightmare scenario of an American Theocracy begins to advance to lived reality, the Establishment Clause becomes a very important topic of study. As far as peaceably assembling, that right appears to have been abrogated.

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.

A Rotten Reviews Omnibus: William S. Burroughs

The Ticket That Exploded

“The works of William Burroughs…have been taken seriously, even solemnly, by some literary types, including Mary McCarthy and Norman Mailer. Actually, Burroughs’s work adds up to the world’s pluperfect put-on.

Time

Naked Lunch

“…the merest trash, not worth a second look.”

New Republic

Nova Express

“…The book is unnecessary,”

Granville Hicks, The New Republic 

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

Enhance (vt)

Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb enhance. It’s only used transitively. I doubt there is any question about the fact that this is a word high school students should know and be able to use by the time they receive their diplomas.

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.