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.

Dialogue

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Dialogue (noun): Conversation between two or more people, or the literary representation of direct speech; quoted utterance; a work written entirely in the form of a colloquy, especially in philosophy; and exchange of ideas or opinions. Adjective: dialogic; adverb: dialogically.

‘He was for long thought to write very bad English, and indeed he gave you the impression or writing with the stub of a blunt pencil; his style was labored, an uneasy mixture of the classical and the slangy, and his dialogue as such that could never have issued from the mouth of a human being.’ W. Somerset Maugham, Cakes and Ale”

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

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference

Tagged , , ,

The Weekly Text, 3 April 2026: The Writing Revolution Learning Supports III; Transition Words and Phrases Learning Support

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a simple one, to wit this learning support on transition words and phrases. This is, as the header for this post indicates, part of a series of posts on material related to Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler’s The Writing Revolution (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2017) and the methods of writing instruction therein.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Reference, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

Tagged , , ,

Cultural Literacy: Emma Lazarus

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

Last but not least for Women’s History Month 2026, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Emma Lazarus. She wrote, as you may know, “The New Colossus,” the poem that visitors to the Statue of Liberty find at her base. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences, and the poem itself, and three comprehension questions.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Worksheets

Tagged , , , , ,

Adrienne Rich

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Adrienne (Cecile) Rich: (1929-2012) U.S. poet, scholar, and critic. Born in Baltimore, she was a student at Radcliffe College when her poems were chosen for publication in the Yale Younger Poets series; the resulting volume, A Change of World (1951), reflected her formal mastery. Her subsequent work traces a transformation from well-crafted but imitative poetry to a highly personal and powerful style. Her increasing commitment to the women’s movement and a lesbian/feminist aesthetic came to politicize much of her work. Among her collections are Diving into the Wreck (1973, National Book Award) and The Dream of a Common Language (1978). Her nonfiction Of Woman Born (1976, National Book Award) was widely read.”

­­­­­­­­­

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Quotes, Reference

Tagged , , , , ,

Cultural Literacy: Doris Lessing

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

She’s not exactly primary or secondary school material, but here, nonetheless, is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Doris Lessing. This is a half-page document with a reading of two longish, but not insurmountable, sentences and two comprehension questions. Anyone at the level at which I teach with an interest in Doris Lessing shouldn’t have any problem with this document.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,

The Weekly Text, 27 March 2026, Women’s History Month Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Agrippina

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

For the final Friday of Women’s History Month 2026, here is a reading on Agrippina with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. She probably doesn’t figure in curricula anywhere, but I can imagine that she must–because she was a real piece of work–be of interest to students of certain intellectual proclivities.

Because she did murder her husband, the Emperor Claudius.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

Tagged , , ,

Cultural Literacy: Esther

Posted on March 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Esther, the Old Testament figure and book in her name. People of the Jewish faith hold the festival of Purim in her honor.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,

Cultural Literacy: Betsy Ross

Posted on March 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

Frankly, I am hard pressed to imagine that there is any demand for this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Betsy Ross. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and one comprehension question. I think I learned in grade school about her–primarily through her association with sewing the first United States flag–for which, this reading asserts, there is no documentation.

Every once in a while, I post something that I think is filler. This might be one of those.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,

Radclyffe Hall

Posted on March 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Radclyffe Hall: originally Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall (1880-1943) English writer. Born to a wealthy family and educated at King’s College, London, Hall began here literary career by writing verses, which eventually were collected in five volumes. She won prizes for her novel Adam’s Breed (1926), a plea for animal rights. She was condemned for writing openly and sympathetically about lesbianism in The Well of Loneliness (1928), one of the first lesbian novels in English. It was judged obscene and banned in Britain; the ban was overturned on appeal after Hall’s death. Most of her five other novels express her strong Christian belief.”

­­­­­­­­­Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference

Tagged , , ,

The Weekly Text, 20 March 2026, Women’s History Month Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Madonna

Posted on March 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

For a variety of reasons I have resisted posting, especially during Women’s History Month, this reading on Madonna and its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Why? I don’t know: maybe simple sexism? There is something about her that has always annoyed me. Maybe her apparent vanity? Maybe her ubiquity over a long span of time?

The fact remains that during the early 1990s, when I was an undergraduate at Hampshire College, a number of critics and scholars touted Madonna as a feminist icon. That’s not what I see when I look at her, but what do I know? In any case, Madonna at this point is unarguably a part of women’s history (however we all feel about that).

Does anyone still pay attention to her? On the chance that she still has an audience, I have tagged this as a high-interest item.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, New York City, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

Tagged , , , , ,