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.

John Updike on Critics

Posted on August 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Critics are like pigs at the pastry cart.”

John Updike

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

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Common English Verbs Followed by an Infinitive or a Gerund: Remember

Posted on August 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the verb remember when used with an infinitive or a gerund.

I remembered to buy coffee at the supermarket.

I remember buying coffee at the supermarket.

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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Book of Answers: Auld Lang Syne

Posted on August 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Who wrote ‘Auld Lang Syne’? Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-96) put this traditional song into its present form in The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1803).”

Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

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Cultural Literacy: Nuance

Posted on August 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of nuance. This is a half-page worksheet with reading of one relatively uncomplicated compound sentence and three comprehension question. If there was ever a time to ensure students understand the concept of nuance–and better yet, can incorporate it into their own writing–now is it, I submit.

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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Seven Days of the Week

Posted on August 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Monday/Lundi * Tuesday/Mardi * Wednesday/Mercredi * Thursday/Jeudi * Friday/Vendredi * Satuday/Samedi Sunday/Dimanche

Our seven-day week is a straight inheritance from very ancient Babylonian and Jewish traditions that took the seven planets as one of the ordering principles of humanity and divinity. The main alternatives were the Egyptian ten-day week, the Germano-Celtic nine-night week and the eight-day week for the Etruscans. The latter was inherited by the Romans, for it allowed for a specific market-day, which enabled country-dwellers to come to the cities and sell fruit and vegetables (which lasted only eight days). During Julius Caesar’s calendar reforms the seven-day week was introduced to the Near East, though it ran alongside the old Etruscan traditions until the time Constantine.

And some time during that period, between 200 and 600 AD, the current charming muddle of English names was hatched out, part honouring the Roman pantheon and part the Norse-German deities. For Monday is moon day, Tuesday is the day to Tiw/Tyr’s day (the heroic Teutonic sky god), Wednesday is Woden/Odin’s (the Teutonic/Norse god of knowledge and war), Thursday is the day of Thor (the Teutonic smith-god of thunder)), Friday is the day of Frija/Freyr (the Teutonic goddess of fertility), Saturday is Saturn (the father of Zeus)’s day, and Sunday is of course the sun’s day.

The same process happened in France, ossifying that peculiar junction point between Roman paganism and the new Christian order. So the French have Lundi (from the Latin dies Lunae, or moon day), Mardi (dies Martis, or Mars day), Mercredi (dies Mercurii, or Mercury day), Jeudi (dies Jovis, or Jupiter day), Vendredi (dies Veneris, Venus day), Samedi (dies Saturni, Saturn day) and Dimanche (dies Dominicus, day of the lord).

In the well-ordered Christian state of Byzantium, all these pagan relics were ditched in favor of days 1, 2, 3 and 4, followed by Paraskene (preparation), Sabbaton and finally Kyriaki (God’s day). These remain the days in modern Greek.”

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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The Weekly Text, 16 August 2024: A Lesson on Anniversary Gifts from The Order of Things

Posted on August 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is this lesson plan on anniversary gifts along with its attendant reading worksheet with comprehension questions. The reading (as is the case with all readings under the current header) is a list from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s magisterial reference book The Order of Things. I’ve said it before, but it bears saying again: the lesson plans I have thus far developed based on entries from The Order of Things are aimed at struggling or emergent readers.

This particular lesson might be useful in a broader unit about folkways and customs. In my experience, social studies classes tend to regularly deal with folkways and customs–i.e. culture–without explicitly addressing the concepts these words represent. That baffles me, as the broad culture has such rich possibilities for transfer into other learning domains.

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

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Common English Verbs Followed by an Infinitive or a Gerund: Prefer

Posted on August 9, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the verb prefer when used with an infinitive or a gerund.

He prefers to drink coffee.

He prefers drinking coffee.

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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Connotation

Posted on August 9, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Connotation (noun): The conveying of verbal meaning with or apart from a word’s more evident, denotative meaning; implicit, associative sense of a word beyond its primary or literal meaning; affective or emotional purport of a term or expression; implication. Adjective: connotational, connotative; Adverb: Connotatively; Verb: connote.

‘Of course, the mere name of my mother has no special connotation, no significance, but the woman herself was the vague consoling spirit the terrible seasons of life when unlikely accidents, tabloid adventures, shocking episodes, surrounded a solitary and wistful heart.’ John Hawkes, Second Skin”

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

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Cultural Literacy: Nota Bene

Posted on August 9, 2024 | Leave a comment

The first time I saw “N.B.” on a piece of academic work, I was a thirty-two-year-old “non-traditional student” studying the Russian language at Amherst College through the Five College Exchange (I was matriculated at Hampshire College). Once I figured out that it stood for nota bene, and then figured out what nota bene means–“note well,” just how it looks–I began using it regularly myself. If you’ve perused this blog at all, you’ve no doubt seen it in a post.

So here, without further ado, is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Latinism nota bene. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two simple sentences and three comprehension questions. Just the basics.

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 Doubter’s Companion: Banality

Posted on August 9, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Banality: The political philosopher Hannah Arendt confused the meaning of this word by introducing in 1961 her brilliant but limiting concept ‘the banality of evil.’ In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a minor political figure, Brian Mulroney, released the term by demonstrating that it could also reasonably be understood to mean the evil of banality.”

Excerpted from: Saul, John Ralston. The Doubter’s Companion. New York: The Free Press, 1994.

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