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.

The Weekly Text, 9 August 2024: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Atom

Posted on August 9, 2024 | Leave a comment

The Weekly Text from Mark’s Text Terminal for Friday, 9 August 2024 is this reading on the atom along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This reading is from the Intellectual Devotional series; it serves as a good general introduction to the basic concept and configuration of the atom, but not a great deal more. As I am not a science teacher, I really cannot speak to the effectiveness or utility of these documents.

If you can, please speak up in the comments forum.

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

Posted on July 26, 2024 | Leave a comment

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

She loves to walk on the beach.

She loves walking on the beach.

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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Term of Art: Story Seeds

Posted on July 26, 2024 | Leave a comment

“story seeds: Ideas around which a student might build a story. Every story, for example, involves a conflict, so a teacher should provide a student with a conflict as a story seed and have the student create the setting, the characters, the incident that starts the conflict, and so on.”

Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.

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The Weekly Text, 2 August 2024: A Lesson on the Latin Word Root Trans

Posted on July 26, 2024 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson on the Latin word root trans. It means “across,” “through,” “change,” and “beyond.” This is an extremely productive root in English, yielding such high frequency words as transact, transcript, transit, transform, and transfer. In fact, all of those words are on the scaffolded worksheet that is the principle work of this lesson, and which includes, as all the Latin word root worksheets on this blog do, a list of cognates from the Romance languages.

I use this context clues worksheet on the transitive verb ford to open this lesson. It means “to cross (a body of water) by wading.” Needless to say, it is meant to point students toward the meaning of across in this word root.

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

Posted on July 25, 2024 | Leave a comment

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

I like to publish blog posts–even with documents as dubious in quality as this one.

I like publishing blog posts–even posts with sketch material, in hopes that someone will comment.

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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Cultural Literacy: Raison d’Etre

Posted on July 25, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Gallicism raison d’etre. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences–the first a short compound separated by a colon and containing quoted material, the second a phrase giving the this term’s meaning, i.e. “reason for being.” There are three comprehension questions, the third of which asks students to compose a sentence containing raison d’etre.

Yes, I stipulate that this isn’t exactly a high frequency word in the English language. But educated people do use the word because it is useful in its place. Enough said.

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 Weekly Text, 26 July 2024: A Lesson Plan on Motion Picture Genres from The Order of Things

Posted on July 25, 2024 | Leave a comment

Once again, from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s sublime reference book The Order of Things, here is a lesson plan on motion picture genres. To deliver this lesson (and bear in mind that any lesson under the heading of The Order of Things on this blog was designed for emergent and struggling readers as well as students of English as a new language) you will need this worksheet with reading and comprehension questions.

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

Posted on July 19, 2024 | Leave a comment

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

I hate to publish subpar work.

I hate publishing subpar work.

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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Cultural Literacy: The Romanovs

Posted on July 19, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worsheet on the Romanovs. This is half-page worksheet with a reading of two simple sentences and two comprehension questions. I don’t know how deep a dive your social studies classes take into the history of the Romanov dynasty, but if yours are like mine, this short introduction ought to be plenty.

If its not on the Regents test, it didn’t happen (or something like that).

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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The Weekly Text, 19 July 2024: A Lesson on the Latin Word Roots Terr, Terra, and Terri

Posted on July 19, 2024 | Leave a comment

The Weekly Text at Mark’s Text Terminal for 19 July 2024 is this lesson on the Latin word roots terr, terra, and terri. They mean “earth” and “land.” The do-now exercise for this lesson, this context clues worksheet on the noun real estate attempts to point students in the direction of these roots and make the connection between the nouns earth, land, and the vernacular real estate.

This scaffolded worksheet, replete with a cognate list from the primary Romance languages (not Romansh, alas, though perhaps Romansh isn’t a primary language?) is the principle work for 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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