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.

Larry Bird

OK, while Jimmy Rushing (“Mr. Five by Five“)  sings the blues in the background, let me offer this high-interest reading on Larry Bird along with its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Bird, in my experience over the years, remains of interest to students who are likewise interested in professional basketball.

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.

Origami V

This is the fifth of five posts on origami; as I said in the last one, blink, of you’ll miss it. I scanned the documents in these posts from two different origami books I bought for use in my classrooms. None of this intellectual property, needless to say, is mine to give away. Desperate times call for bold measures, which is why I’m here putting up one more of these posts.

First, here are the folding terms and directions for the documents in this and the previous (i.e. Origami IV) post. And here are the directions of the origami figures themselves:

origami 42 magnolia blossom; origami 43 rose; origami 44 leaf; origami 45 swan; origami 46 butterfly; origami 47 crane; origami 48 frog; origami 49 chinese wheel; origami 50 koi.

Here is a wikiHow article on how to make origami paper. Finally, once more, here are a trove of videos on origami from YouTube.

Term of Art: Conjunctive

“Conjunctive: Indicating joining or connecting, or functioning as a conjunction by linking sentences and clauses, e.g., the adverbs ‘accordingly,’ ‘yet,’ ‘consequently.'”

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

Word Root Exercise: Tom, -Tome, -Tomy, -Stomy

Here is a word root worksheet on the Greek roots tom,-tome,-tomy,-stomy. They mean, oddly, to cut. There are a lot of commonly used words from educated discourse that grow from this productive root–think, for example, of surgeries like hysterectomy, thyroidectomy, and tonsillectomy.

This is another of those words students aspiring to careers in the healthcare professions ought to know.

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.

Rotten Reviews: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

“Rotten Reviews: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

‘…unmanly, sickening, vicious (though not exactly what is called ‘improper’), and tedious.’

Athenaeum

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

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “The Possible Dreams Auction”

OK, moving right along, here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “The Possible Dreams Auction.”

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “Feather One’s Own Nest.” You’ll need this scan of the illustration and questions that drive the investigation in order to conduct it. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key.

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.

Write it Right: Advisedly for Advertently, Intentionally

“Advisedly for Advertently, Intentionally. ‘It was done advisedly’ should mean that it was done after advice.”

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

Counterpart (n)

Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun counterpart which is in common enough use that students ought to know it before they leave high school.

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.

Hippocrates

Here is a reading on Hippocrates and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I assume I don’t need to explain why now might be a good time to read about the father of modern medicine and the historical embodiment of why politicians and half-wit journalists should not pronounce on medical issues like, oh let’s say chloroquine as a treatment for COVID19.

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.

The Algonquin Wits: George S. Kaufman Addresses a Critic

Kaufman was seldom open to outside suggestions concerning his work, especially from persons he didn’t know. One self-appointed critic, on being snubbed by G.S.K. remarked, ‘Perhaps you don’t know who I am?’

‘That’s only part of it,’ said Kaufman.’”

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.