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.

Assonance

“Assonance: In poetry and prose, the identity of vowel sounds, as in the words scream and beech. Assonance is one of the many phonetic devices that serve to unify poetry and prose. In poetry it is frequently substituted for rhyme and, in this use, is sometimes referred to as vowel rhyme.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

The Weekly Text, 28 June 2024: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Root Six

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Latin word rood sex, which means six. This doesn’t produce a lot of high frequency words in English, but like the previous word root lesson that appeared on this blog, it is a root that shows up in words that are otherwise difficult to understand, like sexagenarian, sextuplet, sexennial, and sextet. They’re all included on the scaffolded worksheet, replete with cognates from the Romance languages that grow from Latin roots, that serves as the mainstay of this lesson

As I write this post, I find mysterious my choice, for this lesson, of this do-now exercise 0n the noun intercourse. It means, in the context of the sentence in which I have placed it on this worksheet, “connection or dealings between persons or groups” as well as “exchange, especially of thoughts or feelings.” So, unlike other lessons (but like the lesson on sept), there is no meaningful connection between the do-now and the main work of 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.

George Bernard Shaw on Chess

“Chess is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever when they are only wasting their time.”

George Bernard Shaw

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

Common English Verbs Followed by an Infinitive: Want

Here is a worksheet on the verb want when followed by an infinitive. I want to move all of these worksheets out of my drafts folder.

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: Demise for Death

“Demise for Death. Usually said of a person of note. Demise means the lapse, as by death, of some authority, distinction, or privilege, which passes to another than the one that held it; as the demise of the Crown.”

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

Book of Answers: Pamela

“What was Pamela’s last name in Samuel Richardson’s Pamela? Andrews.”

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

Common English Verbs Followed by an Infinitive: Seem

OK, finally this morning, here is a worksheet on the verb seem when used with an infinitive. This worksheet seems to be intellectually lightweight.

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.

Communique

“Communiqué (noun): An official announcement or bulletin, usually addressed to the media or other official bodies rather than the public.

‘The communiqué contained—here you proceed at your own risk and probably would be well advised to have a companion—friendly and cooperative relations, harmonious relations, constructive relations, cooperative relations, the totality of varied relationships, a close and mutually beneficial relationship based on the principal of equality (it’s only the beginning folks, only the beginning), a common determination, an enhanced scope for creativity, the maintenance of peace and the evolution of a stable international order….The Tokyo communiqué somehow left out resolute action, which governments often promise to take and the end of meaningless meetings.’ Edwin Newman, A Civil Tongue”

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

Cultural Literacy: Obscenity

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of obscenity. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences (the last a compound separated by a semicolon) and three comprehension questions. While obscenity as a legal concept doesn’t much appear in the press anymore, mostly because it appears to be a settled legal issue, it certainly was in the news a great deal when I was in high school.

So this may currently be irrelevant material–something I learned about in school because it was current in a way that it no longer is.

But what do you think?

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.

Modular

“Modular: Designed or constructed according to a standardized scale or parts, as in prefabricated building construction and furniture systems.”

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