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.

Word Root Exercise: Peri-

I don’t know that I’ve ever used this worksheet on the Greek word root peri–it means around–in my classroom, but that is mostly because I have so many of these things, and many of them simply take priority. As you will see, the words on this worksheet (other than perimeter) aren’t exactly part of our daily vernacular in this country–though if you are older, you may, like me, find yourself using periodontal more than you would prefer.

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.

Term of Art: Heuristic

heuristic: A rule of thumb or procedure that works to provide a satisfactory if not optimal solution to a problem; a technique of discovery, invention, and problem solving through experimental or trial-and-error techniques. Some examples of heuristics include throwing out parts of a problem and solving the simplified version; breaking a problem into parts and solving each one separately; and means-end analysis–defining the current situation, describing the end state, and then taking steps to reduce the differences between them.”

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

Cultural Literacy: Rites of Passage

Alright: like Dwight Yoakam, I feel like I’m a thousand miles from nowhere this morning.

And here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on rites of passage. Just off the top of my head, I can think of several places where this would fit into either the English or social studies curriculum.

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.

Henchman (n)

Despite the fact that it remains a piece of the American vernacular, I don’t know how important it is that student know this word. Nonetheless, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun henchman. I will say this, as I consider this document: when I taught in New York City, the vanishingly few upperclassmen I taught, almost to a one, tended to refer to their youngest peers in the institution as “freshmans.” This worksheet might be best, I suppose, paired with the plural “henchmen” somehow to make sure students understand that the noun “man” declines, in the plural, to “men,” not matter where in a word it is found.

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.

Carbohydrates

Snow day! And it is coming down at a pretty good clip out there. For health teachers, if this is something you cover, here is a reading on carbohydrates and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it.

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: Admission for Admittance

“Admission for Admittance. ‘The price of admission is one dollar.’”

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

A Glossary of Terms from Martha Stone Wiske’s “Teaching for Understanding”

Last week, after reading a few pages each morning with my coffee before leaving for work, I finished Martha Stone Wiske’s (ed.) Teaching for Understanding: Linking Research to Practice (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997); yesterday I finished its companion, The Teaching for Understanding Guide by Tina Blythe (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997). From the latter, I cribbed this glossary of Teaching for Understanding terms if you’re inclined to use this planning and instructional framework.

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.

Cultural Literacy; Rip Van Winkle

Monday morning again, and here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Rip Van Winkle. This character, from the pen of Washington Irving, is an essential piece of American mythology.

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.

H.L. Mencken on Platitudes

“Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true.”

H.L. Mencken

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

Imbroglio (n)

While it’s probably not a word students need to know before they leave high school, this context clues worksheet on the noun imbroglio might nonetheless be of some use. If nothing else, the word possesses a nice onomatopoeic quality.

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.