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 Bartlett

Posted on April 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

“John Bartlett: (1820-1905) American bookseller, editor, and publisher. Self-taught, Bartlett worked in the University Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he impressed his customers with the breadth of his learning. While at that job, he completed his most famous book, Familiar Quotations (1855), which ran through nine editions in his lifetime and numerous subsequent editions after his death. He also published A New Method of Chess Notation (1857), A Shakespeare Phrase Book, (1881), and A New and Complete Concordance to Shakespeare (1894).

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

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The Weekly Text, 26 April 2024: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Roots Scrib and Script

Posted on April 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

This lesson plan on the Latin word roots scrib and script stands for this week’s Text at Mark’s Text Terminal. These mean, as you might have already inferred, mean “write” and “to write.” You’ll find these two roots in such high-frequency English words describe, manuscript, prescribe, and scribble.

I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the verb compose. The context in this document supports a definition of the verb compose, used transitively, as meaning “to create by mental or artistic labor” and “to formulate and write.”

Finally, you’ll need this scaffolded worksheet, replete with cognates from the Romance languages, to execute 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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Common English Verbs Followed by an Infinitive: Can’t Stand

Posted on April 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

OK, here is a worksheet on the verb phrase can’t stand when used with an infinitive or a gerund. I can’t stand to waste time on sketchy material.

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: Othello

Posted on April 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Shakespeare’s play Othello. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences and five comprehension questions. It is a relatively spare synopsis of the play, so I wonder how useful it might be. It could serve as a do-now–which is what most of the Cultural Literacy worksheet on this site are intended to do.

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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Commonplace Book

Posted on April 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Commonplace Book: A personal notebook for recording literary passages, quotations, special thoughts, memories, etc.

‘In any case, Trapnel’s was still and unexplored period. Gwinnett added another item. ‘Did you know he kept a Commonplace Book during his last years?’ Anthony Powell, Temporary Kings’

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

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The Weekly Text, 19 April 2024: The Second of Two Lesson Plans on Painting and Sculpture from The Order of Things

Posted on April 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is this the second of two lesson plans on painting and sculpture from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s The Order of Things. You’ll need this worksheet with a list as a reading and comprehension questions. If you want the first lesson as well, published on 24 January of this year, you’ll find it under this hyperlink.

I just want to note, again, that the lessons from The Order of Things posted on this blog are aimed at students with low levels of literacy or learners of English as a new language.

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: Continue

Posted on April 12, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is worksheet on the verb continue as used with an infinitive. I continue to post these dubious materials, which I have figured out also may be used to join a verb and a gerund.

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: Tsunami

Posted on April 12, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the tsunami as, you know, a seismic event. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three relatively simple sentences and three comprehension questions. Just the basics, but with a good explanation of the fact that tsunamis are also called tidal waves.

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, 12 April 2024: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Batteries

Posted on April 12, 2024 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is this reading on batteries along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Since most if not all students now carry a smart phone, this reading, to my surprise, has become a high-interest item; thus, I have tagged it as such.

Students want to know, apparently, how to keep these high-tech toys going.

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: Begin

Posted on April 5, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the verb begin as used with an infinitive. I begin to doubt the efficacy of this strand of curricular materials.

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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