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.

Paparazzi

Here is a reading on paparazzi and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This material is of high interest for some students in my experience using it. Don’t forget the paparazzi is a plural noun; the singular is paparazzo.

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 Trial by Franz Kafka

The Trial (German title: Der Prozess): A posthumously published novel (1925; English translation 1937) by Franz Kafka (1883-1924). Set in a nightmarish, proto-totalitarian world, it concerns the tribulations of Josef K., who is arrested and brought before a court, but the charges against him are never stated. He is driven to find out what he is supposed to have done wrong, and to seek acquittal–which he never succeeds in doing, but is taken to the edge of the city and killed ‘like a dog.’

Orson Welles directed a haunting film version (1963). In the opera The Visitation (1966), the US composer Gunther Schuller (1925-2015) transfers Kafka’s The Trial to the Southern states of the USA and Josef K. becomes a black student called Carter Jones.”

Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.

Click (vt/vi/n) and Clique (n)

If one pronounces the noun clique in its French phonetic, it will sound like “kleek,” which renders these five worksheets on the the near homophones click and clique more or less inaccurate. However, if one pronounces clique as it is commonly done in the the United States, like click, then the five worksheets above will indeed serve as homophone worksheets.

In any case, these worksheets offer students–particularly English language learners–a chance to understand clique which is almost inarguably a word and concept students should know by the time they graduate high school.

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.

Rotten Rejections: Thomas Hardy

“…there crops up in parts a certain rawness of absurdity that’s very displeasing, and makes it read like some clever lad’s dream: the thing hangs too loosely together…half worthy of Balzac.”

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

Cultural Literacy: President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty

If you spend any time on it in a United States history class, this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the War on Poverty might be a reasonable introduction to President Lyndon Johnson’s unfortunately failed attempt to address chronic, structural poverty in the United States.

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.

Altamira

“One of the finest painted caves, and also one of the first to be discovered (in 1879). The site is south of Santander, in northeast Spain, and is famous for its polychrome animals [40], which include deer, bison, and wild boar painted in red, black, and a range or earth colors. Most of the art in the caves was produced by Magdalenian peoples.”

Excerpted from: Bray, Warwick, and David Trump. The Penguin Dictionary of Archaeology. New York: Penguin, 1984.

Aggregate (n)

OK, after a long weekend, here is a context clues worksheet on aggregate used as a noun. It seems to me that somewhere along the way I wanted to write one of these for aggregate as a verb as well. So be on the lookout for that, I suppose.

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.

Aztecs

“Aztecs: A Nahuatl-speaking tribe of Indians who dominated much of Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest (1519-1521) under Hernan Cortez. In the 12th century, the Aztecs moved into the valley of Anahuac from the northwest and gradually subdued neighboring tribes, turning them into tribute-paying vassals. The “emperor” of the Aztecs was chosen by a supreme council, which represented the twenty clans that comprised the Aztec tribe.”

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

The Weekly Text, October 11, 2019, Hispanic Heritage Month 2019 Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Eva Peron

Ok, in the ongoing observation of Hispanic History Month 2019 at Mark’s Text Terminal, here is a reading on Eva Peron and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. If you have students interested in the musical theater, this might be high interest material for them, given that Eva Peron’s life constitutes the source material for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical Evita.

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.

Delmira Agustini

Delmira Agustini: (1886-1914) Uruguayan poet. Together with Gabriela Mistral, Juana de Ibarbourou, Alfonsina Storni, and Dulce Maria Loynaz, Agustini is one of the key voices in the rich tradition of Spanish American poetry by women. Influenced by Ruben Dario’s Modernismo, her poetry is marked by sensuality and eroticism. Agustini published three collections of poetry: El libro blanco (1907); Cantos de la manana (1910); and Los calices vacios (1913). At the time of her death, she was working on Los astros del abismo (1954). Agustini’s biography has drawn almost as much attention as her writing. She was raised in cultivated and conventional surroundings in Montevideo, but was murdered by her estranged husband less than a year after their marriage.

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