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.

Term of Art: Double Negative

“Double Negative: The use of two negatives in a sentence where one will suffice, e..g., ‘It doesn’t mean nothing’; reiterated denial that is tantamount to an affirmative of positive statement.

In substandard speech, however, double negatives often reinforce a strongly negative color in an assertion. ‘I don’t want nothing from nobody is a threefold declaration of independence, not a logical seesaw.” G.W. Turner, Stylistics

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

Term of Art: Dyscalculia

“Dyscalculia: Impairment of the ability to do arithmetic.

[From Greek dys– bad or abnormal + Latin calculare to count, from calculus diminutive of calx a stone + ia indicating a condition or quality]”

Excerpted from: Colman, Andrew M., ed. Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

The Weekly Text, September 13, 2019: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Dropout”

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this blog, the lessons I prepared to attend the Crime and Puzzlement books are quite frequently downloaded. Because I am exhausted from trying to get the school year started, and therefore bereft of imagination and initiative, I offer, as this week’s Text, a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Dropout.”

I use this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the expression “Sword of Damocles” to open the lesson after a class change. You’ll need this PDF of the illustration and questions that drive this lesson to teach it. Finally, here is the answer key typescript; it’s in word if you need to differentiate it for your students.

And that makes ten posts for this week, so I’m done here for the moment. I hope your school year is off to a good start.

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.

Tobacco

Moving right along, here is a reading on tobacco and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that attends it. The reading is only one page, but don’t let that mislead you: it’s a cogent summary of the role this plant played in the colonization of North America and the development of capitalism and international trade.

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: The Visits of Elizabeth by Elinor Glyn

[This deals with the novel by Elinor Glyn.]

“All the men, married and single, make love to her in various ways, and she comments naively on their behavior, squeezing here arms, holding her hands, kissing her, etc…. At the end one has the uncomfortable feeling of having been a spectator of the operation of rubbing the bloom off a girl by a lot of worldly and more or less vulgar people.”

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

Word Root Exercise: Mega, Megal/o, Megaly

Here is a worksheet on the Greek word roots mega, megal/o, and megaly. They mean large, great, and million. Once again, this is a very productive root in English, yielding words like megaton, megalomaniac, and megabyte.

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: Ergo

“(UR GO or AIR GO) Ergo is the Latin term for “therefore,” “hence,” “consequently,” “it follows that….” It is often used to give an air of formality to a presentation of the conclusion to an argument. Like the less frequently used Q.E.D., it implies that the person presenting the argument is “learned” or specifically trained in logic.”

Excerpted from: Trail, George Y. Rhetorical Terms and Concepts: A Contemporary Glossary. New York: Harcourt Brace, 2000.

Cultural Literacy: Destructive Competition

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on destructive competition for you business and economics teachers out there.

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.

Yellowing

yellowing: Discoloration of an oil painting, the chief cause of which are the excessive use of oil as a vehicle, improper siccative, pigment, or glaze, and dampness or darkness.”

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

Amend (vi/vt) and Amendment (n)

OK, before I leave work on this damp, cool, Vermont afternoon, here is a pair of context clues worksheets on the verb amend and the noun amendment, if you can use them.

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.