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: 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.

Term of Art: Synesthesia

“synesthesia: A medical (or psychological) term describing the occurrence when stimulating one sense organ causes another to respond. It is as though in eating one were to receive strong visual sensations of color rather than, or along with, sensations of taste. As a literary device, synesthesia has been used in certain types of poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially that of the Symbolists. Rimbaud’s “Sonnet des voyelles,” expressing the sounds of the common vowels in terms of colors, is an excellent use of this device.”

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

Write it Right: Climb Down

“Climb down. In climbing one ascends.”

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

Cold War

Finally, on this chilly and autumnal Friday morning in Vermont, here is a short reading on the Cold War 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.

Allegory

“Allegory (noun) The use of metaphoric, often schematic storytelling and characters for two levels of meaning, with that beneath the surface narrative expressing deeper human truths, whether with a spiritual or moral message or as a form of satire; a literary work whose characters, settings, and incidents have their own verisimilitude but also mask hidden, parallel significations; symbolic narrative. Adj. allegorical; adv, allegorically; n. allegorization, allegorist; v. allegorize.

‘Tolstoy describes her as a creature so sensitive that we wonder she can’t speak. Now we see her lying at his feet, she bends her head back and gazes at him with her speaking eyes. The very suspicion of allegory destroys the validity of the scene.’ Joyce Cary, Art and Reality”

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

Cultural Literacy: Due Process of Law

This Cultural Literacy worksheet on due process of law could probably serve as an introduction to any number of lessons that deal with the concepts of constitutions, constitutional law,  and civil rights,  as well as jurisprudence in general.

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.