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.

Edward Abbey

“(1927-1989) American novelist and essayist. Abbey is best known for his celebration of southwest Utah’s slickrock country. One of the more overtly political modern American nature writers, he advocated for the preservation of the wilderness and was a tireless critic of the forces which, in his view, desecrated it. In Desert Solitaire (1968), a nonfiction account of summers spent as a ranger in Arches National Monument, Abbey portrays a starkly beautiful desert landscape that is threatened by so-called “industrial tourism.” The Monkey-Wrench Gang (1975), a novel about a merry band of eco-terrorists, was taken up by the environmental group Earth First!. Novels like The Brave Cowboy (1956) and Fire on the Mountain (1962), further explore the fate of strong-willed individuals confronting the technocratic forces of industry and government.”

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

Cultural Literacy: Esprit de Corps

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the expression and concept of esprit de corps. This, I think, is something students should know before they graduate high school.

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.

Zero

“The mathematical sages of India conceived of this concept, and started on the path of the creation of zero back in the ninth century BC. The root of the word is in the Sanskrit Shoonya, meaning ‘it is a void’, which got passed on to the Arabs, who knew the symbol as ‘Safira.’

The Western world came to the concept extraordinarily late, when Venetian merchants stumbled across it and brought it back to their homeland, where it was known as ‘zefiro‘–later corrupted to ‘zero.’ The concept gradually spread through Europe, reading such far-flung outposts as the British Isles in the late sixteenth century.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

Sashay (vi)

Like so many others of these on Mark’s Text Terminal, this context clues worksheet on the verb sashay originated as a word of the day from Merriam-Webster (right here in Springfield, Massachusetts!). This is hardly a word students in primary or secondary school need to know–though it might be a good way to illustrate the concept of onomatopoeia.

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.

Philology: A Representative Quote

“Another ancient and extensive class of languages, united by a greater number of resemblances than can well be altogether accidental, may be denominated the Indo-european, comprehending the Indian, the West Asiatic, and almost all the European languages.”

Thomas Young

“Adelung’s Mithridates,” Quarterly Review (1813). Coinage of the term Indo-European for the most extensive family of languages.

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Tragedy in the Bathroom”

Here, on this cool late spring morning, is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Tragedy in the Bathroom.”

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the American idiom “Play Possum.” For the lesson itself, you’ll need this PDF scan of the illustration and questions from Crime and Puzzlement Volume 1. Finally, here is the answer key to “Tragedy in the Bathroom,” which I’ve rendered in typescript in the event that you need to adjust it for English language learners or struggling readers.

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.

Goethe on the Gravamen of Teaching and Learning

“What one doesn’t understand one doesn’t possess.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Art and Antiquity (1821)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

Sanitation (n) and Sanitary (adj)

A couple of days ago I posted a context clues worksheet on the verb sanitize. I’d forgotten, or overlooked, the other two members of the family of words I’d worked into context clues worksheets: so here are two more on the noun sanitation and the adjective sanitary if you need them.

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.

Biblia Pauperum

“Literally, Bible of the poor. Book, either manuscript or printed, of the late Middle Ages containing juxtaposed scenes from the Old and New Testaments.”

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

Acne

Here is a reading on acne, the bane of every teenager’s social existence, and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I’ve tagged this as an item of social and emotional learning–acne can be tough on kids, and understanding its chemistry and physiology can help kids feel less alone.

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.