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.

The Devil’s Dictionary: Amateur

“Amateur, n. A public nuisance who mistakes taste for skill, and confounds his ambition with his ability.” 

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000.

Gravity

Here are a short reading on gravity 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.

Megaron

“Type of dwelling in Mycenaean architecture, with a porch and main chamber having a hearth in the center. Specifically, the ceremonial hall or men’s hall of a Mycenaean palace.”

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

Cultural Literacy: Bowdlerizing

If you happen to need it, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Thomas Bowdler and the act–essentially a form of censorship–that bears his name, bowdlerizing.

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.

Verdict (n)

Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun verdict. It’s a word that is so commonly used, both literally and figuratively, across a variety of contexts, in English that its necessity hardly needs explaining.

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.

Book of Answers: The Bible

“In what language was the Bible originally written? The Old Testament was written in Hebrew; it dates from the thirteenth to the first century B.C. The New Testament was written in Greek in the first century A.D.”

Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Word Root Exercise: Deca, Dec, Deka, Deci

This worksheet on the Latin roots deca, dec, deka, and deci can assist students in a number of ways I think. These mean, as you probably already recognized, ten; be aware though, that deci actually means tenth. In any case, this is a vocabulary builder, but contains words primarily from  mathematics, so it’s probably best used there to assist students in developing their own understanding and using words growing from these  roots.

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.

Rotten Reviews: Lycidas

“The diction is harsh, the rhymes uncertain, and the numbers unpleasing…Its form is that of a pastoral–easy, vulgar and therefore disgusting.”

Samuel Johnson, Lives of the English Poets 1779

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

Psychiatrists and Psychologists

Health care has been something of a hot potato in the United States for a very long time; and certainly the debate around what looks to me like a basic human right has grown extremely contentious with the passage of the Affordable Care Act. I want the students I serve to know something about health care. And as many young people today require the services of mental health professionals, they should know what they’re looking for and buying.

So here is a short reading on the difference between psychiatrists and psychologists and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

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.

Brewer’s Curious Titles: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“(Czech title Nesmesitna lekhost byti). A novel (1984) of the magic realism school by Milan Kundera (b. 1929). The fates of two couples are played out against a background of communist rule in Czechoslovakia. In such circumstances, there is an unbearable foreboding even when the ‘sweet lightness of being’ rises ‘out of the depths of the future.’ A film version (1987) was directed by Philip Kaufman.”

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