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.

Mea Culpa (n)

Because it was Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day yesterday, and because it is arguably a term–and definitely a concept–students should understand, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun mea culpa. As it sounds, it is a Latin phrase and is an acknowledgement of one’s fault or error. Another way of thinking about is to remember that if you do something wrong, you are culpable for your action and its consequence.

If you find typos in  and 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.

Write It Right: Forecasted

“Forecasted: For this abominable word we are indebted to the weather bureau–at least it was not sent upon us until that affliction was with us. Let us hope that it may some day be losted from the language.”

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

The Great Gatsby

Several students in the school in which I serve expressed interest in the literature of the Jazz Age and Gatsby in particular, so here is a short reading on The Great Gatsby along with the vocabulary building and comprehension worksheet that attends 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.

This Is Spinal Tap

“A spoof documentary (1984) written by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Rob Reiner about an ageing British heavy metal band on a disastrous tour of the United States. The accuracy of this satire about the rock business fooled many people into thinking that Spinal Tap was a real rock group. The wheel turned full circle when the band actually conducted a US tour with their second album Break Like the Wind in the early 1990s.”

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

Pedant (n), Pedantic (adj)

OK, one more thing on this very chilly Monday morning, to wit these two context clues worksheets on noun pedant and the adjective pedantic. A pedant is someone who “makes a show of knowledge,” so someone is pedantic when they are making a show of knowledge.

It’s worth mentioning that both of these words connote that the knowledge that the pedant shows off is often “one who is unimaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge.”

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.

A Rotten Reviews Omnibus on Edgar Allan Poe

“After reading some of Poe’s stories one feels a kind of shock to one’s modesty. We require some kind of spiritual ablution to cleanse our minds of his disgusting images.”

Leslie StephenHours in a Library 1874

“A verbal poet merely; empty of thought, empty of sympathy, empty of love for any real thing…he was not human and manly.”

John Burroughs, The Dial 1893

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

Cultural Literacy: Allen Ginsberg

From my sophomore year of high school on, I was quite taken with The Beat Generation. In the event that you have any students with a similar interest (I still stumble across one every so often), this cultural literacy worksheet on the late, great Allen Ginsberg might be a place for them to start in the pursuit an inquiry into the Beats.

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.

Double Entendre

“Double Entendre (noun): A provocative ambiguity in an expression, especially a humorous or risqué connotation in a word or phrase; double meaning. British: double-entente.

‘The editor was also often on the edge of panic about suspected double entendre, and after thirty-one years I recall his concern about an Arno drawing of one of his elderly gentlemen of the old school dancing with a warmly clinging young lady and saying, ‘Good God, woman, think of the social structure!’ Ross was really afraid that “social structure” could be interpreted to mean a certain distressing sexual phenomenon of human anatomy.’ James Thurber, The Years with Ross”

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

Southern States Secession and Readmission Dates Learning Support

Here’s another document I must have written on student request, because I cannot imagine why I would ever need this learning support for the dates states seceded from the Union during the American Civil War, as well as the dates they were readmitted after the War.

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.

The Weekly Text, January 11, 2019: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Confectioner and Philanthropist Milton Hershey

This week’s Text is a reading on reading on chocolate tycoon and philanthropist Milton Hershey along with its comprehension worksheet. As this reading can explain to you and your students, Hershey was an interesting guy.

Several years ago “60 Minutes” ran a feature, which I cannot find on the Internet, on the possible sale of the Hershey Company. It was controversial because the philanthropies Milton Hershey contrived, particularly the Milton Hershey School, directly benefit from the company’s profits, and would lose that support in the event the company was sold. As far as I can tell (short of spending hours of research on this, which I really cannot afford to do at the moment), this issue remains unresolved.

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.