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.

Plutocracy (n)

Now seems to be the perfect moment, or as perfect as moments get for such things, to post this context clues worksheet on the noun plutocracy. Don’t forget that it morphs to plutocrat and plutocratic, a couple of other good words that nicely represent our zeitgeist.

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.

Minaret

“A tall, slender tower attached to a mosque and from which the muezzin calls people to prayer from one of its several balconies. It may be either rectangular or cylindrical in plan. Seville’s Giralda tower (12th century) was once a minaret, later redecorated in Christian styles.”

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

Independent Practice: Albrecht Durer

If memory serves, I whipped up this independent practice worksheet on Albrecht Durer at a student’s request. I don’t think he ever turned up in the global studies courses I co-taught in New York, even as a representative figure of the Northern Renaissance–which of course he is.

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, December 7, 2018: A Set of Worksheets on the Greek Word Roots Hyper, Hyp, and Hypo

This week’s Text is a worksheet on the Greek root hyper and another on the Greek roots hyp and hypo. You will perceive phonetically that these roots are two sides of a coin, and indeed they are: hyper means above, excessive, beyond, and over; conversely, hypo means under, below, and less. If you’ve dealt with thyroid issues in your life, you surely know what these roots mean. So aspiring health care professionals, nota bene!

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.

Book of Answers: The Front Page

“What is the setting of The Front Page? The 1928 play about newspapers by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur is set in Chicago’s Criminal Courts Building.”

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

Abandon (n)

Hot off the press (it was Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day yesterday), here is a context clues worksheet on abandon. This isn’t the verb, but rather the abstract noun signifying, as Merriam-Webster’s has it, “a thorough yielding to natural impulses; esp: ENTHUSIASM, EXUBERANCE.”

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.

John Kenneth Galbraith on Politics

“Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”

John Kenneth Galbraith

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

The Godfather

If your students announce an interest in classic American cinema, as several of mine have in the past couple of days, then this reading on the The Godfather and its accompanying reading comprehension worksheet might be just the ticket for them. I’m developing a new series of readings, so there will me more to come on the cinema.

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.

Write It Right: Transaction

Transaction for Action, or Incident. ‘The policeman struck the man with his club, but the transaction was not reported.’ ‘The picking of a pocket is a criminal transaction.’ In a transaction two or more persons must have an active or assenting part; a business transaction, Transactions of the Geographical Society, etc. The Society’s action would be better called Proceedings.”

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

Independent Practice: Absolutism

If you teach world history, or whatever your district, municipality, or state calls it, this independent practice worksheet on absolutism might have some utility in your classroom.

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.