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.

Brewer’s Curious Titles: The Children’s Hour

“A play (1934) by US playwright Lillian Hellman (1905-84) about the scandal that erupts after a teacher is accused of lesbianism by a vengeful pupil. Filmed in 1936, the play was based on a real case that was reported in Scotland in the 19th century and pointed out to the author by her close friend, the crime novelist Dashiell Hammett. The title itself comes from the first verse of a poem by Longfellow:

‘Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day’s occupations,
That is known as the Children’s Hour.’

H.W. Longfellow: Birds of Passage, Flight the Second, ‘The Children’s Hour’ (1860)”

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

The Weekly Text, October 19, 2018: A Lesson Plan on Commonly Used Prepositions

Things have been very hectic at Mark’s Text Terminal lately as I prepare to move this entire operation to Massachusetts. Still, the Weekly Text is a mainstay here; even during this transition, I will at the very least post something every Friday.

For this week’s Text, I offer a complete lesson plan on commonly used prepositions. This is from the sixth of my units on the parts of speech; by this time, students have become relatively proficient users of language, so I begin increasingly using, as the do-now exercises with which I begin lessons, Everyday Edit worksheets, which the good people at Education World give away on their site. For this lesson I use this Everyday Edit on Anne Sullivan, the extraordinary pedagogue who educated Helen Keller. If this lesson goes into a second day, here is another Everyday Edit on James Forten, Free Black Man.

The mainstay of this lesson is this scaffolded worksheet on commonly used prepositions. The worksheet requires for its completion this learning support on commonly used prepositions. Finally, here is the teacher’s copy of the 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.

Arthur Koestler on Genius

“The principle mark of genius is not perfection, but originality, the opening of new frontiers; once this is done, the conquered territory becomes common property.”

Arthur Koestler

Excerpted from: Grothe, Dr. Marty. Metaphors Be with You. New York: Harper, 2016.

Artifice (n)

I haven’t had occasion to use this context clues worksheet on the noun artifice. But I wrote it in anticipation, a few years ago, of teaching some advanced English Language Arts classes. They never materialized. Anyway, it seems to me a word high school students ought to know, particularly when reading drama, fiction, and poetry.

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.

Arbitration (n)

Now seems like as good a time as any to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on arbitration. I do understand that this might be a dying art and practice: now when humans have conflicts, they take to Twitter or Facebook and excoriate their adversaries.

You know, kind of like the culture of 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.

The Death of Artemio Cruz

“(La muerte de Artemio Cruz, 1962; tr 1964) A novel by Carlos Fuentes. Fuentes takes a deep plunge into the dying body and the sharply aware conscience of Artemio Cruz, a political boss of contemporary Mexico. As Cruz’s entire life passes before him, his personality unfolds into an adversary I/Thou relationship. A third voice sets the events recalled by the accusatory “Thou” and the defensive “I” into objective historical frames. The story of the agonizing Cruz amounts to a tale of survival by betrayal of friends, ideals, and country. When the accusatory voice forces Cruz into shame for his cynicism and immorality, his ego protests that at least he survives, while all the idealists are dead. The power of the story itself is heightened by the brilliant use of stream of consciousness technique, which provides a multileveled depiction of life in Mexico during and after the revolution of 1910.”

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

George Santayana on the End of War

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

George Santayana

“Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies ‘Tipperary’ (1922). Frequently attributed to Plato, as on the wall of the Imperial War Museum in London, in General Douglas MacArthur’s farewell address in West Point in 1962, and in the film Black Hawk Down, but it does not appear in Plato’s works.”

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

Cultural Literacy: Aristocracy

OK. here on a Sunday afternoon is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on aristocracy. By the strict definition of Hispanic Heritage Month, it’s another stretch. On the other hand, students need to understand the concept of aristocracy to understand land distribution across the Latin American world and its consequence, poverty.

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.

Mario Raul de Morais Andrade

“(1893-1945) Brazilian poet and novelist. Andrade’s first book of poetry, Ha uma gota de sangue em cada poema (1917), was self-consciously lyrical and elegant. Then, with the sharp images and hard-edged diction of his second volume, Pauliceia desvairada (1922; tr Hallucinated City, 1968), he all but launched Brazilian modernism and was thereafter one of its most dedicated proponents. His novel Macunaima (1928) was a grandly successful exploration of what Andrade saw as the interwoven native and imported myths of the Brazilian people, which he wrote in an amalgam of arbitrarily combined Brazilian dialects. His O moviemento modernisto (1942), a milestone in modern criticism, is essential to an understanding of the literary history of Brazil. Andrade’s verse is collected in Poesias completas (1955).”

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

Independent Practice: Sparta

Here’s an independent practice worksheet on Sparta. It’s a short exercise intended to follow a class on the Greek city-state.

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.