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.

Fidel Castro on Trial

Posted on September 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

“La historia me absolvera.

History will absolve me.”

Speech at trial for raid on Moncada barracks, 16 October 1953

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

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Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

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Cultural Literacy: Pancho Villa

Posted on September 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Pancho Villa in observation of the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month for 2018.

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.

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Vicente Blasco Ibanez

Posted on September 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

“(1867-1928) Spanish novelist. Blasco Ibanez’s early, naturalistic novels, dealing with life in his native Valencia, are generally considered his best; these include La barraca (The Cabin, 1898) and Canas y barro (Reeds and Mud, 1902). Later, he wrote the novels that won him great popularity and financial rewards, perhaps at the expense of his literary reputation. Among these are Los cuatros jinetes del Apocalipsis (The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, 1916), a World War I story, and Sangre y arena (Blood and Sand, 1909).”

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

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Independent Practice: Aztec Civilization

Posted on September 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

It’s September 15. Today National Hispanic Heritage Month begins. I interpret the month’s mandate broadly, so I’ll post materials on people and events from across the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world in the Americas.

Here is an independent practice worksheet on Aztec civilization to get the month started.

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.

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The Weekly Text, September 14, 2018: An Introductory Lesson to Personal Pronouns

Posted on September 14, 2018 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan introducing personal pronouns. I use this Everyday Edit worksheet on Pocahontas to begin the lesson; should the lesson go into a second day due to unforeseen circumstances I keep this Cultural Literacy worksheet on satire nearby to start the conclusion of the lesson on that second day. This is the scaffolded worksheet that is the center of the lesson, and here is teacher’s copy of same.

That’s it for this week. Tomorrow begins Hispanic Heritage Month 2018, which runs through October 15. Mark’s Text Terminal will regularly feature, as in years past, materials related to Hispanic Heritage and History for the next four or so weeks.

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.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, Reference, Worksheets

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Rotten Reviews: Charles Lamb

Posted on September 12, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Charles Lamb I sincerely believe to be in some considerable degree insane. A more pitiful, rickety, gasping, staggering, Tomfool I do not know.”

Thomas Carlyle, 1831, in The Book of Insults 1978

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

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Fallow (adj)

Posted on September 12, 2018 | Leave a comment

While I sit here waiting for files to backup to a flash drive, I’ll take a minute to post this context clues worksheet on the adjective fallow. If memory serves, and I’m confident it does, I wrote this to assist students in developing the concept of a fallow farm field for a co-teacher’s lesson on the medieval agricultural practice of three-field crop rotation.

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.

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Hamlet’s Blackberry

Posted on September 11, 2018 | Leave a comment

About ten years ago, when I still listened to National Public Radio regularly. I heard William Powers interviewed. He was discussing a research endeavor at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy that resulted in report he titled Hamlet’s Blackberry. Over the years, I meant to read it. Then, in 2010, he expanded the original essay and published it as a book.

But the original essay, at 75 pages with the works cited page, is still available at no cost under the link, if you search “Hamlet’s Blackberry PDF,  The Death of Paper.

I have a particular interest in the history of books and book lore, including changes in printing technologies, I had an interest per se in this piece of writing. For educators, I think this is a good read because it says some things we need to know about the reading and reception of texts.

And Mr. Powers is a fine stylist, so this is a quick and breezy read about a subject that is, by any measure I appreciate, quite profound.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Reference, Social Sciences

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Book of Answers: The Angry Young Men

Posted on September 11, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Who were the Angry Young Men? A group of British playwrights and novelists in the 1950s, including John Osborne, Kingsley Amis, and Alan Sillitoe. Their politics were left-wing; their favorite theme was alienation.”

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

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Brainstorming the College Application Essay

Posted on September 11, 2018 | Leave a comment

Here are a couple of things I whipped up this morning for use in class tomorrow: the first is a worksheet on brainstorming the college application essay; the second is this learning support 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.

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