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.

James Russell Lowell on Books

Posted on August 25, 2018 | Leave a comment

“As poet James Russell Lowell put it, ‘books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.'”

Excerpted from: Willingham, Daniel. The Reading Mind. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2017

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Desist (vi)

Posted on August 25, 2018 | Leave a comment

You might find this context clues worksheet on the verb desist helpful in teaching kids a basic legal concept, i.e. cease and desist. It is a word–or at the very least, a concept–that students should understand. Either way, it is used only intransitively.

It might accompany nicely the “no means no” teaching on sexual encounters and consent.

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 Devil’s Dictionary: Optimism

Posted on August 25, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Optimism: The doctrine, or belief, that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly, everything good, especially the bad, and everything right that is wrong. It is held with greatest tenacity by those most accustomed to the mischance of falling into adversity, and is most acceptably expounded with the grin that apes a smile. Being a blind faith, it is inaccessible to the light of disproof—an intellectual disorder, yielding to no treatment but death. It is hereditary, but fortunately not contagious.”

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

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Cultural Literacy: Narcissism

Posted on August 25, 2018 | Leave a comment

This Cultural Literacy worksheet on narcissism has been on my desktop as I await the right time to post it; I’m not sure when that will be, so now seems as good a time as any.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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The Algonquin Wits: Harpo Marx on Summer Holidays

Posted on August 25, 2018 | Leave a comment

“In the summer of 1928, Aleck Woollcott invited Harpo Marx to spend the summer with him on the French Riviera. Harpo refused, protesting, ‘I can think of forty better places to spend the summer, all of them on Long Island in a hammock.’

(An interesting postscript: On Saturday, May 19, Aleck Woollcott, Beatrice Kaufman, novelist Alice Duer Miller, and Harpo sailed for Europe.)”

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.

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Peace (n), Piece (n)

Posted on August 25, 2018 | Leave a comment

Can you, by any chance, use these five homophone worksheets on the nouns peace and piece? These are pretty commonly misused; if nothing else, these documents will clear up the use of these two nouns for English language learners.

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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A Pantheon of 9

Posted on August 24, 2018 | Leave a comment

“In the Indo-Aryan West, 9 was always a most propitious number, for each aspect of a ruling trinity could be multiplied by 3 to create a pantheon of 9. It is not difficult to see that this was the likely origin for our choirs of nine angels, nine heavenly spirits and nine muses. The number also has an innate reference to the nine months in which a child is created within the womb.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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Dislodge (vt/vi)

Posted on August 24, 2018 | Leave a comment

Here’s a context clues worksheet on the verb dislodge; it’s used both transitively and intransitively.

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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Rotten Rejections: William Butler Yeats

Posted on August 24, 2018 | Leave a comment

“I am relieved to find the critics shrink from saying that Mr. Yeats will ever be a popular author. I should really at last despair of mankind, if he could be…absolutely empty and void. The work does not please the ear, nor kindle the imagination, nor hint a thought for one’s reflection… Do what I will, I can see no sense in the thing: it is to me sheer nonsense. I do not say it is obscure, or uncouth or barbaric or affected–tho’ it is all these evil things; I say it is to me absolute nullity…I would not read a page of it again for worlds.

That he has any real paying audience I find hard to believe.”

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

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The Weekly Text, August 24, 2018: An Introductory Lesson Plan on Pronouns

Posted on August 24, 2018 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a complete introductory lesson plan on pronouns.

I begin this lesson, in order to get kids settled after a class change, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Fine Arts; if, for some reason, the lesson goes into a second day, I use this Everyday Edit worksheet on Maya Angelou to begin the concluding part of the work for this lesson. The mainstay of this lesson is this introductory worksheet on pronouns. You will probably need, or at least want, the teacher’s copy of the worksheet. Finally, here is a learning support on pronouns and case that I use throughout the unit on pronouns that this lesson introduces.

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, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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