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.

Augment (v)

It’s the morning of June 6. On this day 74 years ago, Allied Forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, France in the D-day invasion. Also on this day, the first drive-in movie theater in the United States opened.

Today Mark’s Text Terminal offers this context clues worksheet on the verb augment. It seems to me it’s a word high-schoolers ought to know.

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 Algonquin Wits: Franklin Pierce Adams on the Fascist Ego

Il Duce, believing as he does in press censorship, probably will cut the last three words from the headline ‘Mussolini Best Man in Marconi’s Wedding.’”

Franklin Pierce Adams

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

A Short Exercise on the Greek Word Root Rhod/o

Here is a word root worksheet on the Greek root rhod/o. It means red. Now you know why, even though they are often purple, those beautiful plants are called rhododendrons.

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.

Rotten Reviews: The Cocktail Party, by T.S. Eliot

[Performed at the Edinburgh Festival, 1949]

“The week after–as well as the morning after–I take it to be nothing but a finely acted piece of flapdoodle.”

Alan Dent, News Chronicle

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

Vulnerable (adj)

Today is Monday, June 4. On this day in history the Battle of Midway began. It’s also the birthday of Bruce Dern, the great American actor.

Here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective vulnerable for use, if needed, 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.

Myth

Traditionally, a story belonging to any culture that is derived from primitive beliefs, presenting supernatural episodes to explain cosmic forces and the natural order. Regardless of the culture in which they originate, myths are generally concerned with the same themes and motifs: creation, divinity, the significance of life and death, natural phenomena, and the adventures of mythical heroes.”

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

The Weekly Text, June 1, 2018: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Roots Ann and Enn

The end of the school year is right around the corner, and it couldn’t come a moment too soon for me. After next week, we here in New York City (and the state as well, I guess) are looking at two weeks of high-stakes testing, which is akin to slow-motion nightmare.

Anyway, one of the things I’ve noticed when I analyze the page-view statistics here at Mark’s Text Terminal is that people fairly heavily traffic the word root worksheets I have posted over the past three years. As it happens, last summer, after several months of deliberation, I took some of those worksheets and formed them into a year-long, one-instructional-period-per-week unit for building basic academic vocabulary in the students it is my privilege to serve.

So, here is the lesson plan that accompanies this worksheet on the Latin word roots ann and enn–they mean year. Finally, here is a context clues worksheet on the adverb yearly. One of the things you’ll notice about these word root lessons, if you choose to use the do-now exercise to start the lesson, is that the do-now worksheets contain a hint to the meaning of the root. I wrote all the context clues worksheets for these lessons specifically for them, to show students, even within the confines of a 44-minute long class period, that prior knowledge (i.e. that gained from work on the do-now exercise) is useful in understanding the mainstay of the lesson (i.e. the word root worksheet itself).

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.

Tanka

“The classic form of Japanese poetry, fixed centuries ago, as five lines with 5, 7, 5, 7, 7 syllables. It reduces, through the strict limits of its form, all poetic raw materials to the concentrated essence of one static event, image, mood, etc. An example by Saigo Hoshi:

Now indeed I know
That when we said “remember”
And we swore it so,
It was in “we will forget”
That our thoughts most truly met.”

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

Cultural Literacy: Mao Zedong

On the final day of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month for 2018, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Mao Zedong (aka Mao Tse-Tung).

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.

Tarashankar Banerjee (1898-1971)

[N.B., please, that this Indian novelist is also known as Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay.]

“Indian novelist. One of Bengal’s finest novelists, Banerjee is largely concerned in his writings with the decay of the landlord class, and his sympathies lie with the oppressed peasantry. Most highly esteemed of his many books are Rai kamal (1934; tr The Eternal Locust, 1945) and Ganadevata (tr Temple Pavilion, 1969).”

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