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.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Anticipates Sigmund Freud

Posted on October 4, 2017 | Leave a comment

“He then learns that in going down into the secrets of his own mind, he has descended into the secrets of all minds.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

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A Greek and Latin Word Root Master List for Roots Appearing on Mark’s Text Terminal

Posted on October 3, 2017 | Leave a comment

Although I’ve posted this document  in the Word Roots Worksheets section of the About Weekly Texts page on the masthead here at Mark’s Text Terminal, here again is my master list of Greek and Latin word roots at the request of several students in my Wednesday institute class. You guys here at HSE&F, Just click on that hyperlink, and the document will download to the desktop of your computer. Anyone else interested in this document, do the same.

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 29, 2017, Hispanic Heritage Month 2017 Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Miguel De Cervantes

Posted on September 29, 2017 | Leave a comment

For the third Friday of Hispanic Heritage Month, 2017, Mark’s Text Terminal offers a reading on Miguel de Cervantes and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension 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.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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Coalition (n)

Posted on September 27, 2017 | Leave a comment

You might find this context clues worksheet on the noun coalition helpful in assisting your social studies students in understanding this noun.

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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George Kennan on What’s Really at Risk

Posted on September 25, 2017 | Leave a comment

“The very concept of history implies the scholar and the reader. Without a generation of civilized people to study history, to preserve its records, to absorb its lessons and relate them to its own problems, history, too, would lose its meaning.”

George Kennan (1904-2005)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

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Cultural Literacy: Primogeniture

Posted on September 25, 2017 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on primogeniture, a concept that almost certainly recurs in most high school social studies classes.

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 Reviews: Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

Posted on September 20, 2017 | Leave a comment

“Mr. Waugh displays none of the elan that distinguishes the true satirist from the caricaturist. For all its brilliance the writing lacks vitality. The invention is tired, and effects are too often got by recourse to the devices of slapstick exaggeration.”

Dudley Fitts, The Nation

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

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The Weekly Text, September 22, 2017, Hispanic Heritage Month Week II: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Simon Bolivar

Posted on September 20, 2017 | 1 comment

It’s the end of the first week of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Here is a reading on Simon Bolivar from the Intellectual Devotional series. To accompany it, here is a comprehension 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.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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Accumulate (vt/vi)

Posted on September 19, 2017 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb accumulate, which Merriam-Webster’s observes is 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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The Devil’s Dictionary: Fanatic

Posted on September 18, 2017 | Leave a comment

“Fanatic, n. One who overestimates the importance of convictions and undervalues the comfort of an existence free from the impact of addled eggs and dead cats upon the human periphery.”

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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