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.

The Weekly Text, July 14, 2017: Two Context Clues Worksheets on Deify (v) and Deity (n)

While I like to think Mark’s Text Terminal adheres to relatively high standards in the tone it sets and the material it presents, I fear this week may be an exception to that rule (if indeed it exists, since I’m not necessarily the best or most objective judge, in the final analysis, of my own work). I’m having too much fun after a long and difficult school year to spend too much time this morning on a blog post; today I’m taking a day trip up to the charming town of Beacon, New York.

Here are two context clues on the verb deify and the noun deity. N.B. that deify is used only transitively; in other words, don’t forget your direct objects–you must deify someone or something, in order to have a deity.

I think these are a couple of words high school students really ought to know. In any case, this pair provides you an opportunity to make connections between two parts of speech–verbs and nouns.

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.

Cultural Literacy: Dyslexia

Here is a short Cultural Literacy exercise on dyslexia to complement some other readings and worksheets posted below on cognition and learning.

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.

A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Understanding Memory

To add a third to the two Intellectual Devotional Readings on oppositional defiant disorder and learning I posted below, here is an Intellectual Devotional reading on memory and a reading comprehension worksheet to complement 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.

Rotten Review: Death on the Installment Plan

“Its effect is to make sympathy, then to put sympathy to sleep, then to exacerbate the nerves of the reader, until, having decided he has as much as he wants to stomach, he throws the book away.”

Times Literary Supplement

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

A Short Exercise on the Greek Word Root Crani/o

Here is a short worksheet on the Greek word root crani/o. Your students will very likely recognize quickly that it means skull and cranium. Along the way, however, they’ll expand their vocabulary with some common medical terms–particularly helpful if they are interested in careers in healthcare.

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.

Consecutive (adj)

Because I have always been surprised at how many high school freshman don’t know the word, today I offer this context clues worksheet on the adjective consecutive.

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: Chaucer

“Chaucer, not withstanding [sic] the praises bestowed on him, I think obscene and contemptible: he owes his celebrity merely to his antiquity, which he does not deserve so well as Piers Plowman or Thomas Erceldoune.”

Lord Byron, The Works of Lord Byron 1835

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

Cultural Literacy: Right of Privacy

Now seems like a perfect time to post a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the right of privacy. Did we retain this right, or did it vanish with social media and other digital platforms (like the very blog you’re reading now!).

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.

Cyril Connolly on Youth

(“Youth is wasted on the young,” as the old saying goes. So is college. Cyril Connolly puts this a bit more gently here.)

“Youth is a period of missed opportunities.”

Cyril Connolly

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Learning about Learning

Kids who struggle to learn need all the help they can get. I work to incorporate into my teaching practice–I have a category of curriculum I simply call “Focus on Learning Methods”–readings that describe the act of learning. If our struggling students can understand the learning process, then they can begin to understand their own struggles with it. From there, students have a real opportunity to learn how they learn, and begin approaching the demands of school with an understanding of how they can meet them.

So, what use for the special education teacher in this situation? Little to none, I would hope–that’s the point of this. The students is autonomous, and the teacher has done his or her job. A pint of ale and a few episodes of “Family Guy,” anyone?

One of the many projects I have going is a unit on learning on cognition. Needless to say, this Intellectual Devotional reading on learning and the comprehension worksheet that accompanies it would form one of the mainstays of such a unit.

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.