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, January 20, 2017: A Set of Documents on Teaching the Latin Word Root Uni

This week’s text is a worksheet on the Latin word root uni, which means, of course, one. To accompany it, and provide a do-now exercise or two, are a context clues worksheet on unite and another on labor union  Under our current circumstances, labor union might be a concept and word students should know.

That’s it for this week. I hope these worksheets are useful to you.

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.

Prudent (adj)

Here’s a context clues worksheet on the adjective prudent. I wrote it to attend something or other; in any case, it’s a word highschoolers 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.

Font (n)

I can’t remember why I wrote this context clues worksheet on the noun font, but here it is if you can use it.

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.

Discernment (n)

Last week I published a context clue on the verb discern here; here is a context clues worksheet on the noun discernment to accompany it.

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 Weekly Text, January 13, 2017: An Introductory Lesson on Adverbs

It’s Friday the thirteenth, and time for another Weekly Text. I’ve begun revising my unit on adverbs, so this week, I offer you a lesson plan that introduces students to adverbs.

Like most if not all of the lessons I post here, I’ve prepared this one to take place over two days, given the contingencies of attention issues, disruptive behavior, and the like. So, there are two do-now exercises to open this lesson: the first is this do-now Cultural Literacy Worksheet on run-on sentences; the second is a context clues worksheet on the adjective superlative. (It’s worth mentioning in passing that this word is also used to describe the utmost degree of adjectives; some time ago I posted the introductory lesson of my adjectives unit, and over time I’ll post the entire unit, one lesson of which covers the degrees–synthetic, comparative, and superlative–of adjectives, so this do-now exercise might also serve you well in that capacity.)

The mainstay of the lesson is a scaffolded worksheet on understanding adverbs and their use. I imagine you will find the teachers’copy/answer key for the worksheet.

That’s it until next week.

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.

Envoy (n.)

Here, on a muggy and warm (49 degrees at 5:00 a.m.) Thursday morning in The Bronx, is a context clues worksheet on the noun envoy.

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.

Discern (vt./vi)

Here’s another context clues worksheet, this one on the verb discern.

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.

Impetus (n)

Here’s a context clues worksheet on the noun impetus, which is a word I think high school students ought to know by the time they graduate.

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.

Crucial (adj.)

Today I’m trying to clean up some folders and put up a few new posts, trying to catch up to my usual pace of work. Here’s a context clues worksheet on the adjective crucial. I hope it’s useful–it’s another commonly used word in English.

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: James Agee and Walker Evans

“There are many objectionable passages and references. I am sorry not to be able to recommend this book for the subject is an important one.”

L.R. Etzkorn, on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, in Library Journal

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