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.

Amazon

Posted on March 31, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Amazon: In Greek mythology, a member of a race of women warriors. One of the labors of Heracles was to obtain the girdle of the Amazon queen Hippolyte. In another tale, Theseus attacked the Amazons, and they responded by invading Attica, where they were defeated; Theseus married the Amazon Antiope. In ancient Greek art, Amazons resembled Athena (with weapons and a helmet) and later Artemis (in a thin dress girded high for speed).”

­­­­­­­­­Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Cultural Literacy: Gertrude Stein

Posted on March 31, 2023 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Gertrude Stein. This is a full-page document with a reading of three sentences and five comprehension question. It’s a curiously asymmetrical page, far from perfect. But is anyone teaching Gertrude Stein’s work? She is presented here as a historical figure and the coiner of the term “Lost Generation,” which perhaps is all high school students need to know about her.

But what do you think?

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, 31 March 2023, Women’s History Month 2023 Week V: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Birth Control Pill

Posted on March 31, 2023 | Leave a comment

For the final Friday of Women’s History Month 2023, here is a reading on the birth control pill along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Once again, the editors of the Intellectual Devotional series, from which this reading is adapted, have done an admirable job of including–without, somehow, cramming it in–all of the salient facts, including Margaret Sanger and the United States Supreme Court decision, Griswold v. Connecticut, that made contraceptives available nationwide and therefore expanded women’s autonomy over their reproductive health.

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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Phyllis McGinley

Posted on March 23, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Phyllis McGinley: ((1905-1978) American writer of light verse. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker and other magazines, McGinley was known for her clever and humorous poems about various aspects of modern life. Among her best-known collections are A Pocketful of Wry (1940), Love Letters (1954), Times Three: Selected Verse from Three Decades (1960: Pulitzer Prize), and Christmas Con and Pro (1971). She also wrote essays and numerous books for children.”

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

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Cultural Literacy: Lucrezia Borgia

Posted on March 23, 2023 | Leave a comment

Moving right along on this Friday morning, here is Cultural Literacy worksheet on Lucrezia Borgia. This is a half-page document with a single-sentence reading (which notes, I think it’s worth mentioning on this front page, that like her brother, Cesare Borgia, she was “famous for her treachery”) and two comprehension questions.

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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Cultural Literacy: Katherine Hepburn

Posted on March 23, 2023 | Leave a comment

Elsewhere on this blog, you will, I admit, find Dorothy Parker’s famously withering remark on the actress, but here, nonetheless, is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Katherine Hepburn. This is a full-page document with a four-sentence reading and four comprehension questions.

Incidentally, while I find Ms. Parker’s comment, like almost everything this pillar of the Algonquin Wits ever said, hilarious, I don’t necessarily agree with 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.

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Ivy Compton-Burnett

Posted on March 23, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Ivy Compton-Burnett (later Dame Ivy): (1887-1967) British novelist. She graduated from the University of London and published her first novel, Dolores, in 1911. Her second, Pastors and Masters (1925), introduced the style—employing clipped, precise dialogue to reveal her characters and advance the plot—that made her name. Her novels often dealt with struggles for power: Men and Wives (1931) featured a tyrannical mother. A House and Its Head (1935) a tyrannical father. She was created Dame of the British Empire in 1967.”

­­­­­­­­­Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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The Weekly Text, 24 March 2023, Women’s History Month 2023 Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Babe Didrikson

Posted on March 23, 2023 | Leave a comment

For the fourth week of Women’s History Month 2023, here is a reading on Babe Didrikson (also known as Babe Didrikson Zaharias after her marriage to wrestler George Zaharias), the sports legend, along with 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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Cultural Literacy: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Posted on March 17, 2023 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. This is a full-page document with a reading of four sentences and four comprehension questions. I’m not sure what call there would be for anything beyond this on the late First Lady–but she is still enough of an icon that this short exercise might find some relevance somewhere.

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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Cultural Literacy: Frances Perkins

Posted on March 17, 2023 | Leave a comment

Moving right along this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in a cabinet position, in Ms. Perkins’ case, as Secretary of Labor in the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This is a full-page document with a reading of four sentences and five comprehension questions.

Did you know she was a witness to the horror of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire? She chaired a committee on public safety after the disaster.

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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