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.

Mt. Aconagua

“Mt. Aconagua: Mountain, western Argentina, on the Chilean border. At 22,834 feet (6,690 meters) high, it is the highest peak of the Andes and of the Western Hemisphere. It is of volcanic origin, but is not itself a volcano. The summit was first reached in 1897.”

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

Cultural Literacy: Museo del Prado

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Museo del Prado. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two simple sentences and two comprehension questions. A neat, short symmetry to introduce a world-class institution.

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.

Pablo Picasso on His Cultural Role

“[I am] only a public entertainer, who has understood his time.”

Attributed to Wash. Post 30 Nov. 1952. The Post article is quoting an article in Quick Magazine from the summer of 1951. According to a letter by William S. Rubin in New York Times 5 Jan. 1969, this is ‘a trumpery originated in Il Libro Nero published by Giovanni Papini in 1951.’”

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

The Weekly Text, 14 October 2022, Hispanic Heritage Month Week V: Salvador Dali

OK, for this, the final Friday of Hispanic Heritage Month 2022, here are a reading on Salvador Dali and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. What has Salvador Dali to do with Hispanic history? I can’t answer that question in the affirmative with any confidence, so I’ll offer up an opinion of Dali himself.

His art never appealed or spoke to me. In fact, I found it pretentious, dorm-room metaphysical crap. His glib self-promotion turned me off, and his cutesy personal politics, or his “surreal dalliance with fascism,” are simply repulsive. What this post shows, I am utterly loathe to admit, is that I am running out of documents with which to observe Hispanic Heritage Month. So, if you find these documents useful, I’m relieved.

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.

Usumacinta River

“Usumacinta River: River, southeastern Mexico and northwestern Guatemala. Rising in western Guatemala, it flows northwest, forming a section of the Guatemala-Mexico boundary, before emptying into the Grijalva River in Mexico. Its upper course is known as the Chixoy or Salinas River; with the Chixoy, it is approximately 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) long.”

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

Cultural Literacy: Portugal

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Portugal. As presently formatted–in Microsoft Word, which means, like almost everything you’ll find on Mark’s Text Terminal, you can revise and edit this document to suit the needs of your students–this is a two-page document with a reading of six sentences and nine comprehension questions. For its size (relatively large for this series of documents as I have prepared them), it is a remarkably thorough introduction to this nation-state.

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.

Felipe Pedrell

“Felipe Pedrell: (1841-1922) Spanish musicologist and composer. He was largely self-taught as a musician, A scholarship for study in Rome exposed him to the great past of Spanish music preserved in archives there, and he determined to revive the tradition by bringing to light both folk and older art music and by promoting a national style of composition. His own works include operas and orchestral and choral works. He is regarded as the father of Spanish musical nationalism.”

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

Cultural Literacy: Tango

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the tango, the dance that originated on the Rio de la Plata, which forms the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. I learned, while conducting the modest research this post required, that the tango in 2009 joined the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List at the proposal of the Argentinian and Uruguayan governments.

In any case, this is a half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading and one comprehension question; it is the sparest of introductions to a fascinating cultural phenomenon.

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.

David Alfaro Sigueiros

David Alfaro Sigueiros: (1896-1975) Mexican painter. A Marxist active in his youth, he fought in the Mexican Revolution alongside Venustiano Carranza, who rewarded him by sponsoring his studies in Europe. Back in Mexico (1922), he began his lifework of decorating public buildings with murals and organizing unions of artists and workers. With Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco, he cofounded the renowned school of Mexican mural painting. His activism interrupted his career several times when he was imprisoned, chose self-imposed exile, or fought in the Spanish Civil War. His murals are marked by great dynamism, monumental size and vigor, and a limited color range subordinated to dramatic effects of light and shadow. His easel paintings (e.g. Echo of a Scream, 1937) helped establish his international reputation. In 1968 he became the first president of the Mexican Academy of Arts.

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

The Weekly Text, 7 October 2022, Hispanic Heritage Month Week IV: Pablo Picasso

On this fourth Friday of Hispanic Heritage Month 2022, here is a reading on Pablo Picasso with its attendant 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.