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.

Cultural Literacy: Bastille

It may be too brief, but if you can use it, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Bastille. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences, one a longish compound separated by a semicolon, and three comprehension questions. Despite (or may because of) its brevity, it is a good general introduction to this hated edifice. It might therefore be a useful tool in introducing the French Revolution.

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.

Cacophony

“Cacophony (noun): Disagreeable or jarring sound; aural infelicity; discordance; babble or tumult. Adj. cacophonous; adv. cacophonously.

‘And always with an air of vast importance, always in the longest words possible, always in the most cacophonous English that even a professor ever wrote.’ H.L. Mencken, Prejudices: First Series”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

Havoc (n)

Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun havoc, which means “wide and general destruction” “devastation,” and “great confusion and disorder.” The context clues in this worksheet point to both definitions, so students will very likely figure this out quickly.

Interestingly, while researching this post, I learned that havoc also has use as a transitive verb meaning “to lay waste” and “destroy.” Havoc is often used with active verbs like cause and of course the always dependable wreak–although please beware that contentious debate has broken over the past tense (wrought or wreaked?) of this verb.

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.

Term of Art: Teachable Moment

“teachable moment: A confluence of experience and instruction that suddenly awakens student interest and gives life to what is taught. A teachable moment may occur as the result of a current event, of a school or classroom occurrence, or of something that happened to a student or a teacher. Suddenly, a concept that once seemed abstract becomes clear and important. Teachable moments may also occur between parents and children, as parents teach spontaneous everyday lessons about behavior, morals, ethics, and values.”

Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.

The Weekly Text, 5 August 2022: A Lesson Plan for the Final Assessment of the Conjunctions Unit

Ok, here is the final lesson plan of the conjunctions unit, which is a sentence-writing review as a unit-concluding assessment. I open this lesson with this worksheet on the homophones peak and peek; if the unit goes into a second day (it very likely will, and perhaps even a third), here is an Everyday Edit the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, which Melba Patillo Beals experienced first hand as one of the Little Rock Nine, and about which she has written eloquently.

This sentence-writing practice assessment worksheet is the final assessment for this unit.

And with this post, the entire cycle of units I wrote to teach the parts of speech is now available on Mark’s Text Terminal. I don’t know how many lessons in total it is, but if it is not 100, it’s close. I hope you find some or all of this material useful. After seven years of piecemeal posting of these materials, they’re all here.

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.

Interlace

“Interlace: Decoration formed of entwined, interwoven, linear elements.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

Common English Verbs Followed by Gerunds: Prevent

Here is a worksheet on the verb prevent as it is used with a gerund. To prevent writing dubious instructional material, the teacher decided he needed to think more clearly about instructional goals.

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.

Term of Art: Structural Analysis

“structural analysis: A type of word recognition that identifies structural features such as syllables, prefixes, suffixes, and roots. Other structural elements include compound words (sunshine) and contradictions (do not).

A reader may use a combination of structural analysis and context clues to identify an unfamiliar word. Individuals with learning disabilities benefit from the explicit teaching of structural analysis skills in order to improve spelling and reading comprehension.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

Guy Fawkes

OK, here is a reading on Guy Fawkes along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Chances are good, especially in the high school population, that students have heard of Fawkes through the graphic novel V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, the book’s filmed version, or the ubiquitous Guy Fawkes masks that show up at various protest rallies.

In any case, Guy Fawkes remains of sufficient importance–if only as a bogeyman–in British history that the Brits observe Guy Fawkes Night to commemorate the Gunpowder Plot in which Fawkes was intimately involved.

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.

Byword

“Byword (noun): A common saying of proverb, or a much-used word or phrase; widely familiar term; epithet; something or somebody personifying a type, quality, or the like; exemplar or paragon.

‘This, I did not need telling, was Anthony Blanche, the “aesthete” par excellence, a byword of iniquity from Cherwell Edge to Somerville, a young man who seemed to me, then fresh from the somber company of the College Essay Society, ageless as a wizard, as foreign as a Martian.’ Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.