“Rotten Reviews: The Wreckage of Agathon
’”Wreckage’ is appropriate…more hysterical than historical.’
Library Journal
Rotten Reviews: October Light
‘Within this great welter of word, symbols, and gassy speechifying and half-hatched allegory there was once, I suspect, a good lean novel, but I can’t find it….’
Peter Prescott, Newsweek”
Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged fiction/literature, humor, literary oddities
This morning when I first pulled this reading on photochemistry and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet off the shelf, I assumed it would be about developing photographs in a dark room, an arcane art that I nonetheless learned in high school in the 1970s but that is now a niche skill, I suppose.
In fact, this is a nice introduction to the actual physics of light–which is, after all, what the Greek root photo means: light.
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.
“tech prep: A four-year program (the last two years of high school plus two years of community college) that leads to an associate degree or a two-year certificate in a specific career field. The carefully integrated and sequenced curriculum includes a common core of mathematics, science, communications, and technologies. Tech prep provides training for the average student who does not want to attend a four-year college but wants to prepare for a career.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
Moving right along this morning, here is a worksheet on the Latin word root verb. As you probably infer, this root simply means word. You’ll find this root at the base of just about any word in English related to language, for example (and all on this worksheet), adverb, proverb, verbalize, and verbatim.
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.
“True Grit: A film Western (1969) based on a novel (1968) of the same name by Charles Portis (b. 1933). The film starred John Wayne as an indomitable one-eyed marshal, ‘Rooster’ Cogburn, who is eventually persuaded to help a determined teenage girl avenge herself upon her father’s murderers. According to Portis, he picked up the phrase while researching memoirs about the old West, in which all manner of heroes were praised for their ‘grit’ (meaning their determination and courage):
‘I had never seen it in such profusion as in these books. There was grit, plain grit, plain old grit, clear grit, pure grit, pure dee grit (a euphemism for damned) and true grit. Thus the hard little word was in my head when I began the story.’
He jotted the phrase down on the title page of his script for use within the text when it became appropriate, and then realized it would make a good title itself. Portis was not, as he admitted himself, the first writer to make use of the phrase: as early as 1897 Bram Stoker quoted it in his novel Dracula.”
Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of art for art’s sake. This is a half-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. In its brevity, this document does a fine job of introducing the concept of art for its own sake–that art needs no economic, political, or social justification.
If nothing else, students will now know what ars gratia artis means when Leo the Lion roars at the beginning of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) films.
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.
“Criticize for Condemn or Disparage. Criticism is not necessarily censorious; it may approve.”
Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.
Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb emanate. It is used both intransitively and transitively; it means respectively (intransitively and transitively, that is), “to come out from a source <a sweet scent emanating from the blossoms>” and “emit <she seems to ~ an air of serenity>.” This is still a word in relatively common use. It’s hard to imagine a reason why high school graduates should not be in possession of this word and its meaning.
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.
“Blather (noun): Long-winded, heedless talk; foolish verbiage. N. blatherskite; v. blather.
‘[James] Bond, Reagan blathers on, is “fearless. Skilled, courageous, and the other thing: he always gets his girl.” The next thing you know, Ron will be telling it to the marines.’ J. Hoberman, Village Voice”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
Here is a worksheet on the verb finish as it is used with a gerund. I have a ways to go before I finish posting these worksheets on gerunds and infinitives.
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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