“Disinformation (noun): False or misleading information or documentation contrived to deceive or subvert, especially deliberate fabrication by an intelligence agency. Verb: disinform.
‘If I say the US is intervening in El Salvador to help a gang of nun-raping cutthroats with no popular support, I may be misinformed, or I may be disinformed.’ Alexander Cockburn, Village Voice”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
“Heptameter: In prosody, a line of verse containing seven metrical feet in any meter. It is usually identified together with the name of the meter: for example, iambic heptameter.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
“reliability: A statistical term that refers to the consistency of test scores in different contexts or with different populations. A judgment of a high degree of reliability indicates that a test is dependable and relatively free from random errors of measurement.”
Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
“barbecue: [M17th] This word comes from Spanish barbacoa, perhaps from Arawak (West Indies) barbacoa which was a ‘wooden frame on posts.’ Barbecue is used in space in the phrases barbecue mode and barbecue maneuver describing the rotation of a spacecraft to allow the heat of the sun to fall on all sides.”
Excerpted from: Creswell, Julia. Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
“Academic Art: Art created in the prevailing styles of the European and American art academies. By the late 19th century the avant-garde looked on academic art as a moribund style being practiced in isolation from current styles—a view now under reconsideration.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
“Discourse (noun): Verbal expression or interchange of ideas; discussion or conversation; a formal address or paper on a subject. Adjective: discoursive; adverb: discoursively; noun: discoursiveness; verb: discourse.
‘He is not so amused, however, at the disclosure of my having temporarily “lost” my papers in the forest. He gives me a discourse on carelessness. It is a short discourse, but it weighs about four tons.’ Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
“Socratic seminar: A class discussion in which the teacher advances a lesson on a specific topic or text by interacting with students, continually asking challenging questions about an assigned reading and responding to the students’ answers by posing more questions. This method, proposed by Mortimer Adler in the Paideia, is intended to encourage students to think rather than just look for the ‘right’ answer. Socratic seminars are based on primary-source works of literature, philosophy, and history instead of textbooks. See also developmental lesson; Paideia Program.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
“Command economy: An economy operated by central planning.”
Excerpted from: Black, John, Nigar Hashimzade, and Gareth Miles. Oxford Dictionary of Economics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Posted in Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“annotation: Textual comment in a book. It may consist of a reader’s comment in the margin, hence the term marginalia (q.v.), or printed explanatory notes provided by an editor. See also ADVERSARIA.”
Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.
Last, but possibly not least (I hope), from the past couple of years as a co-teacher in Jason Zanitsch’s senior English Language Arts class, here are four documents to support Jason’s Multi-Genre Research Project Unit. In this series of lessons, students are called upon to choose a topic to research–they are provided a list of potential topics, but strongly encouraged to pursue something they prefer–and present it to the class in a genre they choose: a video, a paper, a skit, a panel discussion, and so forth.
Along the way in this course, I’ve developed supports to assist students in this assignment–the post on solipsism, a dozen or so posts below this one is something I developed for this work. For today’s post, here are lists of questions to arouse students’ thinking on Assata Shakur, the Scottsboro Boys Case, the West Memphis Three Case, and the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.
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.
 | A Measurement Conver… on An Elegantly Simple Cooking Co… |
| A Measurement Conver… on The Weekly Text, October 25, 2… |
 | markstextterminal on Cree |
 | panzer046a139293db on Cree |
| markstextterminal on Cree |
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