Category Archives: Reference

These are materials for teachers and parents, and you’ll find, in this category, teachers copies and answer keys for worksheets, quotes related to domain-specific knowledge in English Language Arts and social studies, and quotes on issues of professional concern. See the Taxonomies page for more about this category.

Abstract-Creation

Abstraction-Creation: A group of abstract artists gathered in Paris in the 1930s—some of them exiles from Nazi Germany—which attracted representatives of all currents of Abstract Art, from Constructivism to Suprematism. The group issued an annual periodical by the same name.”

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

Term of Art: Reciprocal Reading/Teaching

“reciprocal reading/teaching: A situation in which teachers and students take turns in reading or discussing a written passage. Reciprocal reading is useful because teachers model good reading such as pausing at punctuation, using intonation, and tracking with a finger. Reciprocal teaching also can involve shared discussion where the teacher can model good comprehension and questioning strategies to promote critical thinking.

In reciprocal teaching and learning, teachers and students share in the process of a learning activity and teachers can also monitor and assess students while they try out new reading/thinking strategies.”

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

Word Origins: Banana

banana: [L16th] Africa is the original home of the banana. The word traveled to English through Portuguese and Spanish from Mande, a language group of West Africa, arriving in the 16th century. In the 20th century slang expressions began to appear. American people began to go bananas with excitement, anger, or frustration in the 1950s. The top banana, ‘the most important person in an organization,’ derives from US theatrical slang. It referred to the comedian with top billing in a show, a use first recorded in 1953 from a US newspaper, which also mentions second and third bananas. People have been slipping on a banana skin since the beginning of the 20th century: the comic writer P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) referred in 1934 to “Treading upon Life’s banana skins.” The banana republic, a small state, especially in Central America, whose economy is almost entirely dependent on its fruit-exporting trade, was referred to as early as 1904.”

Excerpted from: Creswell, Julia. Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Realism

“Realism: Fidelity to natural appearances without slavish attention to minute details (see Naturalism). As a movement, it goes back to Courbet and Manet in the 1850s and culminates in Impressionism.”

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

Term of Art: Socioeconomic Status

“socioeconomic status: A term used to describe the home backgrounds of individuals or groups, taking into account such elements as family income and education attainment.”

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

Diminutive

“Diminutive (noun): A word or word element indicating (often by addition of a suffix) small size or familiarly lovable, pitiable, or dismissible qualities, sometimes condescendingly. Adverb: diminutively.

‘My grandmother, too, used to put other people’s ailments into the diminutive; strokelets were what her friends had. Aldo said he was bored to tearsies by my grandmother’s diminutives.’ Renata Adler, Speedboat

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

Word Origins: Diamond

“diamond: [ME] The name of the gem derives from a medieval Latin alteration of Latin adamans ADAMANT. Adamant was a legendary rock or mineral of many supposed properties. One of these was hardness, which was a reason why people sometimes identified it with diamond. A diamond is forever was used as an advertising slogan for De Beers Consolidated Mines from the late 1940s onwards, and in 1956 Ian Fleming used Diamonds are Forever as the title of his latest James Bond thriller, but the idea was first expressed by the American writer Anita Loos, in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925). ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend‘ was a song written by Leo Robin and Jule Styne for the 1949 stage musical of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”

Excerpted from: Creswell, Julia. Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Word Origins: Adamant

“adamant: [OE] The Greek word adamas, originally meaning “invincible or untameable,” came to be applied to the hardest metal of stone and to diamond, the hardest naturally occurring substance. Via Latin it was the source not only of adamant but also of DIAMOND. In Old English adamant was the name given to a legendary rock so hard that is was believed to be impenetrable. Early medieval Latin writers mistakenly explained the word as coming from adamare ‘take a liking to’ and associated adamant with the lodestone or magnet which ‘takes a liking’ to iron, and the word passed into modern languages with this confusion of meaning. The modern use, with its notion of unyielding conviction, is much more recent, probably dating from the 1930s.”

Excerpted from: Creswell, Julia. Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Didactic

“Didactic (adjective): Demonstrating intend to teach or edify; purposively instructive or informative; excessively earnest or pedantic, especially in a narrow, self-righteous way; moralistic. Adverb: didactically; noun: didact, didacticism, didactics.

‘One is literally fabulous. The other makes use of a dry, rather didactic style in which the detail is as precisely observed as if the author were writing a manual for the construction of a solar heating unit.’ Gore Vidal, Matters of Fact and Fiction”

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

Concepts in Economics: Circular Flow of Income

“circular flow of income: The reciprocal flow of income between consumers and producers: consumers earn income from employment and profit, and spend this income on the products of firms. If there were neither injections of new purchasing power into this flow nor leakages out of it, total income in each period would be equal to the spending arising from incomes in the period, and total income would remain constant over time. Injections of new purchasing power not derived from income can be made by investment, government spending, or exports. Leakages from the circular flow are caused by saving, tax payments, or imports. If injections and leakages are equal, incomes will be constant; if injections exceed leakages, incomes rise over time; and if leakages exceed injections, incomes fall.”

Excerpted from: Black, John, Nigar Hashimzade, and Gareth Miles. Oxford Dictionary of Economics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.