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.

Historical Term: Ailing Giants

“ailing giants Declining industries in the 1920s and 30s—coal, textiles, shipbuilding, iron and steel—which had formed the basis of Britain’s 19-century supremacy. Weakened by outdated techniques and management, falling demand and foreign competition, they accounted for the bulk of long-term unemployment.”

Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.

 Renaissance Art

Renaissance Art: Strictly, art of the period from ca. 1400 to ca. 1520, but sometimes traced back to the time of Giotto, ca. 1300. During the 14th century, Italian art, especially painting, increasingly took account of scientific perspective and moved toward realism. During the 15th century, early Renaissance development was spurred by the rediscovery of ancient classical art. Reached its climax in the first decades of the 16th century with High Renaissance Art.”

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

Term of Art: Disjunctive

“Disjunctive: Indicating contrast, difference, alternatives, etc., between words, phrases or clauses, e.g. the conjunctions ‘but,’ ‘or,’ ‘though.’”

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

Rotten Rejections: William Faulkner

William Faulkner I: Sanctuary

“Good God, I can’t publish this. We’d both be in jail.”

William Faulkner II: Sartoris

“If the book had a plot and structure, we might suggest shortening and revisions, but it is so diffuse that I don’t this would be of any use. My chief objection is that you don’t have any story to tell.”

Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.

Book of Answers: Babbitt

“What is Babbitt’s profession? George F. Babbitt (1922), is a real estate dealer in Zenith, an average American city. He is married to Myra Babbitt; his children are named Verona and Ted.”

Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

A Lesson Plan on Using the Modal and Conditional Verbs

Here is a lesson plan on using modal and conditional verbs.

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on, simply, verbs. In the event this lesson goes into a second day, here is another do-now, this one an Everyday Edit worksheet on the roller coaster. This scaffolded worksheet on using modal and conditional verbs is the centerpiece of this lesson. Finally, here is the teacher’s copy of the worksheet to make teaching this lesson a little easier.

Incidentally, if you like Everyday Edit worksheets, please remember that the good people at Education World generously offer a yearlong supply of them at their site.

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.

Term of Art: Synthesis

“Synthesis: The combination of two (or more) contradictory phenomena to produce something qualitatively new. The term is usually associated with the dialectical logic employed by some Marxists: for example, the economic contradictions of capitalism and the class conflict they generate, together produce socialism.”

Excerpted from: Marshall, Gordon, ed. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Write It Right: Would-Be

“Would-be. ‘The would-be assassin was arrested.’ The word doubtless supplies a want, but we can better endure the want than the word. In the instance of the assassin, it is needless, for he who attempts to murder is an assassin, whether he succeeds or not.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

Common Errors in English Usage: Credible/Credulous

Even though they start with the same Latinate word root, cred, which means belief and believe, the adjectives credible and credulous have two very different meanings. Here is a worksheet on the adjectives credible and credulous to help your students develop their understanding of the difference between these two words and how to use them properly.

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.

Happening

“Happening: Happenings developed from a combination of assemblage and environment art as artists sought to free art further from the constraints of the wall and the frame. Resembling performance, these events often involved sculpture, sound, time, motion, and living persons. While participants began with a plan, there was no rehearsal and no repeat performance. Spontaneous audience participation was sometimes encouraged. Allen Kaprow is credited with inventing happenings, which took place in New York City in the 1960s.”

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