Who is the Newbery behind the Newbery Medal? John Newbery (1713-67) of England was one of the first publishers to publish books for children. The Newbery Medal, established in his name in 1921, is awarded each year for the best American children’s book.
Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged fiction/literature, readings/research
“To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay, right or justice.”
[Magna Carta] Clause 40 (1215)
Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged philosophy/religion, readings/research
“Portnoy’s Complaint (1971)
This looks and sounds like a Jewish novel. It isn’t. Or, if it is, it is not a good one, a true one…it is finally a definitive something or other. I regret that it is not a definitive something.
The best that can be said of Roth’s accomplishment is that Mama Portnoy is a caricature drawn by a master cartoonist, but she’s not more than that…the main trouble with the Jewish family theme is that it has been overwritten.
Our Gang (1971)
Nixon’s rough treatment at Roth’s hands may very well invite more sympathy for him than anything since the Checkers speech.
The Great American Novel (1973)
Roth has, unfortunately, got into such a shouting match with his readers that some of us are going to have to start shouting back.
My Life as a Man (1974)
…a totally solipsistic novel, which may well make it a perfect expression of the times.
Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged fiction/literature, humor, literary oddities
“mental age n.: A child’s performance on a test of mental ability expressed as the average age of children who achieved the same level of performance in a standardization sample. Thus a 10-year-old child who achieves the same score as the average 12-year-old child in a standardization sample has a mental age of 12. The concept was introduced in 1905 by the French psychologists Alfred Binet (1857-1911) and Theodore Simon (1873-1961). See also Binet-Simon scale, IQ. Compare chronological age, social age. MA abbrev.”
Excerpted from: Colman, Andrew M., ed. Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
[You can also take this as a Word Document if you prefer.]
Writing About Reading: Some Openers
Excerpted from: Atwell, Nancie. The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers. New York: Scholastic, 2007.
“Liberty * Equality * Fraternity
Nothing has ever quite matched the elan of idealism expressed in these tripartite watchwords of the French Revolution, which became the national motto of the nation. They are attributed to a Parisian printer, Antoine-Francois Momoro, though at the time of the Revolution there were several variants, and lists might include Amitie (Friendship), Charite (Charity) or Union–and there was often a qualifier–ou la Mort (or death). The latter was discreetly dropped after the Reign of Terror.”
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged philosophy/religion, readings/research
“Never trust a computer you can’t throw out of a window.”
Quoted in Newsbytes, 26 Sept. 1997
Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Let me begin by stipulating that where math teaching is concerned, I leave a lot to be desired.
So, several years ago, when I was tasked with developing a math and science literacy unit for struggling learners, I had little time and few ideas, so I began planning one of my standard literacy units. Fortunately I had a couple of colleagues to coach me on some of the actual math work (and thanks to Nate Bonheimer and Jeremy Krevat for this). I’ve been posting lessons from this unit as I’ve gone along.
This week’s Text, therefore, is this lesson on the concept of solving problems. This lesson begins with this extended context clues worksheet on the verb solve (it’s used both intransitively and transitively) and the noun solution. These definitions of solve and solution can serve either as the teacher’s copy or as a learning support. This problem set and comprehension questions serves as the second piece of work for students. Here is one version of the answer key and here is another. Finally, here is the answer-key template if you decide to develop this lesson further and need it.
Let me end where I began: I am not a particularly deft math teacher, so this is not, by this blog’s standards, a superior piece of work. However, it may well work as a framework for a number of lessons on understanding the lexicon we use with mathematics.
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.
“Argot: The slang of a restricted, often suspect social group: ‘They have their own argot: they bimble, yomp, or tab across the peat and couth a shirt in readiness for a Saturday night bob with the Bennies (locals)’ (Colin Smith, Observer, 26b May 1985, writing about British soldiers in the Falkland Islands). See CANT, JARGON , POLARI, ROMANI.
Excerpted from: McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
“Sfumato: (it., evaporated) The soft gradation of light tones into dark ones, such that all sharply defined contours are eliminated. About light and shade in painting, Leonardo da Vinci wrote that they should blend imperceptibly,’without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke.’ Compare CHIAROSCURO.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
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