“subtractive bilingualism: A description of a bilingual program in which students become proficient in a second language, which replaces their first language in the curriculum. Contrast additive bilingualism.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
On what work did Tennessee Williams base The Glass Menagerie (1944)? The Broadway play was drawn from a screenplay called The Gentleman Caller, which Williams wrote while he was under contract as a screenwriter for MGM in the early 1940s.
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
“specific learning disability: A legal term that plays a central role legislation governing learning disabilities. As described in Public Law 94-142 (amended by PL 101-76), ‘specific learning disability’ means a disorder on one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using spoken or written language. This may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, spell, or do mathematical calculations.
The term includes such conditions as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include children whose conditions are primarily caused by visual hearing, or motor problems; mental retardation; emotional disturbance; or due to environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.”
Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
[This post appears to have drawn a lot of attention, so I’m moving it to the top of the site for another week so it’s easy to find.]
Last Friday evening, as I am wont to do at the end of the week, I was watching the week’s YouTube clips on the shows I follow. I stumbled across this clip from Amanpour and Company featuring Michel Martin and Matt Richtel discussing the adolescent mental health crisis in the United States. It served as a bracing reminder to me (which I seriously needed) of what young people have endured, and continue to experience, during the pandemic and after. Mr. Richtel, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, has been researching and writing on the inner experiences of contemporary teenagers in a series in the The New York Times headlined “The Inner Pandemic.” If you’re dealing in any capacity with adolescents, I can say with considerable confidence that you won’t regret the twenty-minute or so investment of time this video requires.
“Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.”
Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.
“’Manner of,’ ‘Style of’: In describing a work of art, ‘in the manner/style of’ refers to stylistic similarity to the artist named, but not necessarily direct influence. Compare ‘follower of,’ ‘circle of,’ ‘school,’ ‘workshop.'”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
“A Big Mac: The communion wafer of consumption. Not really food but the promise of food. Whatever it tastes like, whatever it is made of, once it touches lips A Big Mac is transubstantiated into the mythological hamburger.
It is, along with Perrier, one of the sacred objects of the leading philosophical school of the late-twentieth century public relations. Cynics often unjustly suggest that this school favors superficial appearances over content. Had this been the case, PR would have failed. Most people, after all, can easily recognize the difference between appearances and reality.
A Big Mac, for example, is not big. It doesn’t taste of much. It isn’t good for you. And it seems sweet. Why does it seem sweet if, as the company says, it isn’t laced with sugar?
What the philosophy of PR proposes is theoretical content (such as sex appeal, fun, individualism, sophistication, the rejection of sophistication) in the place of actual content (banal carbonated water and a mediocre hamburger). This is modern metaphysics.
Because public relations are built on illusion, they tend to eliminate choice. This is an important characteristic of contemporary capitalism. A Big Mac, like so many creations of PR, is a symbol of passive conformity. As Mac McDonald put it: ‘If you gave people a choice, there would be chaos.’”
Excerpted from: Saul, John Ralston. The Doubter’s Companion. New York: The Free Press, 1994.
“A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contact.”
Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged fiction/literature, humor, lgbtq history, literary oddities, women's history
“teacher-proof curriculum: A curriculum that is presumably so well designed and so carefully scripted that it cannot be ruined by a mediocre teacher. Some curriculum designers have pinned their hopes on computer-programmed instruction as a possible teacher-proof curriculum that cannot be distorted even by poor teaching. Understandably, teachers find such curricula to be offensive and condescending. See also programmed learning.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
“Character Sketch (noun): A brief descriptive portrait in writing of an individual, usually with close observation of his or her distinctive traits.
‘In 1928 a private press published her character sketch of the Sapphic poetess Renee Vivien, born Pauline Tern, in London, of an English father and an American mother, a fragile neurotic figure who spent most of her short, self-destructive life in Paris, maintained in mysterious semi-Oriental elegance and living on spiced foods and alcohol in a garden apartment by chance next to Colette’s, near the Bois de Boulogne.’ Janet Flanner, Janet Flanner’s World”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
 | 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 |
Mark's Text Terminal 
You must be logged in to post a comment.