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.

A Russian Proverb on Education

Posted on November 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Education is light, lack of it darkness.”

Russian Proverb

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

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Term of Art: Jigsaw Strategy

Posted on November 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

“jigsaw strategy: A cooperative learning technique in which each student within a small work group specializes in one part of a learning unit. Each member of this ‘home group’ is assigned a different aspect of the topic and then meets with members from other groups who are assigned the same material. These ‘expert groups’ discuss and master the material together, after which the experts return to their home groups to teach their portion of the materials to the rest of the group and, in turn, learn from their group partners. Just as in a jigsaw puzzle, each piece is essential for the group’s completion of the final product.”

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

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Lay Figure

Posted on November 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Lay Figure: A jointed wooden dummy of the human body used by painters and sculptors as a model on which to arrange drapery and clothing. Usually life-size and more elaborately jointed than a manikin.”

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

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The Canterbury Tales’ 29 Pilgrims

Posted on November 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Chaucer’s tale-tellers: Knight * Miller * Reeve * Cook * Man of Law * Wife of Bath * Friar * Summoner * Clerk * Merchant * Squire * Franklin * Physician * Pardoner * Shipman * Prioress * Monk * Nun’s Priest * Second Nun * Canon’s Yeoman * Manciple * Parson * Narrator

And those who don’t tell tales: Host * Plowman * Yeoman * Canon * Second Priest * Third Priest and Five Guildsmen (Haberdasher, Carpenter, Weaver, Dyer, Arras-Maker)

Chaucer tells us that there are ‘well nyne and twenty’ pilgrims in the company that sets off from Southwark to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas-a-Becket in Canterbury. But once you start list-making you find that such numerical certainty proves evasive, for there are thirty-four identifiable characters in his text, of whom twenty-three tell a tale. I like to imagine that the Host and the Five Guildsmen would have been made to perform if Chaucer had lived long enough, for The Canterbury Tales was almost certainly a work in progress, which Chaucer happily tinkered with all his life.”

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.

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Term of Art: Sustained Silent Reading

Posted on November 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Sustained Silent Reading: (SSR): A time set aside in the school day for uninterrupted, independent reading. Homework and conversation are not allowed during SSR periods. Variations on SSR include free voluntary reading (FVR); Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading (USSR); Positive Outcomes While Enjoying Reading (POWER); Daily Individual Reading Time (DIRT); Sustained Quiet Uninterrupted Reading Time (SQUIRT); and Drop Everything and Read (DEAR). See also silent reading. Contrast oral reading.”

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

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The Algonquin Wits: George S. Kaufman on New York City Traffic

Posted on November 12, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Kaufman once voiced a possible solution to the New York City’s traffic problem: ‘Have all the traffic lights on the streets turn red—and keep them that way.’”

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.

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Write It Right: Couple for Two

Posted on November 12, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Couple for Two. For two things to be a couple they must be of one general kind, and their number unimportant to the statement made by them. It would be weak to say, ‘He gave me only one, although he took a couple for himself.’ Couple expresses indifference to the exact number, as does several. That is true, even in the phrase, a married couple, for the number is carried in the adjective and needs no emphasis.”

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

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Dr. Gholdy Muhammad on the Aspirations of Teachers

Posted on November 12, 2021 | Leave a comment

“We should want to move beyond mere grades and test scores and make it our mission that when students leave our teachers and our schools, they not only earn strong grades and test scores, but they also embody a love for reading and literacy–that they leave us and ascend to more remote regions of the world while also discovering the power of their own minds. This is the genius that they for others to cultivate–to prepare, to raise, to grow, and help develop. Cultivating genius speaks to the responsibility and work that educators have.”

Excerpted from: Muhammad, Dr. Gholdy. Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. New York: Scholastic, 2020.

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George Bernard Shaw on Morality

Posted on November 12, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Morality consists in suspecting other people of not being legally married.”

George Bernard Shaw

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

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Cultural Literacy: Courtly Love

Posted on November 12, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on courtly love. This is a half-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading (the latter two of them longish compounds), and three comprehension questions. I guess this isn’t exactly a burning issue in social studies ritht now, but as I recall we were expected to address it in the freshman global studies cycle here in New York City–which is probably why I wrote it.

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.

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