“[On why universities have so much learning] ‘The freshmen bring a little in and the seniors take none out, to it accumulates through the years.”
Quoted in Reader’s Digest, May 1949
Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
While I have used the materials in this week’s Text in a variety of configurations, including, most often in a unit on the procedural knowledge necessary to produce research papers, I also keep it around as a standalone, which I call the “Research Paper in Miniature Lesson Plan” I wrote this several years ago after observing, in the school in which I worked, that teachers assigned synthetic research papers without any explicit instruction on the how and, perhaps more importantly, the why of citing sources when preparing such a document.
Today’s Text is, then, basically, a lesson plan on citing sources. I have opened this lesson, for reasons I think I can safely assume are obvious, with this context clues worksheet on the noun evidence; if, for some reason, this lesson runs into a second instructional period, I keep nearby this second context clues worksheet on the noun bibliography in case I need it. Finally, the mainstay of this lesson is this worksheet on the why and how of citing sources.
As I’ve worked with this lesson over the years, I have come to regard it (and you might find this a useful way of thinking about it as well) as an outline or template for a series of such lessons. Depending on what you’re working on in your classroom, an hour or so of editing and reconfiguring would transmute this lesson for use with a variety of short readings. In other words, whatever your domain is, and whatever content you are teaching, it could be adapted to work with this lesson and vice versa.
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.
“Platitude: A commonplace statement or remark, especially if presented as though newly minted or uttered with an air of solemnity, as in ‘I’ve said it before and no doubt I’ll say it again: There is no smoke without fire.'”
Excerpted from: McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged term of art
Across the almost 16 years I worked in New York City, I sought to teach students how to write cogently and grammatically. I won’t go into my “philosophy” of teaching writing, which really isn’t much of a philosophy other than to use methods and materials appropriate for the students in front of me. That said, very early on I recognized the importance of teaching English usage. Put another way, writing is using the English language, and we owe it to our students to assist them in developing their understanding of how to use the language as effectively as possible.
So I was encouraged when several years ago I was reviewing the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts for grades 11-12 and found, under “Conventions of Standard English,” this expectation: “Standard (L.11-12.1b)-Resolve issues of complex or contested usage, consulting references, (e.g., Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, Garner’s Modern American Usage) as needed.” The first of the two titles listed, the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage is first rate, like everything else I’ve seen from that publishing house. That said, the Merriam-Webster’s may be a bit too technical for struggling learners, emergent readers, and English language learners.
By the same token, I have little doubt that Garner’s Modern American Usage is too technical for all but the most advanced readers and writers. This is a book, in my estimation, written for professional writers. Brian Garner is a linguist and lexicographer par excellence, and he writes, for the most part in a register for his peers. If it means anything, while I admire Mr. Garner’s work, I myself tend to lean more heavily on Merriam-Webster’s usage dictionary.
But what to do for students, particularly struggling students? By chance, I hit on using Paul Brians’ fine book, Common Errors in English Usage (Portland, OR: William James & Co., 2013). Amazingly, Professor Brians appears to have made the whole book available for free under that hyperlink, and if you want a PDF of it, it is also available here for free. That solves my problem of presenting his material in worksheet form without infringing on his copyright.
I chose about 200 entries from Common Errors in English Usage as the basis of a new set of short exercises to teach usage. Another 50 or so entries from the book will show up here as homophone worksheets. Today, however, I offer the first Common Errors in English Usage on the nouns admission and admittance. As I write these, I find that they are a way not so much of dealing with the words themselves–though they do that too–but about exploring the concept of proper usage in prose. Because of that, I expect that there will be a good deal of class discussion of the context of these sentences and which word fits most appropriately in them.
Remember that this is a new kind of document at Mark’s Text Terminal. I feel some chagrin in admitting that I have not used the worksheet appended here in the classroom. I use a lot of materials like it, so I can say with the modest confidence of experience that this is probably sound material. That said, if you have ever considered offering your comments on the material on Mark’s Text Terminal, I would particularly appreciate your assessment of this worksheet–before I set out to write 200 more of them.
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.
“A book (1976) by the biologist Richard Dawkins (b. 1941) that popularized the evolutionary theory that living organisms are primarily the means by which genes perpetuate themselves. This helped to explain the continuing existence of characteristics that do not necessarily benefit an individual organism. The book did much to popularize the field of sociobiology.
‘They are in you and me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence…they go by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines.'”
Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
I don’t know what place he occupies in your world history or global studies curriculum, or whatever your district or school calls it, but if you can use it, here is an independent practice worksheet on Philip II of Spain.
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.
“Cosmati Work: Architectural and decorative stone surfaces inlaid with cubes of colored glass, marble mosaic tesserae, and gilding, produced in Italy from the 12th to the 14th centuries. From Cosmati, the family of craftsman who worked in the technique.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
I don’t know how much currency they may or may not have with the students in your classroom, but in my experience this reading on The Rolling Stones is of relatively high interest to high school students. Here is the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it.
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.
“Anti-clericalism: Opposition to organized religion, particularly the power and privileges of the Roman Catholic Church. Anti-clericalism, though not a coherent political doctrine, has a long history. In England it is traceable to the 14th century when Wyclif insisted that all men had a right to access to the scriptures. In Tudor times, anti-clericalism arose from a variety of motives ranging from greed to a desire to plunder the monasteries to a genuine dislike of priestly powers and abuses. Modern anti-clericalism was prevalent in revolutionary France and remained characteristic of French radicalism during the 19th century. Anti-clericalism has broken out sporadically in Spain (notably in 1873, 1909-13 and 1931-36) and in Latin America. In Germany there has been a long history of anti-clericalism stemming from the opposition to the territorial claims of the Pole and, more recently, over the Catholic Church’s attitude to divorce and contraception. In some communist states, anti-clericalism has risen from the government’s identification of the clergy with former fascist regimes and as part of an ideological battle for the loyalty of the masses.”
Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged philosophy/religion
George Santayana famously said–and this is one of those quotes that is often repeated erroneously or misattributed–“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” To my mind, this is one of the most cogent aphorisms (and I wrote my MA thesis on the Zeus of aphorists, Nietzsche) ever uttered, to it deserves verbatim repetition and proper attribution.
So I hope this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Santayana’s famous quote aids that modest cause. When I co-taught freshman global studies classes in Manhattan, my excellent co-teacher always started the year with a discussion of the implications of Santayana’s maxim.
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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