“Miss Ferber, who was fond of wearing tailored suits, showed up at the Round Table one afternoon sporting a new suit similar to the one Noel Coward was wearing. ‘You look almost like a man,’ Coward said as he greeted her.
‘So,’ Miss Ferber replied, ‘do you.’”
Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.
This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “The Big Bang.” This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on dogma: it’s a half-page document with a two-sentence reading and two comprehension questions. This is one of the better of these things I’ve produced over the years–it’s strength is clearly in its economy. Two sentences, it turns out, is all the subject needs if the writer is sufficiently concise.
You’ll need this PDF of the illustration and questions to use as evidence to investigate the offense against good order the case represents. To bring the alleged misdemeanant or felon to justice, you and your students will also need this typescript of the answer key.
That’s it. And by “that’s it,” I mean that this is the last of these lessons I have to publish here. That also means that there are 72 Crime and Puzzlement lessons on this blog now. Help yourself!
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.
“Amerigo Vespucci: (1454-1512 Italian-Spanish navigator and explorer of the New World. Born in Florence, he entered the Medici family business and in 1419 was sent to Seville, where he helped outfit the ships for Christopher Columbus’s expeditions. By 1496 he was manager of the Seville agency. He took part in (or four—the number is disputed) voyages to the New World; he was navigator on a Spanish expedition (1499-1500) that probably discovered the mouth of the Amazon River, and he led a Portuguese expedition (1501-2) that discovered Guanabara Bay (Rio de Janeiro) and the Rio de la Plata. In the accounts of they voyages (published 1507), the terms America and New World were used to describe the lands visited by Amerigo Vespucci (in Latin, Americus Vespucius). As chief navigator for the Seville-based Commercial House for the West Indies (from 1508), he prepared maps of newly discovered lands from data supplied by ships’ captains.”
Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
One of the pleasures of my return to New York after an almost three-year absence has been renewing acquaintances–and even forming new friendships–with erstwhile colleagues. One of them, Pamela King, with whom I co-taught English in 2008 and 2009, is a hardworking teacher and writer. With one of her colleagues, John Hunt, she created this Virtual Tour of New York State. This 1,500-page Google document (be patient, it takes some time to load) is the fruit of these teachers’ labor during the pandemic lockdown. I haven’t had the time, for obvious reasons, to review fully this material. Nonetheless, I can vouch for it.
Mostly, I wanted to get this posted in the event any of us need it for another lock-down go-round–and I know: perish the thought! In any event, I hope (as do Pamela and John, I am confident) that you find this useful.
“The more fonts a document has, the less content it has.”
Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.
Here is a worksheet on the verb recommend as it is used with a gerund. I don’t recommend developing subpar curricular materials.
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.
“spatial judgment: The ability to judge spatial relationships, as between fixed objects or between a moving object and a fixed point. Spatial judgment is involved in activities such as driving a car or playing a sport. Individuals with learning disabilities may have problems with spatial judgment as part of an overall pattern of difficulty with visual-spatial abilities.”
Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
Here is a reading on the Smithsonian Institution along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I can’t think of much to say about this: it’s a reading from the Intellectual Devotional series (of which you’ll find a great many on this website) with a basic vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet (which, like the reading itself, is in Microsoft Word, so you may revise and adapt it for your particular pedagogical circumstances and priorities) I prepared to accompany it.
And that is about 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.
“Isocephaly: A method of composing groups of figures in such a way that all are shown at the same height, regardless of posture and purpose. Characteristic of classical Greek art.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “a bee in one’s bonnet.” This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one long compound sentence and three comprehension questions. A quick drive by a useful abstraction, in other words.
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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