Term of Art: Teacher-Centered Instruction

“teacher-centered instruction: A pedagogical approach in which the teacher decides what and how to teach. See also teacher-directed classroom. Contrast child-centered education; learner-centered classroom.”

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

Static Electricity

Some years ago, I worked with a student who lived on one of those apartments where every time he touched something or someone, he received a mild electric shock. He didn’t much like this, and wanted to find a way to stop it. I don’t know if this reading on static electricity and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet, which I prepared for him, helped with reducing shocks, but he was quite interested in the subject.

Otherwise, I am not sure why this document exists or what possible utility it might have. If you use it, I sure would appreciated hearing how and why.

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.

Intrado

“Intrados: Inner surface of an arch.”

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

Cultural Literacy: Battle of Hastings

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Battle of Hastings in 1066. This is a half-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. In other words, a concise introduction to what is a seminal event in the history of Western Europe (and the basis for the hilarious 1066 and All That by W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman).

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.

Canard

“Canard (noun): A groundless and hence false report, especially one deliberately fabricated and spread; specious anecdote; rumor or hoax.”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

Impunity (n)

Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun impunity. It means, of course, “exemption or freedom from punishment, harm, or loss,” and Merriam-Webster offers this usage tip: “<laws were flouted with ~>.”

Yes, yes they were. Now, let’s get to the bottom of this business and start prosecuting miscreants.

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.

The Algonquin Wits: Dorothy Parker, Famously, on Katherine Hepburn

Mrs. Parker once said of a Katherine Hepburn performance: ‘She ran the gamut of emotions from A to B.’”

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

The Weekly Text, 19 August 2022: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Idora Park”

It’s Friday again, so that means it’s time for the Weekly Text: here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Idora Park.” This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on nuance: it’s half-page document with a single-sentence reading and three comprehension questions, one of which calls upon students to think of some nuances.

To investigate whatever unlawful act occurred at Idora Park, you’ll need this PDF of the illustration and questions that serve as evidence against the alleged perpetrator. To bring charges and secure a conviction, you’ll need this typescript of the answer key.

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.

Wade Hampton

[In general, I eschew the inclusion of biographies like the one below for a variety of reasons, but primarily because of Mark’s Text Terminal’s commitment to raising underrepresented and unheard voices–and white supremacists, especially as of this writing, are neither underrepresented or unheard in American society. I post this because I lived for nine years in a coop apartment building in the North Bronx named for Wade Hampton–i.e. the Wade Hampton Apartments. The building went up in 1930, and I think its safe to assume that the choice of place name for this apartment house stemmed from its owners’ desire to signal unequivocally to American citizens of African descent that they were unwelcome there. At the time the building opened for tenancy, the Great Migration from the South (and for more on that, I cannot extol highly enough Isabel Wilkerson’s magisterial history of the period The Warmth of Other Suns) was gathering steam, provoking a housing crisis in the cities, including New York, to which Black people migrated to escape the racist exploitation and brutality of the Jim Crow South–something Wade Hampton himself (and the developers of Wade Hampton apartments, arguably) undeniably worked to perpetuate. My one regret about all of this is that I didn’t insist, while serving on the coop board, that the name of the corporation and the real property it fronted change to something less odious. If anyone from Wade Hampton happens to see this post, consider a change, won’t you please?]

“Wade Hampton: (1818-1902) U.S. military leader. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, he managed his family’s plantations and served in the state legislature (1852-61). In the Civil War he organized and led ‘Hampton’s Legion‘ of South Carolina troops, fighting at Bull Run and Gettysburg and serving as second in command under J.E.B. Stuart. After Stuart died, he was promoted to major general and led the cavalry (1864). After the war he sought reconciliation but opposed the policies of Reconstruction, and as governor of South Carolina (1876-79) he led the fight to restore white supremacy. He served in the U.S. Senate 1879-91.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

Archie Bunker

He came up in conversation with a couple of friends after an evening at Jazzmobile in Harlem the other night, so here is a reading on Archie Bunker along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I remember All in the Family when it was in broadcast–I was 11 when it started its run; I was not, alas, old enough to understand, let alone appreciate, the bitter irony of the superb writing and acting. I hadn’t realized the show ran until 1979. I stopped watching television in 1975. preferring to run the streets of Madison, Wisconsin with my friends in search of the sort of kicks that Archie Bunker would have frowned upon.

Now is a good time to congratulate All in the Family’s legendary producer, Norman Lear, on his centenary birthday. He turned 100 on July 27 of this year.

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.