H.L. Mencken on Communism

Posted on December 5, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies.”

H.L Mencken

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

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Common English Verbs Followed by an Object and an Infinitive: Remind

Posted on December 5, 2025 | Leave a comment

Here is a on the verb remind when used with an object and an infinitive.

Carl reminded Alex to set the alarm clock.

The teacher reminds the students daily to complete their homework.

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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Word Origins: Train

Posted on December 5, 2025 | Leave a comment

“train [ME] Before railways were invented in the early 19th century, train followed a different track. Early senses included ‘a trailing part of a robe’ and ‘a retinue,’ which gave rise to a ‘a line of travelling people or vehicles,’ and later ‘a connected series of things,’ as in train of thought. To train could mean ‘to cause a plant to grow in a desired shape,’ which was the basis of the sense ‘to instruct.’ The word is from Latin trahere ‘to pull, draw,’ and so is related to a word such as trace [ME] originally a path someone is drawn along, trail [ME] originally in the sense ‘to tow,’ tractor [L18th] ‘something that pulls,’ contract [ME] ‘draw together,’ and extract [LME] ‘draw out.’ Boys in particular have practiced the hobby of trainspotting under that name since the late 1950s. Others ridicule this hobby and in Britain in the 1980s trainspotter, like anorak, became a derogatory term for an obsessive follower of any minority interest. Irvine Welsh’s 1993 novel Trainspotting gave a high profile to the term. The title refers to an episode in which two heroin addicts go to a disused railway station in Edinburgh and meet an old drunk who asks them if they are trainspotting. There are also overtones from the language of drugs—track is an addicts term for vein, mainlining [1930s] for injecting a drug intravenously, and train for a drug dealer. Trainers were originally training shoes, soft shoes without spikes or studs worn by athletes or sports players for training rather than the sport itself. The short form began to replace the longer one in the late 1970s.”

Excerpted from: Creswell, Julia. Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

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Cultural Literacy: Subject

Posted on December 5, 2025 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the noun subject as a grammatical term–i.e. the subject of a sentence. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences and four comprehension questions.

But, as with most of these documents, there are a couple of caveats here: these are long and busy sentences with several colons and semicolons in play. And the worksheet itself is a bit crowded. I use other materials in my units to teach subjects, so I haven’t used this. If I did, I would probably rewrite the sentences to simplify them, then turn this into a full-page worksheet. Clarifying the meaning of the polysemous word subject, and helping students understand how a subject operates in a sentence, strike me as foundational material in the high school curriculum.

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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Word Origins: Abstract

Posted on December 5, 2025 | Leave a comment

“abstract [ME] The Latin source of abstract, meant literally ‘drawn away’ and is from abstrahere, from the elements ab- ‘from’ and trahere ‘draw off.’ The use in art dates from the mid 19th century. Trahere is found in many English words including attract [LME] with ad ‘to’; portrait [M16th], something drawn; protract [M16th] with pro ‘out’; retract [LME] and retreat [LME] both drawing back; and words listed at TRAIN.”

Excerpted from: Creswell, Julia. Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

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The Weekly Text, 5 December 2025: Three Planning Templates for The Writing Revolution

Posted on December 5, 2025 | Leave a comment

If you are a relatively regular reader of this blog, then you know that I’ve been talking about developing materials to use with Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler’s framework for writing instruction, The Writing Revolution (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2017). Last summer (2024) and into this fall (2025), I finally finished developing the templates and other planning documents for units and lesson using The Writing Revolution as their basis.

As I hope this blog shows, I not only spend a lot of time thinking about good writing and how to teach it, but also, I hope, producing some middling quality prose to drive this blog. I have also, over the years (35 of them as a teacher in various capacities) read a plethora of grammar and style manuals for my own edification, but also to help me plan writing instruction.

As far as scripted curricula go, I expect this blog demonstrates abundantly my skepticism towards them and their authors. The Writing Revolution is different for a couple of reasons: it actually calls upon students to understand certain concepts (i.e. subordinating conjunctions to form complex sentences, etc.) in grammar while applying those concepts in the service of composing good prose.

The Writing Revolution also calls upon students to practice, practice, practice writing. Its scope and sequence contains a fair amount of repetition. I know it’s fashionable to call such work “drill and kill,” but it’s also facile and, I would argue, ignorant. There are certain things in this world–say breathing and masturbation–that one need not practice at. But writing? Writers write. And writing well, like playing a musical instrument or perfecting a curve ball, takes practice. Hence my enthusiasm for The Writing Revolution.

For the next five weeks (actually seven, as there will be no Weekly Texts on December 19 or 26th in observance of the holidays), I’ll post all the templates I created based on the framework of The Writing Revolution. 

Let’s begin with three of my own creation, to with, this unit plan template, this lesson plan template, and this worksheet template.

And that is it for this week. Stay tuned, as there is plenty more to come.

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.

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Totalitarianism

Posted on December 1, 2025 | Leave a comment

“totalitarianism: A dictatorial form of centralized government that regulates every aspect of state and private behavior. Although the term was originally intended to designate fascist and communist regimes, totalitarianism is mainly associated with characterizations of the Soviet Union. Its proponents do not agree on when, if ever, the Soviet Union ceased to be totalitarian, but they tend to converge on the view that at some point the political leadership was all powerful and totally illegitimate. For many commentators, the Soviet Union entered a new phase after the abandonment of mass terror on Stalin’s death. However, others operating within the totalitarian paradigm point to institutional continuity, KGB harassment of dissidents, and the ever present possibilities of arbitrary state power until 1989. The total and sudden collapse of the Soviet Union since then casts doubt not only on this school, but perhaps on the whole concept of totalitarianism. In the 1970s, a new school of Sovietology emerged which pointed to evidence both for popular support for the regime and for widespread dispersion of power, at least in implementation of policy, among sectoral and regional authorities. For some of the ‘pluralists,’ this was evidence of the ability of the regime to adapt to include new demands. However, totalitarian theorists claimed that the failure of the system to survive showed not only its inability to adapt but the formality of supposed popular participation. See also Arendt.”

Excerpted from: McLean, Iain, and Alistair McMillan, editors. Oxford Concise Dictionary of Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

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Potboiler

Posted on December 1, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Potboiler: A work written merely to gain a livelihood. The term is at least as old as the 18th c. A classic example of the potboiler that transcends its immediate end is Johnson’s philosophical ‘novel’ or didactic ‘romance’ (qq.v.) Rasselas (1759), which was written in the evenings of a week to defray the expenses of his mother’s funeral and to pay her debts. See KITSCH. 

Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1998.

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A Measurement Conversion Chart for Culinary Arts Classes

Posted on December 1, 2025 | Leave a comment

Every once in a while, I come across something that belongs on this blog, but is slightly out of step with the main thrust of the content presented here. Several years ago, I worked briefly in a school in Bennington, Vermont. Some of my students were interested in careers in the culinary arts, so I prepared this trove of documents for building vocabulary in the profession. On another occasion, this cooking conversion chart arrived with a wooden recipe box I bought.

Recently, I bought a set of loaf plans; this measurement conversion chart was in the box. It includes conversions from cups to teaspoons, measures and dry weights, and oven temperature conversions between Celsius and Farenheit.

I don’t know how useful it is–I do not and have never taught in the culinary arts. But there it is if you can use it.

Since this is a PDF of someone else’s work, if there are typos or solecisms in it, there isn’t much I can do to fix it. So, my usual caveat doesn’t apply to this post.

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Pontiac’s Rebellion

Posted on November 20, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Pontiac’s Rebellion: (1763-66), Indian uprising against the British, named after one of its leaders, Ottawa chief Pontiac. After the French and Indian War, the tribes north of the Ohio River, finding the British victors less generous than the French and unprotective of Indian lands, resolved upon war. Detroit and Fort Pitt withstood sieges in 1763, but the Indians captured many other British posts and spread terror along the Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland frontiers. In 1764 the British subdued the Shawnees and the Delawares in Pennsylvania. Lacking allies, Pontiac submitted in 1766 and was pardoned.”

Excerpted from: Rosenbaum, Robert A. The Penguin Encyclopedia of American History. New York: Penguin, 2003.

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