“Leviathan: A word from the Hebrew, meaning literally ‘that which gathers itself in folds,’ and given in the Bible to a mythical sea serpent (Job 41:1; . 27:1; Ps. 104:26). The name is also applied to the whale and the crocodile, and by extension it has come to mean something vast and formidable of its kind.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
This week’s Text, from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s excellent reference book The Order of Things, is a lesson plan on boxing weight divisions. And here is a list as reading and five comprehension questions that serves as the reading and writing work for this lesson. Keep in mind, as I mention each time I publish one of these lessons, that this work is designed for students who struggle with understanding information presented in two symbolic information systems–in this case numbers and letters. Think of students who struggle with word problems in math classes, and you’ll have a clear idea whose confidence this relatively simple work is meant to bolster.
As this material deals with boxing–specifically the amateur boxing weight divisions used in the Olympics–I believe it will be of high interest to students, so I have tagged it as such.
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.
“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.”
Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes
Tagged drama/theater, fiction/literature, humor, literary oddities
Here is a worksheet on the verb ask when used with an object or an infinitive. The student asked her teacher to supply her with some more substantial and rigorous work.
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.
“strand: A group of related themes or concepts within an overall curricular area. For example, a social studies curriculum might be divided into such strands as citizenship, history, economics, geography, legal systems, political systems, and so on.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
Moving right along this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “diamond in the rough.” This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences (and beware the first one, which is a long compound separated by a colon) and three comprehension questions. A short, but thorough, introduction to this commonly used idiom–in English, at least.
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.
“Bewildered by the torrent of fantastic incident, mystified by what Gunter Grass intends by it all, one feels like a zoologist who discovers some monstrous unrecorded mammal gobbling leaves. It may have beautiful horns, but what is it?”
New Statesman
Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Greek word roots arch, archi, arche/o, and archae/o. Collectively they mean rule, chief, first, and ancient. This complicated root, as you have probably already recognized, is very productive in English: It grows relatively high-frequency words (particularly in educated discourse) like archenemy, archaeology (obviously), anarchy, archetype, architect, hierarchy, and monarchy, all of which are included in this scaffolded worksheet, which is the principal work of this lesson.
I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the adjective ancient to point students in the right direction when analyzing these word roots.
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.
“Atahualpa: (1502?-1533) Last free-reigning emperor of the Incas. He became ruler after defeating his half-brother in what may have been the greatest military engagement in Inca history. The conquistador Francisco Pizarro met Atahualpa just before the emperor’s triumphal entry into Cuzco and invited him to a feast in his honor. When Atahualpa and his unarmed retainers arrived, Pizarro ambushed them on horseback with cannons and guns, slaughtered thousands, and took Atahualpa prisoner. Pizarro accepted Atahualpa’s offer of a ransom of a roomful of gold, then, having received 24 tons of gold and silver, ordered Atahualpa burned at the stake, The sentence was changed to death by garrote when Atahualpa agreed to convert to Christianity.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Last but not least for National Native American Heritage Month 2024, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Sitting Bull. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences, all of them relatively long, and three comprehension questions. For its brevity, it is nonetheless a surprisingly thorough introduction to this Sioux leader.
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 Measurement Conver… on An Elegantly Simple Cooking Co… |
| A Measurement Conver… on The Weekly Text, October 25, 2… |
 | markstextterminal on Cree |
 | panzer046a139293db on Cree |
| markstextterminal on Cree |
Mark's Text Terminal 
You must be logged in to post a comment.