Oscar Wilde on Experience and Mistakes

Posted on December 6, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.”

Oscar Wilde

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes

Tagged , , ,

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

Posted on December 6, 2024 | Leave a comment

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged ,

Term of Art: Strand

Posted on December 6, 2024 | Leave a comment

“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.

Leave a comment

Posted in Quotes, Reference

Tagged , ,

Cultural Literacy: Diamond in the Rough

Posted on December 6, 2024 | Leave a comment

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Worksheets

Tagged , , ,

Rotten Reviews: The Tin Drum

Posted on December 6, 2024 | Leave a comment

“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.   

Leave a comment

Posted in Quotes

Tagged , ,

The Weekly Text, 6 December 2024: A Lesson Plan on the Greek Word Roots Arch, Archi, Arche/o, and Archae/o

Posted on December 6, 2024 | Leave a comment

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,

Atahualpa

Posted on November 29, 2024 | Leave a comment

“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.

Leave a comment

Posted in Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

Tagged , ,

Cultural Literacy: Sitting Bull

Posted on November 29, 2024 | Leave a comment

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,

Shawnee

Posted on November 29, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Shawnee: Algonquian-speaking people from the central Ohio River Valley. Closely related in language and culture to the Fox, Kickapoo, and Sauk, the Shawnee were also influenced by the Seneca and Delaware. In the summer the Shawnee lived in bark-covered houses grouped into large villages near fields in which women cultivated corn. The primary male occupation was hunting. In winter the village broke into small patrilineal family groups, which moved to hunting camps. In the 17th century the Shawnee were driven from their home by the Iroquois, scattering into widely separated areas. After 1725 the tribe reunited in Ohio. Following their defeat by General Anthony Wayne (1794), they broke into three independent branches that eventually settled in Oklahoma. Today they number about 4,000.”

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

Tagged , , , ,

Cultural Literacy: Sioux

Posted on November 29, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Sioux people. This is half-page worksheet with a reading of five sentences, one of which is a short imperative, a see-this, thing, enclosed in parentheses, with three comprehension questions. This worksheet, like a few I’ve posted here recently, seems a bit crammed to me. You might want to adjust it to a full-page document.

The reading, even in five sentences, manages to note that the Sioux, who call themselves the Dakota or Lakota, administered a beatdown to Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army at the Battle of Little Bighorn, and names three significant Sioux leaders, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Big Foot, who is also known as Spotted Elk, whom  U.S. forces murdered at the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , , , ,