Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

The Weekly Text, October 4, 2019, Hispanic Heritage Month 2019 Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the War of the Philippines Insurrection

When I prepare materials for Hispanic Heritage Month (of which, alas, as I previously mentioned in these pages, I currently suffer a shortage), I tend to perceive the materials along a narrow range of topics, related almost solely to people and events in the Americas. As this web page from Catholic Relief Services observes, “Hispanics and Latinos are not necessarily the same. Hispanics are descended from Spanish speaking populations. Latinos are people of Latin American descent.” I’m no expert on this. If you are, I’d be greatly obliged if you could weigh in on this topic.

What I do know about the Hispanic World derives both from my own education and my travels across South America. For me, the most salient characteristic of the Hispanic world is that it was, in its entirety, subject to imperial exploitation and expropriation. Therefore, one of the unfortunate products of the Spanish presence in the new world is that legacy.

In any case, I think under the definitions limned above (again, if you have scholarly knowledge of this, I would be extremely grateful for some clarification of this issue), I can safely post, as part of Mark’s Text Terminal’s observance of Hispanic Heritage Month 2019, this reading on the War of Philippines Insurrection and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

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.

Bonnie and Clyde

As I get ready to leave school for the day, I’ll post this reading on Bonnie and Clyde and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheetNota bene, please, that this is not biographical material on Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, but rather a reading on Arthur Penn’s film starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, respectively, in the title roles.

Have you seen it? It’s a masterpiece by any standard I recognize.

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.

Titanic

This reading on the Titanic and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet have tended to be relatively high interest material in my classrooms over the years.

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.

Cultural Literacy; Cryptography

OK, moving right along on this chilly Monday morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on cryptography. This has turned out, at times, to be of very high interest to students I’ve taught over the years.

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.

Arduous (adj)

Here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective arduous if you need it.

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 Weekly Text, September 27, 2019, Hispanic Heritage Month 2019 Week II: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Augusto Pinochet

This week’s Text, in Mark’s Text Terminal’s ongoing observance of National Hispanic Heritage Month 2019, is a reading on Augusto Pinochet and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Pinochet–along with Trujillo, the Somoza family, and in general a disturbingly long list of despots–is one of the great villains of Hispanic History. When I was in high school, Pinochet was kind of our version of the bogeyman.

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.

Term of Art: Auteur Theory

auteur theory: A theory of film criticism and analysis that derived from the writings of Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, and others, which appeared in the influential magazine Cahiers du cinema in the early 1950s. In an article printed in Cahiers in 1954, Truffaut proposed “la politique des auteurs” in an effort to free directors from traditional script-dominated films. Truffaut and his colleagues, who were to become the vanguard of the New Wave, held that, although films are collaborative efforts, they should ultimately bear the artistic stamp of the director, whose personal vision creates the film as an author (auteur) would create a book. The theory was first championed in the U.S, by the critic Andrew Sarris.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

Armament (n)

Because it turns up often enough in the social studies curriculum, I found it necessary some years back to write this context clues worksheet on the noun armament. It’s most commonly used, I guess, in its plural form, so this worksheet may present, as an aside, an opportunity to assist students in developing deeper a understanding of the difference between singular and plural nouns.

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.

Pierre de Fermat

OK, if you have some more advanced math students on your hands, this reading on Pierre de Fermat–with an excursus on his Last Theorem–might be of some use to you. This vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet accompanies the reading.

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.

A Short Worksheet on the Commutative Law of Addition

Let me continue to offer some of the materials I’m working up to teach math with this worksheet on the Commutative Law of Addition along with its answer key

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.