Tag Archives: games/sports

Muhammad Ali on Joe Frazier

Posted on February 13, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wild Life.”

Muhammad Ali

Excerpted from: Sherrin, Ned, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations. New York: Oxford University Press. 1996.

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Cultural Literacy: Tiger Woods

Posted on February 13, 2026 | Leave a comment

OK, for the final documents post on this Friday morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Tiger Woods. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and two comprehension questions. The first sentence is a complex-compound that might be best broken up, especially if you re dealing with emergent readers or users of English as a second language.

But even for kids reading at grade level, depending on what grade you’re teaching, that first sentence might be a bit much.

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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C(yril) L(ionel) (R)obert James

Posted on February 13, 2026 | Leave a comment

“C(yril) L(ionel) R(obert) James: (1901-1989) Trinidadian writer and political activist. As a young man he moved to Britain, where his first work, The Life of Captain Cipriani, was published in 1929. His study of Toussaint-Louverture, The Black Jacobins (1938) was a seminal work. During his first stay in the U.S. (1938-53), he became friends with Paul Robeson. Eventually deported to Britain because of his Marxism and labor activism, James wrote on cricket for the Guardian. His Beyond the Boundary (1963) mixes autobiography with commentary on politics and sports. He returned the to the U.S. in 1970 but eventually settled permanently in Britain.”

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

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The Weekly Text, 11 April 2025: A Lesson Plan on Poker from The Order of Things

Posted on April 11, 2025 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is the last, for now, of 50 lessons that I adapted during the pandemic from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s comprehensive reference book The Order of Things.

So here is a lesson plan on poker, which, as I have reminded users of this blog when I posted each of these 50 lessons, is written for striving readers and/or students who struggle with interpreting and in general dealing with two symbolic systems–in this case numbers and letters–at the same time. This list as reading and comprehension questions serves as the worksheet for this lesson. It includes a relatively complicated list of denominations of poker chips and a hierarchy of winning hands from highest to lowest. As I write this, having never used this lesson, I find myself wondering if a few hands of poker would serve as a satisfying and edifying form of application for this exercise.

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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Cultural Literacy: Joe Louis

Posted on February 21, 2025 | Leave a comment

OK, as long as we’re on the topic this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Joe Louis. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and three comprehension questions. This is a more basic introduction to the Brown Bomber than the post just below.

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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Joe Louis

Posted on February 21, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Joe Louis (originally Joseph Louis Barrow): (1914-1981) U.S. heavyweight boxing champion. He was born into a sharecropper’s family in Lexington, Alabama. He began boxing after his family moved to Detroit. He won the U.S. Amateur Athletic Union titles in 1934 and turned professional that year. On the road to his first title bout he defeated six previous or subsequent champions, including Max Baer, Jack Sharkey, James J. Braddock, Max Schmeling, and Jersey Joe Walcott. Nicknamed ‘the Brown Bomber,’ he gained the title by defeating Braddock in 1937, and held it until 1949. He lost to Schmeling in 1936 but defeated him in one round in 1938. He successfully defended his title 25 times (21 by knockout) before retiring in 1949. He made unsuccessful comeback attempts against Ezzard Charles in 1950 and Rocky Marciano in 1951.”

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

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Cultural Literacy: Michael Jordan

Posted on February 7, 2025 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Michael Jordan. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two long compound sentences–which may need shortening for emergent and struggling readers–and three comprehension questions. Once again, just the basics.

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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Honus Wagner

Posted on January 31, 2025 | Leave a comment

[Over the past few years, I have developed an interest in baseball. I remain a neophyte in my understanding of the game–this summer I bought a copy of The Dickson Baseball Dictionary by Paul Dixon so I could better build my knowledge of what the players, particularly pitchers, are actually doing. This post, however, arrives because of my long interest in the T206 Honus Wagner Baseball Card, which I think I can safely analogize as: What the Bay Psalm Book is to bibliophiles, the T206 Honus Wagner card is to collectors of sports memorabilia.]

“Honus Wagner (originally John Peter): (1841-1918) U.S. baseball player. Born in Mansfield (now Carnegie), Pennsylvania, he played principally for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1900-1917), and coached the team from 1933 to 1951. The right-handed hitter led to the National League in batting in eight seasons (1900, 1903=4, 1906-9, 1911) and in stolen bases five seasons. His total of 252 three-base hits remains a National League record. Nicknamed ‘the Flying Dutchman’ for his speed. Wagner is considered one of the greatest shortstops and all-around players in baseball history.”

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

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The Weekly Text, 24 January 2024: A Second Lesson Plan on Boxing Weight Divisions from The Order of Things

Posted on January 24, 2025 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is this second lesson plan on boxing weight divisions along with its attendant list as reading with comprehension questions. The first lesson in this series is available in the Weekly Text for 13 December 2024. This lesson joins a growing assortment of materials on boxing on this blog, which experience has shown me is of high interest to certain students. Hence, I have tagged this as high interest material.

This lesson, as in all lessons carrying the title The Order of Things, were suggested by and therefore adapted from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s book of the same name, which I highly recommend.

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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Cultural Literacy: Hit Below the Belt

Posted on January 17, 2025 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “hit below the belt.” This is a half-page worksheet with a two-sentence reading (the first of one is a mildly unwieldy compound which might require revision for some readers) and three comprehension questions.

As you know, this idiom denotes issues of fair play. It arrives in the vernacular from boxing, in which hitting below the belt is illegal. This worksheet might be useful with other materials on boxing available on this blog. Since boxing, in my experience, tends to be of high interest, especially to boys and young men, I have tagged this post as such.

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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