Tag Archives: high-interest materials

The Weekly Text, 15 August 2025: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Alan Turing

Posted on August 14, 2025 | Leave a comment

If memory serves, I wrote the documents in this week’s Text, to wit a reading on Alan Turing and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet early on in my career for a computer-obsessed young fellow. Alan Turing certainly remains an fascinating figure. And if the 2014 motion picture The Imitation Game indicates anything, it is that there is still popular as well as historical interest in Turing.

It’s probably worth mentioning that the T in the acronym CAPTCHA stands for “Turing.” The full name is “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.”

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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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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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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The Weekly Text, 21 February 2025, Black History Month Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on 2Pac and Biggie

Posted on February 21, 2025 | Leave a comment

For the third week of Black History Month 2025 here is a reading on 2pac and Biggie along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

At this point, this blog is heavily stocked with materials excerpted and adapted from David S. Kidder and Noah Oppenheim’s series of books under the title of The Intellectual Devotional. There are five in all of these books: the first one, simply called The Intellectual Devotional, then one volume each (under the title The Intellectual Devotional) on American History, Biographies, Health, and Modern Culture. All of this is a long way of explaining that some readings repeat, with only slight variations, in more than one volume of this series; there is, ergo, another version of this material on this blog that I published back in 2018.

It goes without saying that in some places, this will particularly high-interest material. Thus, 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.

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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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The Weekly Text, 13 December 2024: A Lesson Plan on Boxing Weight Divisions from The Order of Things

Posted on December 13, 2024 | Leave a comment

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.

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The Weekly Text, 12 April 2024: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Batteries

Posted on April 12, 2024 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is this reading on batteries along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Since most if not all students now carry a smart phone, this reading, to my surprise, has become a high-interest item; thus, I have tagged it as such.

Students want to know, apparently, how to keep these high-tech toys going.

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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