Tag Archives: high-interest materials

The Weekly Text, March 3, 2017, Women’s History Month 2017 Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Billie Holiday

Posted on March 3, 2017 | Leave a comment

Last March, after Black History Month had concluded, I somehow missed the fact that the third month of the year is Women’s History Month. So, I neglected to post any work for the Month last year; I won’t overlook it this year. The next five Fridays at Mark’s Text Terminal will feature readings to honor Women’s History Month. You might also want to take a look at the National Women’s History Project website, and the U.S. Government’s Women’s History Month website, which is a joint project of The Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Gallery of Art, the National Park Service, the Smithsonian Institution, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Here at Mark’s Text Terminal, the month begins with a bridge reading between Black History Month and Women’s History Month. This week’s Text is on the sublime Billie Holiday. Lady Day, as is well known, led a tragic and abbreviated life, cut short by her own self-destructive excesses. For that reason, you might want to euphemize or otherwise edit this reading on Billie Holiday. Whatever you choose to do, here is a comprehension worksheet to accompany it. I teach high school, where this reading is appropriate. For lower grades, I expect that the reading would need redaction.

There is a case to be made that without the racism that made the lives of so many African-American musicians difficult if not miserable–and I’m thinking of Lester Young (who enjoyed a beautiful musical rapport with Billie Holiday), Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Dexter Gordon, among others–Lady Day would have been a superstar on the order of a Beyonce, or a nearer contemporary of hers, Frank Sinatra. After all, both Mr. Sinatra and Ms. Holiday were cultivating similar artistic ground in the Great American Songbook.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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The Weekly Text, February 10, 2017, Black History Month 2017 Week II: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Legendary Bill Russell

Posted on February 10, 2017 | Leave a comment

It’s the second Friday of Black History Month. This week’s Text is a reading on basketball legend Bill Russell with a reading comprehension worksheet to accompany it. Mr. Russell was one of the first NBA superstars of African descent. Therefore he is no stranger to racism. This is likely to be a high-interest reading for a variety of students. I hope it is useful in your classroom.

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, October 14, 2016, Hispanic Heritage Month 2016 Week V: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Che Guevara

Posted on October 14, 2016 | Leave a comment

It’s the final Friday of Hispanic Heritage Month, 2016, and so here is the final Weekly Text in observance of this month. I offer this week a a reading on Che Guevara, one of the most instantly recognizable icons of Hispanic–and Latin American–history. To accompany this reading here is a a reading comprehension worksheet. And that’s it for this week.

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, August 19, 2016: An Introductory Lesson on Nouns

Posted on August 19, 2016 | Leave a comment

Over the years, I have become convinced of the utility of teaching the parts of speech in order to build literacy in general, and in particular to assist students in developing their own understanding of how to write grammatically complete, syntactically meaningful, and stylish sentences. To that end, I have developed units for each of the parts of speech, and these constitute an almost-year-long cycle of English Language Arts instruction.

So, this weeks text is the first lesson of the first unit of this cycle, on nouns. This lesson calls upon students to use this teacher-authored reading passage to identify all the nouns in it; as you will see, this is a three-part scaffold that asks students to read, then apply their understanding of nouns, first in modified cloze exercises, then in writing sentences from subject to period. The lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy do-now exercise on syntax. You might also find useful this singular and plural nouns formation review

You’ll notice that the plan for this lesson doesn’t list the standards met. Because of the way I manage my work flow, I list all the standards on the overarching unit plan. (That way if I must print a lesson plan to appease a bureaucrat, I don’t burn too much ink.) For that reason, I have posted typescript copies of the Common Core Standards I use in my practice  in the About Weekly Texts page that is above the banner photo on the home page for this site. They are in the penultimate paragraph there.

22 September 2016, Post Scriptum: I have just updated the singular and plural nouns formation review worksheet linked to above.

15 July 2022, Post Scriptum: I have revised the work for this lesson. The reading and worksheet now contains a reading from The Fight (Boston, MacMillan, 1975), Norman Mailer’s account of the legendary “Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974; it follows then that the teacher’s copy of the worksheet received an update as well.

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

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The Weekly Text, February 5, 2016, Black History Month Week I: A Reading on Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Posted on February 5, 2016 | Leave a comment

February is Black History Month. Initiated by Carter G. Woodson in 1926, Black History Month is justly a staple in school curricula in the United States. Far, far be it from me to second-guess Dr. Woodson or any of the proponents of Black History Month, but I have never been entirely at ease with the concept of one month of the year set aside for the study of the myriad and vital contributions Americans of African descent have made to our nation, because I think it is insufficient. It seems to me, when studying the history of the United States from the colonial period to yesterday, every month ought to be Black History Month. African Americans are an integral part of the history of the United States, and the U.S. History curriculum really ought to reflect that.

At the same time, I appreciate the opportunity to teach material that isn’t part of the standard curriculum. For the next four weeks, I’ll post reading assignments from a unit I developed to attend the film The Great Debaters, directed by and starring Denzel Washington. After watching the movie for the first time, it struck me that it would serve nicely as the foundation of a unit on both Black History and using prior knowledge to understand new material. I outlined a unit plan, fleshed it out, and began using it to great success. I’ve yet to present it to a class that wasn’t immediately interested in and engaged by the material–it has been that successful with the students I serve. The fundamental educative goal for this unit is to provide students with prior knowledge of the personalities and events–to wit, the 1935 Wiley College Debate Team led by Melvin B. Tolson–by way of reading comprehension worksheets and discussion in class. The first five lessons of the unit work to prepare students for a viewing of the film.

So, here, in the first of three Weekly Texts on The Great Debaters, is the first reading from the unit, on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text

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