Tag Archives: learning supports

E.H. Gombrich on the Early Humans and the Development of Tools

Posted on August 30, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Tools must have been invented by someone too. The earliest ones were probably just sticks and stones. But soon stones were being shaped and sharpened. We have found lots of these shaped stones in the ground. And because of these stone tools we call this time the Stone Age. But people didn’t yet know how to build houses. Not a pleasant thought, since at that time it was often intensely cold—at certain periods fare colder than today. Winters were longer and summers shorter. Snow lay deep throughout the year, not only on mountain tops, but down in the valleys as well, and glaciers, which were immense in those days, spread far out into the plains. This is why we say the Stone Age began before the last ice age had ended. Prehistoric people must have suffered dreadfully from the cold and if they came across a cave where they could shelter from the freezing winds, how happy they must have been! For this reason they are also known as “cavemen,” although they may not actually have lived in caves.”

Excerpted from: Gombrich, E.H. Trans. Caroline Mustill. A Little History of the World. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.

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Posted in Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

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Daniel Willingham’s First Demonstration of Memory as a Professional Development Exercise

Posted on August 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

Elsewhere on this blog, I published Professor Daniel Willingham’s “First Demonstration of Memory” as a lesson for classroom use with students (in fact, if you click on that second hyperlink, it will transfer you directly to that post). I originally wrote that lesson because it has important implications for classroom practice, and I wanted to discuss those implications with students at the beginning of the school year. In fact, I give the lesson on the first day of school, before talking about classroom conduct, as a way of establishing priorities–learning–and classroom methodology–i.e. students directly involved in the pedagogy in which they will engage through the school year.

Along the way, in order to satisfy my professional development requirements, I also developed this lesson, which in some respects is a cognitive science parlor trick, for use as a professional development exercise for teachers.

To present this lesson, you will need this PDF of the article that engendered it; you might also consider reproducing the article to hand out after you conclude the lesson. Here is the lesson plan that outlines and rationalizes it use. I use this learning support with both versions of this lesson. Finally, here is the context clues worksheet on the adjective condign that concludes the 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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Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Lesson Plans, Reference, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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An Attempt at a Differentiated Thematic Essay Assessment

Posted on August 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

The principle reason I started Mark’s Text Terminal in 2015, in its second iteration, was to open a conversation with other educators on how best to serve the struggling learners in our schools. By that time, I’d developed enough material for these kids (and some of it for one or two kids only) that I wanted to offer it as an example of how I approached the needs of the kids I served. That remains the mission of this blog.

Now, as I start to dig deeper into some folders I haven’t opened in several years, I find some interesting stuff. Several years ago, I started looking at the various standardized, high-stakes tests New York State required the students I served to take. One commonplace in these tests was the thematic essay. Indeed, local tests, written by teachers in schools, often deployed this method of assessment as well.

Because the New York State Global Studies Regents Examinations are reputedly difficult, I decided to work up this structured thematic essay learning support. As I recall, I used it as an instrument for direct instruction, asking students a variety of questions secondary to those on the worksheet itself. Judging from the document, I aimed to get kids thinking and talking about the themes in the worksheet themselves, but also to think more broadly about the idea of a theme and a thematic essay.

Then I put the document away and neither thought about nor used it again. So I would be particularly interested in your comments on this as a way of helping students understand the compositional requirements of a thematic essay as well as the underlying concepts of “theme” and “thematic.”

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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Posted in Essays/Readings, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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A Learning Support on Poetry Terms

Posted on July 30, 2019 | Leave a comment

This short learning support on poetry terms is the last of the English Language Arts learning supports I have to publish for the time being. I expect, as I continue to teach, I’ll develop more of them. Maybe you can use this cogent explanation of basic terms of art in poetry.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference

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A Learning Support on Transition Words

Posted on July 23, 2019 | Leave a comment

In the last year, I published a thousand blog posts; that’s as many as I published in the preceding three years. As a result, I have basically emptied my English Language Arts Learning Supports folder, which comes as a bit of a surprise to me. I don’t for a minute doubt that I will continue to create new supports, but for now, besides this learning support on transition words, I only have one more to post–a glossary of poetic terms that really is a differently designed version of something I already posted here.

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, July 5, 2019: A Pair of Learning Supports on Using Conjunctions

Posted on July 5, 2019 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a pair of learning supports on using conjunctions.

Now it’s time to go swimming in the Connecticut River, in Putney, Vermont, with friends. I hope you’re enjoying your summer.

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, June 7, 2019: A Lesson Plan on Using Personal Pronouns in the Objective Case

Posted on June 7, 2019 | Leave a comment

On Tuesday of this week I posted a complete lesson on using personal pronouns in the nominative case. For this week’s, Text, let’s go to the other side of the sentence.

Here is a complete lesson plan on using the personal pronoun in the objective case. I begin this lesson, after a class transition in order to get students settled, with this Everyday Edit on Iqbal Masih, Child Activist (if you and your students like Everyday Edit worksheets, you can help yourself to a yearlong supply of them at no cost by clicking on that hyperlink); in the event that the lesson spills over into a second day, here is a worksheet on the homophones there, their, and they’re.

The center of this lesson is this scaffolded worksheet on using the personal pronoun in the objective case. Finally, here is the learning support on pronouns and case that I also included on the original post, last Tuesday, on using the personal pronoun in the nominative case.

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, Lesson Plans, Reference, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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A Learning Support on the Helping Verbs

Posted on June 6, 2019 | Leave a comment

These two learning supports on helping verbs have been a staple for for struggling readers and writers in my classroom. They’ll probably turn up again on Mark’s Text Terminal when I post lessons on this area of English usage.

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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Blog Post 2000: A Trove of Learning Supports and Graphic Organizers

Posted on June 4, 2019 | Leave a comment

Here we are at Blog Post 2000. I have a number of documents to post, all from the first third of my career, when I was just figuring out how to assess students’ abilities and design instruction that challenged them, but didn’t frustrate them.

So, for starters, here is a learning support on the kinds of questions that drive research projects.

Next, here is a learning support on writing notecards for research papers. I don’t know if teachers still require students to keep analog note-cards in the real world, but the social studies teacher with whom I taught sophomore global studies in Manhattan at the beginning of this (2018-2019) school year still–to his credit–required them. Whatever you do in your classroom, perhaps this structured note-card blank will help students learn and master this task essential to the craft of research.

This sample outline learning support and this style sheet on using structured outlining blanks, you will notice, are basically the same material. The style sheet accompanies these structured outlining blanks.

Finally, here is a document I call the research paper in miniature. I use this document to show students, in essence, what a research paper is, why the authors of these kinds of papers must cite sources, and even ask them to infer the argument (i.e. the origins of rock and roll are in the blues and other African musical forms) from the paragraph they read. As I write this, I realize that I have a lesson plan to rationalize the research paper in miniature, so I’ll post that as a Weekly Text sometime over the summer when I have a chance to revise it.

That’s it. I emptied out the folder for Blog Post 2000. Now to start working on my next thousand posts.

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A Lesson Plan on Using Personal Pronouns in the Nominative Case

Posted on June 4, 2019 | Leave a comment

OK: here, on a Tuesday morning, is a complete lesson plan on the personal pronoun in the nominative case.

I begin this lesson, after a class change, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Jargon; and if the lesson, for whatever reason (there are many in classroom, as we teacher know) continues into a second day, here is a second do-now, an Everyday Edit worksheet on Booker T. Washington. Incidentally, if you or your students find Everyday Edits useful or edifying, the good people at Education World offer a yearlong supply of them for the taking.

This scaffolded worksheet on using the personal pronoun in the nominative case is the mainstay of this lesson. Finally, here is a learning support on pronouns and case to help students navigate this area of usage and develop their own understanding–and mastery–of it.

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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