Tag Archives: numeracy

50 Argonauts

Posted on July 21, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Jason * Orpheus (the lyre-playing musician) * Mopsus the seer * Heracles and his male love of the moment, the handsome young Hylas (who gets kidnapped by water nymphs) * Pollux the champion boxer who kills the king of the Bebyrycians * Shape-shifting Periclymenus * Fast-footed Euphemus * Winged Calais and Zetes (sons of the North Wind who repel the Harpies) * and 40 more

The Argo, which had a magical keel crafted out of a sacred oak from the oracle of Dodona, was crewed by fifty heroes of ancient Greece—the Argonauts. Jason was the leader of this warrior band (sometimes referred to as the ‘Minyans’) sent on what was presumed to be a suicidal quest by King Pelias, his usurping half-uncle. Their mission was to sail to Colchis (Georgia) and seize possession of the Golden Fleece of a divine ram what hung from a tree in a grove sacred to Ares, god of war, guarded by a sleepless dragon.

Every city in Greece liked to imagine that they contributed a hero to this mythical band, which means that the list has had to grow in number, though if you examine the text of Apollonius of Rhodes, written in third-century Alexandria, it is easy enough to identify all the named Argonauts. Even this cast, however, numbers fifty-five, though by juggling who comes on, as others go off, the good ship Argo, it is just about possible to keep to fifty.

If you add other famous names and such ubiquitous heroes such as Bellerophon, Nestor, Perseus, Atalanta, and Theseus, you can grow the crew to eighty, which has a hidden harmony with the text of Apollonius, who has embedded eighty aitia in his epic. These are short verse sequences which give the mythical origins or such curious things as the sacred water-carrying race held on the island of Aegina or how the island of Thira is linked with Libya. The final text comprise 6,000 lines, which can be recited in one day to reasonably alert ancient theater audience.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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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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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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12 Signs of the Zodiac

Posted on October 18, 2024 | Leave a comment

Aries (Ram) * Taurus (Bull) * Gemini (Twins) * Cancer (Crab) * Leo (Lion) * Virgo (Virgin) * Libra (Scales) * Scorpio (Scorpion) * Sagittarius (Archer) * Capricorn (Goat) * Aquarius (Water Carrier) * Pisces (Fish)

The Zodiac is a very old concept, which has impregnated our thought patterns for thousands of years. In essence it was the observation of the sun’s circular path through the heavens (as viewed from the earth) and the division of this into twelve equal sections of 30 degrees to make a complete circuit of 360 degrees. Like so much of our world, the start date is spring, the vernal equinox of 21 March, so Aries (21 March-20 April) must always start the cycle.

The symbols chosen by the Sumerian astrologers and their imaginative pattern-making of sacred shapes from the most prominent stars passed seamlessly into Babylonian, Egyptian, Hindu, and Greek thought—notably through the teachings of a pair of well-traveled Greeks, Eudoxus of Cnidus and from the Egyptian-Greek scholar Ptolemy, whose Almagest colonized the imagination of both Islam and Christendom.

But just to read the Sumerian names is to stand in witness of an impressive piece of 5,000-year-old living continuity: Luhunga (Farmer) is Aries; Gu Anna (Bull of Heaven) is Taurus; Mastabba Bagal (Great Twins) is Gemini; Al-Lul (Crayfish) is Cancer; Urgula (Lion) is Leo; Ab Sin (virgin land) is Virgo; Zib Baanna (scales) is Libra; Girtab (Scorpion) is Scorpio; Pabilsag (soldier) is Sagittarius; Suhurmas (goat-fish) is Capricorn; Gu La (‘Great One) is Aquarius, the water bearer during the winter rains; and Dununu (fish cord) is Pisces.

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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Seven Days of the Week

Posted on August 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Monday/Lundi * Tuesday/Mardi * Wednesday/Mercredi * Thursday/Jeudi * Friday/Vendredi * Satuday/Samedi Sunday/Dimanche

Our seven-day week is a straight inheritance from very ancient Babylonian and Jewish traditions that took the seven planets as one of the ordering principles of humanity and divinity. The main alternatives were the Egyptian ten-day week, the Germano-Celtic nine-night week and the eight-day week for the Etruscans. The latter was inherited by the Romans, for it allowed for a specific market-day, which enabled country-dwellers to come to the cities and sell fruit and vegetables (which lasted only eight days). During Julius Caesar’s calendar reforms the seven-day week was introduced to the Near East, though it ran alongside the old Etruscan traditions until the time Constantine.

And some time during that period, between 200 and 600 AD, the current charming muddle of English names was hatched out, part honouring the Roman pantheon and part the Norse-German deities. For Monday is moon day, Tuesday is the day to Tiw/Tyr’s day (the heroic Teutonic sky god), Wednesday is Woden/Odin’s (the Teutonic/Norse god of knowledge and war), Thursday is the day of Thor (the Teutonic smith-god of thunder)), Friday is the day of Frija/Freyr (the Teutonic goddess of fertility), Saturday is Saturn (the father of Zeus)’s day, and Sunday is of course the sun’s day.

The same process happened in France, ossifying that peculiar junction point between Roman paganism and the new Christian order. So the French have Lundi (from the Latin dies Lunae, or moon day), Mardi (dies Martis, or Mars day), Mercredi (dies Mercurii, or Mercury day), Jeudi (dies Jovis, or Jupiter day), Vendredi (dies Veneris, Venus day), Samedi (dies Saturni, Saturn day) and Dimanche (dies Dominicus, day of the lord).

In the well-ordered Christian state of Byzantium, all these pagan relics were ditched in favor of days 1, 2, 3 and 4, followed by Paraskene (preparation), Sabbaton and finally Kyriaki (God’s day). These remain the days in modern Greek.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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Ibn-Khaldun on Geometry

Posted on May 10, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Geometry enlightens the intellect and sets one’s mind right.”

Ibn-Khaldun, Muqaddimah vol. 3 (ca. 1380)

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Cultural Literacy: Pythagorean Theorem

Posted on April 5, 2024 | Leave a comment

OK: Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Pythagorean theorem. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences and four comprehension questions. I’m not a math teacher–it has been, historically, a difficult subject for me–so I can’t vouch for the cogency of this reading. I can say that the first sentence, a long compound of 40 words with multiple comma breaks, is a doozy; for emergent and struggling readers, this might best broken up.

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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Cultural Literacy: Prime Number

Posted on June 23, 2023 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a prime number. This is a half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading, which is actually two clauses separated by a semicolon, and two comprehension questions. The reading might require some simplification and editing if you are dealing with English language learners or emergent readers. That won’t be a problem as this document, like most of what you’ll find here at Mark’s Text Terminal, is formatted in Microsoft Word for the express purpose of flexibility in the teacher’s hand.

In any event, however, this is an elegantly simple worksheet on a relatively simple concept in mathematics.

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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Cultural Literacy: Roman Numerals

Posted on January 20, 2023 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Roman numerals. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading–which is relatively complicated due to its carrying examples of Roman numerals themselves–of five sentences and three comprehension questions. As I look at it, I begin to suspect that this is too much complex material to cram into half of a page.

But what do you think? This is a Microsoft Word document, so you can alter it to your students’ needs.

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, 28 October 2022: A Lesson Plan on Expenditures by Americans from The Order of Things

Posted on October 25, 2022 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text, based on material adapted from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s endlessly fascinating reference book The Order of Things, is a lesson plan on expenditures by Americans. The only think you’ll need for this lesson as it is currently constituted is this worksheet with a list as reading and comprehension questions.

I conceived of this series of lessons (and may write more if I need them) as a way of helping students who struggle when asked to deal with two symbolic systems (language and numbers in this case) at the same time. These are simple readings and worksheets designed as much as anything to help build confidence in students in their ability to learn.

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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