Here is a learning support on the conventions for writing numbers in prose. This document has a big open field, and is in Microsoft Word, so it is at your–and more importantly, your students’–disposal; you can modify or adapt it to your 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.
“Diacritic, Diacritical Mark (noun): A distinguishing mark given to a character or letter to indicated stress or pronunciation, such as a superscribed accent; phonetic sign. Adjective: diacritic, diacritical.
‘The ‘etymons,’ as he called them were the root terms for Pass and Fail, but inflected with prefixes, infixes, suffixes, and diacritical marks to such an extent, and so variously from fragment to fragment, that conflicting interpretations, in his opinion, could be said to figure the intellectual biography of studentdom, as has been amply demonstrated in a wealth of what he called Geistesgeschichten…. John Barth, Giles Goat-Boy.'”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
“Anglophile: 1. Admiring or loving England and the English and/or the English language: the anglophile party in Scotland. 2. Someone with such an attitude: unrepentant Anglophiles. The term may or may not include Britain as a whole, and non-English Britons may experience Anglophilia.
Anglophobe: 1. Also Anglophobic. Fearing or hating England and the English and/or the English language: Anglophobe reaction. 2. Someone with such an attitude: an inveterate Anglophobe. The term may or may not include Britain as a whole, and non-English Britons may experience Anglophobia.
Anglophone: [Often used without an initial capital]. 1. A speaker of English: (Africa) locally born anglophone whites; (Quebec) certified anglophones, permitted by law to send their children to English-medium schools. 2. Of speakers of English: an anglophone school. The term occurs mainly where French is also used. It contrasts with francophone (French-speaking), allophone (speaking a language other than French or English), arabophone (speaking Arabic), hispanophone (speaking Spanish), lusophone (speaking Portugese), etc.”
Excerpted from: McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005
“Absurd: A philosophical term for a fundamental lack of reasonableness and coherence in human existence. The philosophical and theological roots of the term can be traced to Tertullian (160?-?230), an early Father of the church who argued that the surest sign of the truth of Christianity is its absurdity. He posited that the idea of an infinite deity incarnating himself and undergoing suffering for human beings is so irrational that no one would invent such a story; therefore it must be true. Tertullian’s summary statement was Creo quia absurdum est (I believe because it is absurd). Centuries later, Soren Kierkegaard reemphasized the absurdity of Christianity. He suggested that rational ‘proofs,’ however convincing, are blocks, not aids, to faith. A faith that requires proofs is no faith at all. One can only choose Christianity, with its manifest absurdities, or choose an alternative way of life, with its latent absurdities. The choice of Christianity is a ‘leap of faith’ for which there are no strictly rational criteria.
With Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, and Jean-Paul Sartre, the concept of absurdity became almost completely secularized as the basis for existentialism. According to the existentialist concept, man is thrown into an alien, irrational world in which he must create his own identity through a series of choices for which there are no guides or criteria. Because man cannot avoid making choices—to refrain from choosing is a choice—man is condemned to be free. This absurdity is an inescapable part of the human situation. In his novel Nausea, Sartre regards it as the irresoluble paradox of human existence.
The concept of the absurd in modern literature originated with the early surrealists, in works such as Alfred Jarry’s play Ubu Roi. The concept is used by Albert Camus in his essay The Myth of Sisyphus and in his novel The Stranger, where he emphasizes the psychological implications of the absurd.
Writers have also attempted to convey the concept of the absurd through deliberate distortions and violations of conventional forms, to undermine ordinary expectations of continuity and rationality. Among the most notable writers in the literature and Theater of the Absurd are Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, and Jean Genet.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
“mapping: In educational terms, a strategy for displaying related ideas in a visual format. Mapping may refer to flow charts, diagrams, or using color coding to draw connections and help recall information. One important example of mapping is ‘mind-mapping’ (also called clustering), which is used in the process of writing to generate and organize ideas and information that can eventually be translated into a linear outline.
A mind map might consist of a core topic at the center of the page, with major subtopics spreading outward from it, and relevant details attached to each subtopic. Such an approach may be especially helpful for individuals who have difficulty with sequencing information but are strong in the area or visual-spatial reasoning.
Likewise a graphic organizer for representing information may help a student who has trouble with reading comprehension because of problems organizing and identifying key information and relationships between concepts and supporting evidence.”
Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
“Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827): A Swiss education reformer whose theories deeply influenced the development of elementary education in Europe and the United States. The schools established by Pestalozzi in Switzerland attracted wide attention. Opposed to the customary reliance on strict discipline and rote memorization, he favored an approach based on kindness and understanding of the child’s world. He believed that education should be based on concrete experiences, so he introduced the use of tactile objects to teach natural science to children. He emphasized both the moral and the intellectual aspects of education, as well as the importance of well-educated teachers. A lifelong social reformer, Pestalozzi believed that good education could change society for the better.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
Posted in Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“scripted program: Any educational program the describes in close detail how to teach the material. Scripted programs may raise the level of teaching if they are akin to a good recipe; however, they are unlikely to succed if the attempt to impose routines and methods that teachers find patronizing and disrespectful.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
Posted in Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged philosophy/religion, professional development, term of art
“learning modalities: The way in which information is received and expressed, such as visual, tactile, auditory, or kinesthetic. Generally, individuals have strengths in a certain modality and learn better when information is presented through that channel. For example, an individual who whose strongest learning modality is visual will have difficulty learning information given by lecture alone, with no visual aids such as notes on the board.
Research shows that since people have different learning strengths, it is better to design lessons what use more than one modality, such as a combination of visual and auditory. This allows all learners, including those with learning disabilities, to access information using their strongest learning ability.”
Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.
Here is a learning support on five kinds of sentences. I grabbed this from Sylvan Barnet and Marcia Stubbs’ Barnet and Stubbs Practical Guide to Writing with Readings, Seventh Edition (New York: Harper Collins, 1995). I used an earlier edition of this book for the very first college course I took in the spring of 1990. When I mentioned my admiration for the utility and ease of use of the book, a friend of mine thoughtfully made me a gift of the edition cited above.
Anyway, this learning support doesn’t deal with the four kinds of sentences, i.e. declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory, for which I am currently preparing learning supports which will appear here in the near future. This document deals with syntactical structures, to wit, the simple, compound, complex, and complex-compound sentences, as well as the sentence fragment. It’s one page, so it’s simple but (I hope) helpful because of that simplicity.
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.
Very quickly on this Friday morning, here is something that might be useful to teachers and parents, to wit a list of 22 high-leverage practices for K-12 teachers. This is something I transcribed several months ago from the American Federation of Teachers’ excellent quarterly American Educator so that I could place it in my planning book.
If you find typos, lapses in style or syntax, or any other errors in the prose, please advise. Since this is someone else’s work, I don’t seek peer review on it.
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