Tag Archives: readings/research

Bunkum (n)

It’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, and it is, I think you’ll agree, a strong abstract noun for our time. Therefore, I wrote this context clues worksheet on the noun bunkum. It means “insincere or foolish talk” and “nonsense.” The context clues I provided are relatively solid, if a bit trite.

This word was a favorite of legendary iconoclastic newspaperman H.L. Mencken; indeed, a posthumous collection of Mencken’s is titled A Carnival of Buncombe. That spelling of the word, incidentally, indicates its etymology, which is a circuitous tale involving Buncombe County, North Carolina, and Felix Walker, the United States Representative who served the district from 1816 to 1822.

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.

Brewer’s Curious Titles: Texas Chainsaw Massacre

“Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A notorious horror movie (1974), written by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper, in which a family of chainsaw-wielding unemployed slaughterhouse workers terrorize a Texas community, desecrating the local cemetery and decorating their house with human and animal remains. The title proclaimed the film’s horror credentials, although it contains few scenes with much gore. It was loosely based on upon the atrocities committed in real life by deranged Wisconsin farmer Ed Gein, whose bloodthirsty activities also influenced Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.”

Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Picnic”

OK, moving along on a warm afternoon, here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Picnic.”

I open this lesson, to get kids settled after the class change, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the proverb “All’s Fair in Love and War.” You’ll need this PDF of the illustration, reading, and questions to conduct your investigation. Finally, to bring your suspect to justice, here is the typescript of the answer key for this 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.

Boston Tea Party

Slowly but surely I am figuring out the new Block Editor on WordPress. So, let me try to add this reading on the Boston Tea Party and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. I imagine these materials will find a home someplace in a United States history course. 

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Order of Tooth Arrival and Growth from The Order of Things

From Barbara Ann Kipfer’s The Order of Things, here is a lesson plan on the arrival and growth of teeth. You’ll need the reading with comprehension questions to complete this short reading and writing exercise, which, like all 50 of these lessons that I will eventually post here, is intended to help struggling learners experience mastery and therefore build self-confidence and competence in school.

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.

Soft Sculpture

“Soft Sculpture: Sculpture made of pliable and sometimes impermanent materials, such as latex, vinyl, feathers, rope and string, hair, etc. Seen since the early 1960s, soft sculpture defies the tradition of hard and permanent material as the only suitable medium for sculpture. Artists from various movements, including Arte Povera, Pop Art, and Surrealism, have experimented with soft sculpture.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

Slinky

For the bulk of my teaching career thus far, I worked at a economics-and-finance-themed high school in Lower Manhattan. Students, naturally, sat for a required course in entrepreneurship. One of the expectations of that class was that students would come up with an idea for a business, then draft a business plan. The teachers for this course were excellent. One student won a national competition and was honored with a visit to President Obama in the Oval Office.

Many of the students I served struggled with beginning their work for this course. I wrote up this reading on the Slinky, a favorite childhood toy of people of a certain age, and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I wanted students to understand that sometimes inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs stumble into ideas, and that students could pretty easily do the same–but they should not miss the opportunities of this kind of stumbling presents–often unclearly.

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.

Historical Term: Black and Tans

“Black and Tans: Special additional recruits of the Royal Irish Constabulary, first introduced in 1920, whose popular name—that of a common breed of Irish hounds—was derived from their uniform of dark green, almost black, caps, and khaki tunics and trousers. Between March 1920 and January 1922 the Black and Tans were responsible for excessively severe reprisals against terrorist activity in suppressing Irish nationalist unrest and combating the Irish Republican Army. Their destruction of Balbriggan, near Dublin, and the killing of two Irishmen in September 1920, followed three months later by the firing of the library and county hall in Cork were acts of criminal irresponsibility which served to fuel republican resentment at British rule. The actions of the Black and Tans have been endlessly recounted and embroidered in poetry and song from Dublin to Boston; one legend has it that they were recruited from among protestant prisoners in Scottish gaols.”

Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.

Fluxus

“Fluxus: An international art movement, founded in Germany in 1962, which spread quickly throughout Europe and, later, to the United States. It was largely conceptual in nature, and the group maintained no stylistic identity, preferring instead many activities that revived the spirit of Dada. George Macunias, Fluxus’s founder and leader, championed anti-institutional street skits, guerilla theater, and performances.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

Isadora Duncan

For a student with certain interests, broadly, arts and culture, but narrowly, dance, bohemianism, and women’s history, this reading on Isadora Duncan and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet have turned out to be high-interest materials.

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.