Tag Archives: readings/research

Term of Art: Illusion

Posted on May 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Illusion: The semblance of reality and verisimilitude (q.v.) in art which most writers seek to create in order to enable the reader to think that he is seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting and smelling, or, conceivable, having some extra-sensory or kinesthetic experience. The creation of illusion is a cooperative act between writer and reader. It brings about in the reader what Coleridge called “the willing suspension of disbelief” (q.v.). However, the writer also destroys illusion, sometimes for a specific purpose: for example, to address the reader directly—a not uncommon practice among 18th and 19th century novelists. The contrast helps the illusion and at the same time sharpens and clarifies the impression of things happening at a distance. Illusion should be distinguished from delusion and hallucination.”

Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.

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Aesop’s Fables: “The Boasting Traveler”

Posted on May 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

Moving right along on this sunny spring morning, here is a lesson plan on Aesop’s fable “The Boasting Traveler” and its reading and comprehension questions worksheet. There’s not much to say about this or any of the other short lessons on this blog based on Aesop’s Fables other than I wrote them for a younger group of students than I have generally taught over the course of my career as a public school teacher.

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, Worksheets

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Led Zeppelin

Posted on May 13, 2020 | Leave a comment

OK parents and teachers, if you have headbangers in the house, literally and metaphorically in your respective cases, then you might have use for this reading on Led Zeppelin and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I just wrote this yesterday. That said, I suspect that for the right kind of learner, this will be high-interest material, so I’ve 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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International Style

Posted on May 13, 2020 | Leave a comment

“International Style: An aspect of Gothic art of the late 14th and early 15th centuries characterized by a lyrical, naturalistic treatment of subject matter, gently flowing lines, and pretty, delicate coloration. Also called international gothic style. In architecture, the clean-surfaced glass-enclosed style formulated by the Bauhaus in the 1920s which has dominated commercial architecture since the 1950s. Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, and Richard Neutra have been leading architects in the International Style. Le Corbusier’s machines a habiter (machines to live in), as he called the private homes commissioned early in his career, was a term meant to emphasize clean, precise, machine-like forms rather than a desire for mechanized living. But it also underlined modern architecture’s obsession with functionalist forms.”

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

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A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “The Night of the Crabs”

Posted on May 13, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “The Night of the Crabs.”

This Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of survivor’s guilt opens the lesson. You’ll need the PDF of the illustration and questions to investigate this crime. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key to close the case and bring a culprit to justice.

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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Cerebral Cortex

Posted on May 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

Although I prepared this reading on the cerebral cortex and wrote its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet for a specific student and purpose, I cannot remember who and what they were. I don’t know if this has any use in a high school classroom, but there it is if you need it. This might be a set of documents, properly revised, for a professional development workshop.

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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William Wallace

Posted on May 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

If you have on your hands any fans of the movie Braveheart, then you or that person might have a use for this reading on William Wallace and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. It might be a reality check for readers, as much of Mel Gibson’s film is derived from various–dubious–legends about Wallace. I recall a lot of discussion of these problems when the film was released.

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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A Lesson Plan on Deserts on Earth by Size from The Order of Things

Posted on May 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

From the pages of The Order of Things, here is a lesson plan on deserts, specifically, their areas by square kilometers and square miles. This, like the other lessons I’ve composed and posted from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s book, is a simply exercise in symbolic analysis–i.e. reading numbers and words at the same time and synthesizing them to grasp the facts that they represent. To that end, here is the reading and comprehension worksheet, in Microsoft Word, so it is flexible for your needs.

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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Enriched Foods

Posted on May 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

When I was in middle school, one of the classes we took was called “Home Economics.” It was a practical knowledge course on how to shop and cook for oneself. I can’t imagine how my life in this pandemic would have proceeded without the knowledge I took from that course.

This reading on enriched foods and its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet are the kind of thing we would have learned about in Home Ec, as it was known. I didn’t understand the point of the class at the time, so I apologize to the universe in general and the teachers of the course in particular for my uninterest and generally bad behavior that semester.

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 Last of the Mohicans

Posted on May 7, 2020 | Leave a comment

“The Last of the Mohicans: A romantic historical novel (1826) by the US writer James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), one of The Leatherstocking Tales. This tale is set in the hills and forests of northeastern North America at the time of the French and Indian Wars of the mid-18th century, and follows the adventures of Alice and Cora Munro, the frontiersman Natty Bumppo (also called Hawkeye), the unpleasant Huron leader Magua, and Chingachgook and his son Uncas, the last of the Mohicans—the rest of their tribe have been killed off by the Hurons. At the end Uncas and Cora are forced to jump off a cliff to their deaths to escape their enemies.

Historically, Uncas was a 17th-century chief of the Mohegans, an Algonquian tribe of Connecticut. Cooper apparently confused the Mohegans with the Mahicans, an Algonquian confederacy along the Hudson River.

There have been a number of film versions, the finest being those from 1936, Randolph Scott as Hawkeye, and 1992, with Daniel Day-Lewis in the role.”

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

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