Tag Archives: readings/research

To Kill a Mockingbird

Posted on July 19, 2019 | Leave a comment

“The only novel (1960) by the US writer Harper Lee (1926-2016), which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The trial of a black man accused of raping a white woman and its aftermath are seen through the eyes of Scout, the six-year-old daughter of the white defense lawyer, Atticus Finch. Though clearly innocent, the man is found guilty and is subsequently shot 17 times by prison guards while, it is claimed, he was trying to escape. The editor of a local paper writes a courageous leader comparing the death to ‘the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children.’ The common, or northern, mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) is a noted songbird and mimic, and its range extends from the northern USA to Mexico. It particularly favors suburban habitats, and sometimes sings at night. A film version (1962) was directed by Robert Mulligan, with an Oscar-winning performance by Gregory Peck as Finch.”

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

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H.H. Richardson

Posted on July 15, 2019 | Leave a comment

One of the great pleasures of the last eight months I’ve passed in Springfield, Massachusetts, has been my walks along Mattoon Street. It was on my way to work and back, so it was rare that I didn’t pass along the block at least once a day. Springfield has wisely and carefully preserved the general area in which this residential street is located, the Quadrangle-Mattoon Street Historic District. The neighborhood is a gem in an otherwise–I use this word advisedly, and only because I’ve seen it in the local press, and indeed, even used by the City of Springfield itself, enough to take my own liberties with it–blighted city.

Earlier this year I learned a couple of things about the North Congregational Church on Mattoon Street. First, it was one of the earliest designs of the storied American architect H.H. Richardson, that it is rendered in his characteristic style, Richardson Romanesque, and contains Tiffany windows. Second, I learned that this amazing piece of United States history is actually for sale for an asking price of $600,000.

As this reading on H.H. Richardson explains, he remains one of the most important and influential architects ever to work in the United States. Here, if these materials are of any interest to your students, is the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that attends this short reading.

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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Coney Island

Posted on July 12, 2019 | Leave a comment

An email from the NYCDOE this morning aroused my thoughts and feelings about New York City, and possibly returning there to teach. Here is a reading on Coney Island, one of my favorite places in Brooklyn, and its attendant vocabulary building and comprehension worksheet.

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, New York City, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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Kitsch

Posted on July 11, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Kitsch: A strict dictionary definition describes kitsch as a ‘something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste.’ By the 1960s, pop artists were ushering in changed attitudes as they appropriated these once-denigrated mass-produced objects for use in their works. Contemporary artists like Jeff Koons continue to walk a fine line between the good taste of bad taste and outright bad taste.”

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

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Attention Deficit Disorder

Posted on July 8, 2019 | Leave a comment

Monday morning seems like a pretty good time to draw teachers’ attention to this reading on attention deficit disorder and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I’ve tagged this reading as high-interest material, because it there is one thing I’ve frequently found among kids who struggle to sustain attention in the classroom, or who have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, it is they want to know more about the affliction that has made school so difficult for them. Over the years, kids under my instruction have asked repeatedly for these 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.

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Term of Art: Anachronism

Posted on July 8, 2019 | Leave a comment

“(Greek ‘back-timing’) In literature anachronisms may be used deliberately to distance events and to underline a universal sense of verisimilitude and timelessness—to prevent something being ‘dated.’ Shakespeare adopted this device several times. Two classic examples are the references to the clock in Julius Caesar and to billiards in Antony and Cleopatra. Shaw also does it Androcles and the Lion when the Emperor is referred to as ‘The Defender of the Faith.’”

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

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12 Months of the French Republican Calendar

Posted on July 5, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Vendemiaire (grape harvest) * Brumaire (fog) * Frimaire (frost) * Nivose (snowy) * Pluviose (rainy) * Ventose (Windy) * Germinal (germination) * Floreal (flower) * Prairial (pasture) * Messidor (Harvest) * Thermidor (heat) * Fructidor (fruit)

This calendar was part of a reform movement to make over the world into a rational yet poetic place. Its first month, Vendemiaire (from the Latin for ‘grape harvest) started the day after the autumn equinox, which was neat, for it was also the day after the abolition of the monarchy on Year 1 of the Republic, 22 September, 1792.

The poet-journalist Fabre d’Eglantine was called in to advise the calendar committee on the naming of the months. They were to be exactly thirty days long, composed of three ten-day long weeks, each ending with a decadi as the day of rest. Days were to be composed of just ten hours (so 144 of our current minutes) abnd each hour was divided into 100 minutes and each minute into 100 seconds. The whole reformed calendar lasted for twelve years, from 1793 to 1805, though the week and hour reforms never took off beyond the political periphery of Paris. It was revived for another eighteen days during the Paris Commune of 1871. It was ridiculed by the British, who nicknamed the Republican Calendar with its four formal seasons: Wheezy, Sneezy and Freezy; Slippy, Drippy and Nippy; Showery, Flowery and Bowery; Wheaty, Heaty and Sweety.”

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, June 28, 2019: A Lesson Plan on Argumentation

Posted on June 27, 2019 | Leave a comment

If there is anything better than Vermont in the summer, I guess I don’t know what it is. I’ve lived in this state on and off in my life; I’m now looking for a job here, and hope to stay here for the rest of my working life.

This week’s Text is a complete lesson plan on argumentation; more specifically (and as with the other lesson plans on argumentation I’ve posted, this one relies on Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff’s excellent They Say/I Say: The Move That Matter in Academic Writing), this lesson involves students in the use of rhetorical figures in argumentation to enter an ongoing debate. I begin this lesson, right after a class change, with this context clues worksheet on the Latinism nota bene, generally abbreviated as n.b. Users of other context clues worksheets from Mark’s Text Terminal will note that this document is a very slight departure from the usual format. Finally, here is the worksheet that is at the center of this lesson.

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 Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Posted on June 26, 2019 | Leave a comment

“(II gattopardo, 1958; tr 1960) A historical novel by Giuseppi Tomasi, Prince of Lampedusa. It describes the impact of Garibaldi’s invasion of Sicily and the subsequent unification of Italy on an aristocratic Sicilian family who had flourished under the Bourbon kings. The novel’s depiction of the failure of the Risorgimento created heated political debates when it was first published. However, the controversy subsided and the book was widely recognized as a penetrating psychological study of an age, written in a highly symbolic and richly poetic style.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

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Manic-Depressive Disorder

Posted on June 25, 2019 | Leave a comment

For health teachers and may counselors, this reading on manic-depressive disorder and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet might be useful. This illness is relatively common in teens, in my experience.

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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