Tag Archives: readings/research

Mellifluous (adj)

“Richly sweet and smooth in speech or tone; resonant and flowing; honeyed. Adverb: mellifluously; noun: mellifluousness.

‘The best American essay on him, in my opinion, was by Edmund Wilson, dry and to the point, There was not mellifluous English nonsense about the ‘inimitable’ and ‘incomparable.’”

V.S. Pritchett, The Tale Bearers

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

Pier

“Pier: Massive solid masonry that functions as vertical structural support. Also, often used to designate Romanesque and Gothic pillars of noncylindrical form.”

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

Independent Practice: Monarchy

Here is an independent practice worksheet on monarchy, which calls upon students to understand monarchy as a concept. I think I assigned this around the time the global studies class I co-taught started dealing with Medieval Europe.

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.

Constitutional Convention

Here is a reading on the United States Constitutional Convention along with a comprehension worksheet to accompany it. This is basic material in United States history, so I can think of a lot of places, times, and manners in which to use it.

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.

James Russell Lowell on Books

“As poet James Russell Lowell put it, ‘books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.'”

Excerpted from: Willingham, Daniel. The Reading Mind. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2017

A Pantheon of 9

“In the Indo-Aryan West, 9 was always a most propitious number, for each aspect of a ruling trinity could be multiplied by 3 to create a pantheon of 9. It is not difficult to see that this was the likely origin for our choirs of nine angels, nine heavenly spirits and nine muses. The number also has an innate reference to the nine months in which a child is created within the womb.”

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.

Independent Practice: Socrates

Here is an independent practice worksheet on Socrates. If you teach global studies, or whatever your school district calls it, this might be a document your students could use.

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.

Book of Answers: The Tenth Muse

“‘Whom did some classical writers call the ‘tenth muse?’ Sappho (b. 612 B.C.), a lyric poet whose work exists only in fragments. Married, she lived in Lesbos and led a group of women who were devoted to music and poetry.”

Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Beowulf

As we count down the days to the beginning of the school year, it may be a good time, particularly if you’re teaching English in the upper grades, to post this short reading on Beowulf and this reading comprehension worksheet that attends it.

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.

Brewer’s Curious Titles: A Confederacy of Dunces

“A satirical novel (1980) by the US novelist John Kennedy Toole (1937-1969). Thanks to the efforts of his mother it was published more than ten years after he committed suicide, and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It is set in New Orleans, and the central character, Ignatius Reilly, is an overweight, argumentative layabout who interrelates with a cast of equally eccentric and accident-prone characters. The title comes from Jonathan Swift:

‘When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in a confederacy against him.

Swift: Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting (1711)'”

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