Tag Archives: readings/research

The Weekly Text, October 20, 2017: A Reading and Comprehension on Swedish Botanist Carl Linnaeus, Father of the Linnaean System of Taxonomy

For this week’s Text, Mark’s Text Terminal engages in a rare act of promotion, namely, exposing readers of this blog to the beautiful “My Dream for Animals” website. A colleague of mine in this school is involved in this. The photos are gorgeous, and the avowed mission of the site noble.

To accompany the site, here is a reading on Swedish botanist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus together with this reading comprehension worksheet to complement 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.

The Weekly Text, October 13, 2017, Hispanic Heritage Month Week V: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Panama Canal

Today is the final Friday of National Hispanic Heritage Month. This week, Mark’s Text Terminal offers a reading on the Panama Canal together with this comprehension worksheet to accompany it.

I debated myself at some length about whether or not these materials properly fit with the idea of National Hispanic Heritage month. In the final analysis, I think this short article does a nice job of exposing the kind of imperial meddling Latin Americans have dealt with for centuries.

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.

The Weekly Text, October 6, 2017, Hispanic Heritage Month 2017 Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Diego Velazquez

For this, the fourth week of National Hispanic Heritage Month, Mark’s Text Terminal offers this Intellectual Devotional reading on Diego Velazquez. Here is a reading comprehension worksheet to accompany 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.

The Weekly Text, September 29, 2017, Hispanic Heritage Month 2017 Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Miguel De Cervantes

For the third Friday of Hispanic Heritage Month, 2017, Mark’s Text Terminal offers a reading on Miguel de Cervantes and its accompanying 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.

Rotten Reviews: Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

Mr. Waugh displays none of the elan that distinguishes the true satirist from the caricaturist. For all its brilliance the writing lacks vitality. The invention is tired, and effects are too often got by recourse to the devices of slapstick exaggeration.”

Dudley Fitts, The Nation

Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.

The Weekly Text, September 22, 2017, Hispanic Heritage Month Week II: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Simon Bolivar

It’s the end of the first week of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Here is a reading on Simon Bolivar from the Intellectual Devotional series. To accompany it, here is a 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.

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit on Learning and Personal Nobility

“Education is not merely a means for earning a living or an instrument for the acquisition of wealth. It is an initiation into life of spirit, a training of the human soul in the pursuit of truth and the practice of virtue.”

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900-1990)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

The Weekly Text, September 15, 2017, Hispanic Heritage Month 2017 Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Soccer Legend Pele

Hispanic Heritage Month begins today, so for the next five Fridays, I’ll post readings and comprehension worksheets in its honor. To kick off the month, here are an Intellectual Devotional reading on Pele, the legendary Brazilian soccer star, and a comprehension worksheet to complement it. This should be relatively high interest material, particularly for kids from Latin America who follow soccer–as so many of the students I serve do.

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.

Rotten Reviews: Ernest Hemingway on Gertrude Stein

“It’s a shame you never knew her before she went to pot. You know a funny thing, she never could write dialogue. It was terrible. She learned how to do it from my stuff… She never could forgive learning that and she was afraid people would notice it, where she’d learned it, so she had to attack me. It’s a funny racket, really. But I swear she was damned nice before she got ambitious.”

Ernest Hemingway, in Green Hills of Africa, 1935

Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.

The Weekly Text, September 1, 2017: A Complete Lesson Plan on the Most Commonly Used Prepositions

Of the seven units on the parts of speech I’ve built, the one on prepositions is the shortest. As I start writing this week’s Text, I realize that with this post I’ve already published three of the seven lessons in the unit–and one of them just last week.

This is the third lesson in the unit, on working with commonly used prepositions. There are, as with most of the lessons I post here, two do-now, Everyday Edit exercises to start the lesson, the first on the “Miracle Worker,” Anne Sullivan and the second on James Forten, a free Black man in Philadelphia. The center of this lesson is this scaffolded worksheet on working with commonly used prepositions. To complete it, students will benefit from access to this learning support on using prepositions, prepositional phrases, and compound prepositions. Finally, while delivering this lesson, I’m confident that you’ll find the teacher’s copy and answer key helpful.

That’s it. School starts on Tuesday! I hope the school year starts well for you.

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.