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New! Common Core Standards Boxes Indentify Key Skills
In conjunction with the release of the final draft of the Common Standards Initiative’s Core Common Standards, we have added helpful boxes throughout the catalogue to aid you in identifying which key skills each products covers.
J.K. Rowling’s short story, “The Tale of Three Brothers” is based on which famous tale?
The moons of Uranus are named after characters from the works of which two famous writers?
While in grammar school, which famous African American writer was elected class poet at his Lincoln, IL school?
Which American writer, along with Leon Mendez Solomons, performed experiments on Normal Motor Automatism — a phenomenon hypothesized to occur in people when their attention is divided between two activities, like writing and speaking?
Which author completed a four-year apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory assistant before choosing to become a writer?
Last Week's Answers
Filled his/her pockets with rocks and went swimming — Virginia Woolf
Stuck his/her head in a gas oven — Sylvia Plath
Mauled by a pack of wild dogs owned by Archelaus, the King of Macedonia — Euripides
Stabbed in the head over his right eye in a fight about a bar tab — Christopher Marlowe
Trapped in a fire while a patient in an asylum for the mentally ill — Zelda Fitzgerald
Killed by doctors during a "blood letting" attempt to cure malarial fever. — Lord Byron
Froze to death at a railway station after giving away his/her entire fortune — Leo Tolstoy
Shot with a .22 rifle by an insane dishwasher — Maxwell Bodenheim
Killed self by drinking disinfectant — Vachel Lindsay
Suffered an abdominal hemorrhage at his/her mother’s home in St. Petersburg, Florida, while watching "The Galloping Gourmet" — Jack Kerouac
Fell off a bar stool during a bout of heavy drinking — Lionel Johnson
Died from complications of peritonitis in his/her colon after ingesting a toothpick along with a hors d’oeuvre at a cocktail party — Sherwood Anderson
Cut wrists and wrote a final poem in his/her own blood titled "Goodbye my friend" — Sergei Esenin
While en route to New York aboard the S.S. Orizaba, he/she leapt into the Caribbean Sea; reputedly said "Good-bye everybody" — Hart Crane
Run over by laundry truck outside the College de France — Roland Barthes
Recently, one of my favorite bloggers, Larry Ferlazzo, posed a question about keeping a bit of greenery in your classroom. According to his recent post:
Over the years, I’ve made a few feeble attempts at keeping plants in my classroom. Students seemed to like it, but the few times I had them I took them out at the end of the year and just forgot to bring them back.
An article I just read about, though, is making me wonder if I should make having them more of a priority, and I’d be interested in hearing feedback.
Jonah Lehrer writes in The Psychology of Nature about some studies on the effect of nature on increasing attention and working memory. In fact, one study showed a positive effect on just looking at a nature picture. He suggests that “it’s a good idea to build a little greenery into our life.”
I’m going to make a more serious attempt at bringing “a little greenery” into my classroom this year.
Do you have plants in your classroom? If so, why? If not, why not? If you have plants, do you believe it has an effect on students?
This got me thinking. I enjoy having plants in my own home, but are there really benefits to keeping them in the classroom? Teachervision.com thinks that:
Caring for live plants can give your classroom a warm, comforting feel. It can also help teach students responsibility – and science! Local nurseries or greenhouses may even be willing to donate the plants to your class.
Similarly, according to an article by usask.com, having a bit of plantlife in your classroom seems to have a variety of positive effects:
“Over the last 10 to 15 years a lot of research has shown that indoor plants not only beautify indoor spaces, they also make them a healthier and more productive place to live in. The results of Dr. B.C. Wolverton's research on air purifying benefits of indoor plants, sponsored by NASA and the Landscape Contractors of America, have been widely reported in both print and broadcast media. Wolverton has shown that plants such as the Bamboo Palm and Madonna Lillies can reduce the level of airborne toxins such as benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene….Virginia Lohr has conducted test which show that plants can improve the humidity inside buildings by up to 20 percent. A lot of work has also been done by researchers such as Ulrich and Simons to show that people feel better about an indoor space with greenery than they do about one without. People were shown to be more relaxed, which can improve productivity, reduce stress, and reduce blood pressure.”
What do you think? Do plants in the classroom have a positive effect on you or your students? For more ideas regarding plants in your classroom, visit KidsGardening.com's Teacher Page.
Below is a "wordle" that was made using words from the Prestwick Café Blog. Wordle.net allows you to type in text or a URL, and then takes all the words used in that writing to create "word clouds." According to Wordle.net, "The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends." As you can see, our word cloud shows our emphasis on "students," "books," "writing," and "teachers" — all the things that are most important to us!
According to SaveTheWords.org, "over the centuries many words have come and sadly gone." Save the Words offers your students a chance to "adopt a word" by becoming familiar with a handful of words from bygone eras and adopting any that they deem worth saving. It also shows students how to "increase their word power" using dictionaries, find old words in their everyday life, and appreciate the richness of a well-developed vocabulary. Visit today to adopt your favorite old word!
Filled his/her pockets with rocks and went swimming
Stuck his/her head in a gas oven
Mauled by a pack of wild dogs owned by Archelaus, the King of Macedonia
Stabbed in the head over his right eye in a fight about a bar tab
Trapped in a fire while a patient in an asylum for the mentally ill
Killed by doctors during a "blood letting" attempt to cure malarial fever.
Froze to death at a railway station after giving away his/her entire fortune
Shot with a .22 rifle by an insane dishwasher
Killed self by drinking disinfectant
Suffered an abdominal hemorrhage at his/her mother’s home in St. Petersburg, Florida, while watching "The Galloping Gourmet"
Fell off a barstool during a bout of heavy drinking
Died from complications of peritonitis in his/her colon after ingesting a toothpick along with a hors d’oeuvre at a cocktail party
Cut wrists and wrote a final poem in his/her own blood titled "Goodbye my friend"
While en route to New York aboard the S.S. Orizaba, he/she leapt into the Caribbean Sea; reputedly said "Good-bye everybody"
Run over by laundry truck outside the College de France
Vachel Lindsay | Christopher Marlowe | Leo Tolstoy | Lionel Johnson | Lord Byron Jack Kerouac | Sherwood Anderson | Sylvia Plath | Zelda Fitzgerald | Sergei Esenin Hart Crane | Virginia Woolf | Roland Barthes | Maxwell Bodenheim | Euripides
While it was originally reported that she died of congestive heart failure, which bestselling Canadian author in fact, ended her own life by taking an overdose of medication — a fact later confirmed by her granddaughter?
Our rationale for creating a Facebook page for our school is to “Go where our parents are.”
Since the majority of the parents of our students check their Facebook account daily, but only check our school webpage a few times a year, doesn’t it make sense for our school to have a Facebook page? For example, if we were about to have an Ice Cream Social and we put a notice on our webpage, very few parents would see it. But if we put the same notice on our Facebook page, most of our parents would now know about it.
Mr. Flick’s Guide for Creating a School Facebook Page:
Go to www.facebook.com (if you are automatically logged in, you will need to log out so you go to the actual front page of Facebook.)
Click on the link “Create a page.”
Click “Local Business” and then select “Education” from the pull-down menu.
Type in the name of your page, for example: Bethke Elementary School.
Click the checkbox that says you’re the official representative for your school and you can do this.
Click the “Create Official Page.”
The next screen will ask you to log into your Facebook account.
Fill out the appropriate information and upload some school photos (I wouldn’t upload any photos of students, just shots of the school and teachers)
You now have a Facebook Page for you school.
Now make a link on your school website for people to go to your school’s Facebook page and ask your parents to “like” your school on Facebook.
Later, when you want to edit your school’s Facebook page just log into your Facebook account click on Accounts in the top right of the webpage and click “Manage Pages”
This week, Delaware-based publishing company, Prestwick House, Inc. is proud to release its newest title for the writing classroom, Rhetoric, Logic, & Argumentation, written by Magedah Shabo.
This text contains a wide variety of examples and accompanying exercises that will teach students to use logic in the context of communication — a skill set that is largely neglected in the classroom, but that is part of most states’ educational curriculum standards.
“The Common Core standards are the most pressing reason for teaching these skills in the classroom at present,” says author, Magedah Shabo. “The standards for reading and writing require that students perform logical analyses and write sound arguments."
“If students haven't studied rhetorical appeals or the basics of logic, they'll have to rely on guesswork and intuition as they work toward these goals. But students who have studied these subjects in class will have the advantage of understanding the legitimate methods of persuasion, how logic works, and what a sound argument looks like."
Created with tenth- through twelfth-grade AP English classes in mind, Rhetoric, Logic, & Argumentation covers critical thinking and overall communication, persuasive writing and speaking, reasoning and debate, analysis of non-fiction, and AP Language and Composition Exam performance.
"We ask students to write persuasively but give very [little] guidance as to what is needed to create an effective argumentative/persuasive essay. This book lays the foundation for this information and also provides concrete practice exercises," says Prestwick House National Curriculum Advisory Board Reviewer and teacher, Bernadine M. Stocki.
The text provides a clear curriculum for teaching logic in the language arts classroom. It includes interesting examples taken from famous works of literature, speeches that illustrate the different approaches to persuasion, and fallacious quotes from fictional characters. Exercises range from simple multiple-choice to complex analysis questions that will help students achieve some of the Common Core writing standards.
“I don't know of any other book that treats logic as a tool for writers. That's probably the most unique thing about this text: the fact that it gives logic its proper place in the language-arts classroom, as the primary mode of rhetorical persuasion,” says Shabo.
Many, many years ago, when I was still a young teacher, I had a packet of handouts, allegedly written by famous people, that gave out quick-and-dirty tips on all sorts of language and writing problems. The handouts were distributed by Dow or DuPont or some other chemical or paper company, and I honestly do not remember how I came to be in possession of them.
The one I found most useful—I copied it with abandon and distributed it freely to my students year after year until it disappeared from my cabinet as mysteriously as it had appeared—was “How to Spell.” It was written by (I think) Bill Cosby and offered some of the neatest observations on American English that I have ever encountered.
Here are the tips I remember from the handout. I don’t think I’m violating anyone’s copyright.
I’m tempted to call these “rules,” but I am a descriptivist, and every one of these rules has a few exceptions (though not as many as you’d think), so I’ll call them “tips” instead. Let’s face it, if the following tips clear up half of your kids’ spelling problems, you’re doing pretty well, aren’t you?
First, let’s look at some of our most puzzling and annoying word endings:
ABLE – IBLE
Tip:ABLE generally follows complete words; IBLE follows incomplete words, or words that have changed in form.
Tip: Generally, CIAN identifies a person; SION produces a soft, zhun sound after an l or an s; TION identifies a condition or non-person entity.
Examples: academician, musician, politician
elision, precision, vision
condemnation, elation, recommendation
Exceptions: Words ending in double s take SION regardless of pronunciation.
ERY – ARY
Tip: Only four words in the entire language end in ERY: cemetery, confectionery, millinery (ladies’ hats), stationery (as in paper)
Learn them, and you know all the others (because the rest all end in ARY).
Examples: cautionary, reactionary, voluntary and so on …
Now, consider the compound word. We don’t have too many of them in English as compared to other languages—I’m thinking especially of German and the Scandinavian languages—but we do have a few. The key to spelling them correctly is to remember that the compound word is not a prefix-and-root or a root-and-suffix; it is two words fused together into one.
Thus, in words like roommate, bookkeeper, and granddaughter, we don’t have to memorize rules about double-consonants. We need only remember that room ends with m, and mate begins with m. We need the k that ends book, and we need the k that begins keeper, so we need two. Granddaughter is grand + daughter (just as grandfather, grandson, grandmother are all compounds of grand + the name of a filial affinity).
One of my pet peeves—and it’s not a double-consonant word, and I don’t remember its being in the Bill Cosby handout, but—is the misspelling (one s for the prefix and one for the word itself) of background.
What in the world would a back + round be?
We’re not done yet.
How about the way we mangle words and phrases containing the word all?
All right is two words. It means “completely (all) correct, proper, or permissible (right).”
• Would it be all right if I stayed home tonight?
• I checked my work and, while it wasn’t superb, it was all right.
THERE IS NO SUCH WORD AS ALRIGHT.
The opposite of all right is all wrong.
• As usual, your assessment of the situation is all wrong.
THERE IS NO SUCH WORD AS ALWRONG.
It’s simply a matter of thinking before you (or your students) write. Or at least thinking before they edit, revise, and proofread.
There is a great deal of logic in the English language, and those who complain otherwise are either inconversant with the facts or just plain lazy.
One final set of tips I remember from the Cosby handout.
All ready is a two-word phrase that means “completely (all) ready (ready).”
• My teeth are brushed, I’ve got clean underwear on, and I am all ready to go.
Already is a single word, an adverb, that means something like “so soon” or “by now.”
• By the time I got to the bus stop, the bus had already left.
• I’ve been late to school three times this week already.
Again, it’s a matter of thinking before writing or revising or editing or proofreading. When you think about it, it is logical: we don’t have much problem using all correctly as an adjective:
• All year, Maureen has taken all the credit for all the work we’ve done together.
We shouldn’t have trouble using it as an adverb:
• The glue is all gone. The glitter is all used up as well. Still, the project is all ready, and I think we’ll be all right once we present it to the class.
Last one:
A lot is two words. The opposite of a lot is a little.
• Angus ate a lot of beef while Naomi ate only a little.
We don’t seem to believe there’s such a word as alittle, so why do we think there’s a word like alot?
As I said at the beginning of this, learning these tips—learning the convention, perhaps memorizing the few exceptions in order to apply the convention in all the other cases—should help your students eradicate a lot (two words) of their spelling errors.
While it was originally reported that she died of congestive heart failure, which bestselling Canadian author in fact, ended her own life by taking an overdose of medication — a fact later confirmed by her granddaughter?
About whom did William Wordsworth write, “There was no doubt that this poor man was mad…” ?
Which American short story writer and poet continually called the name “Reynolds!” the night before his death?
Which author is believed to have died from choking on too much coffee?
Which American author suffered a heart attack as a result of falling off of a horse?
Which author was offered a Clerkship of Journals in the House of Lords, but was so overcome by stress that he had to forego the position due to a “period of insanity?”
William Cowper
Who was not only the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature after Rudyard Kipling, but also the shortest-lived of any literature laureate to date, having died in an automobile accident just over two years after receiving the award?
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