It takes leadership to confront a nation's fear. It takes friendship to conquer your own.

Read this excerpt from The King's Speech" by King George VI as Great Britain was about to enter WWII and answer the following question:


"Such a principle, stripped of all disguise, is surely the mere primitive doctrine that might is right, and if this principle were established throughout the world, the freedom of our own country and of the whole British Commonwealth of nations would be in danger."


What is suggested by King George's use of the word PRIMITIVE?

a. Germany's pursuit of world domination is the prime reason for Great Britain joining the war
b. Germany's pursuit of world domination is crude and uncivilized
c. Great Britain needs to join the war for the prime reason that their freedom is in danger
d. Great Britain needs to join the war so they can obtain world domination before Germany

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Primitive means most basic and when applied here to civilized countries, King George VI is  calling them basic and uncivilized.  That makes B the correct answer.

Thank you to Ms. Willis from Manteo High School for the question.  Her students should thank her for being the most wonderful teacher in their school and should really consider getting her some Starbuck gift cards for teacher appreciation week.

Go Gawain!

 Read the following from J. R. R. Tolkien's work, The Fall of Arthur:

Greatest was Gawain,
   whose glory waxed
as times darkened,
   true and dauntless,
among knights peerless
   ever anew proven,
defence and fortress
   of a falling world


What word could replace "waxed" in the second line?
a. faded
b. increased
c. faltered
d. fearless

How cool is it that I own this book?

Scroll down for the answer.




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a. and c. are incorrect.  They both mean the same thing, so if one was correct, so would the other.
d. means nothing in this sentence.
b. is correct.  While others failed, Gawain just got stronger, braver, and better.  His glory increased.

Menace!

Read the following page from Menace #5 (Marvel comics 1953):

Based on how it is used in the opening blurb, what does the word "yarn" mean?

a. a type of string
b. a story
c. an undead creature
d. a type of comic book








Scroll down for the answer.













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The context of the opening blurb suggests that the word "yarn", as used in the blurb, means b. story.  However, if you put d. type of comic book, I would say that you at least got the best wrong answer.



You're still wrong, though.  :)

Mr. Blue Sky

Read the song lyrics below for "Mr. Blue Sky" by The Electric Light Orchestra about a nice sunny day after a long rainy and cloudy period:

Runnin' down the avenue
See how the sun shines brightly in the city
On the streets where once was pity
Mr. Blue Sky is living here today, hey hey

 

Mr. Blue Sky please tell us why

You had to hide away for so long (so long)

Where did we go wrong?

Mr. Blue Sky please tell us why

You had to hide away for so long (so long)

Where did we go wrong?

What literary term is being used in this song? 

a. apostrophe

b. metaphor

c. simile

d. dramatic irony

e. 3rd person omniscient narrator 

 

 

By the way, you would probably recognize this song from the opening of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 with Baby Groot:

 

Scroll down for the answer:

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The way to figure this answer out is to knock out all answers you know are NOT the right one.  Apostrophe is probably a term you are not as familiar with, so we can put that as a maybe.  The others, however, you are familiar with.  We can rule out metaphor because there is no comparison.  Likewise with simile - plus there is no "like" or "as".  As far as dramatic irony goes, there is nothing that we know that the characters in this song do not, so we can rule that out.  That leaves us with 3rd Person Omniscient.  Even if you are unclear on which person point of view this is told in, there is not knowledge of Mr. Blue Sky's thoughts, so we are not omniscient in this clip, so we can rule out that answer.  

That brings us back to apostrophe.  It is the only answer that isn't eliminated, so we can go with that one.  Only choose answer choices you are not familiar with if you can rule out the other answers.

Apostrophe - talking to something or some concept that cannot talk back to you.

 

 

Use a Rag!

 What literary term is being employed to make this ad effective?

a. archetype
b. allusion
c. irony
d. personification






Scroll down for the answer.





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This ad is to make you think about saving the planet by not using too many paper towels.  This is only made possible if the towel color is green, since green is an archetypal symbol of life - especially sine the remaining color is black, which is an archetype for death. The correct answer is a.

Haiku - Bless You!

 Read this haiku from Basho:

Sick on my journey, 
only my dreams will wander 
these desolate moors 


This poem is about:

a. traveling

b. death

c. birth

d. being sick on vacation

See comments for answer.

Shameless Plug: Teaching ACES

 Never fear, fellow teacher - your question of the day is just a scroll below!

Teaching ACES step-by-step

You are using these questions to help prepare your kids for the reading comprehension multiple choice questions, but do you have a solid plan for getting them to answer the constructed response section?  If not, consider below:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/XET-Teaching-ACES-for-Constructed-Responses-12163122

ACES provides a formula for students to think about when formatting a constructed response or short answer question. It is the basic structure for organized writing and is often used to set students up for larger works that will require thesis statements and paragraphs. It is also often used on state testing.

The poem "Ozymandias" is used to break down each component in each lesson.

Teaching this basic structure can be time consuming and irritating for both student and teacher. This pack aims to alleviate some of that stress on both by scaffolding the process and having students practice one element at a time, building upon previous lessons until all elements are mastered.  It can be done in a series of four days or less, if needed, but I prefer to teach this one day a week over four weeks.

After going through the example, students get a chance to practice each part ( lesson one is only A, lesson two is A and C, lesson three is A, C, and E, and the final lesson is A, C, E, and S.

The primary text is "Ozymandias" by Shelley and students will practice on each section using passages from "Fire and Ice" by Frost, The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis, Dune by Herbert, and Invisible Man by Ellison.

Each lesson has a student worksheet to let them practice with a small reading passage.

I created this last year for use with my inclusion class and it worked wonders.  It made it where they could grasp what we were asking for and by breaking it down into chunks, they were not overwhelmed.  I have an honors class this semester and will be using it with them as well.