Learning Strategies

Recent Posts - page 2

• What language do they speak in Scotland?

  By ljd42 on June 24, 2021

  Scottish, you say? English? Gaelic? Scots? All of the above? Sounds like a simple question…but it isn’t. In the newly elected Scottish Parliament, where members were allowed to take their oaths in the language of their choice, the following languages… Read More ›

• The Burglar in Short Order, by Lawrence Block…plus a comment about reviewers

  By ljd42 on June 22, 2021

  Perhaps you are familiar with Lawrence Block’s oeuvre. If so, you’ll think you know what the title of this book means: it must be the latest in the Bernie Rhodenbarr series, and Bernie must be taking a job in a… Read More ›

• Looking forward (mostly) to another summer of teaching remotely

  By ljd42 on June 20, 2021

  Tomorrow I will meet my teaching assistants, and two days later I will meet the students in my class. I am looking forward to both. Actually, there are several errors in that short paragraph: My teaching assistants are actually called… Read More ›

• The Art of Violence, by S.J. Rozan

  By ljd42 on June 18, 2021

  Unusually so for an S.J. Rozan novel, there’s not a whole lot about Chinese-American culture in this one. But it’s fascinating nonetheless. Rather than Chinese-American culture, this time it’s the New York City art world that the reader learns something… Read More ›

• All the Devils are Here, by Louise Penny

  By ljd42 on June 16, 2021

  Maybe you’re not a Louise Penny fan, though I don’t know why you aren’t. If you aren’t, why aren’t you? It’s possible, of course, that you subscribe to the snobby belief that any New York Times bestseller can’t possibly be… Read More ›

• The “Ich bin ein Berliner” myth. Admit it, you’ve always believed this urban legend, haven’t you?

  By ljd42 on June 14, 2021

  You know JFK’s famous speech in 1963, where he said “Ich bin ein Berliner,” where the American pedants and English-language German books all claim that it really means “I am a jelly donut,” not “I am a Berliner” as Kennedy… Read More ›

• Inherit the Shoes, by E.J. Copperman

  By ljd42 on June 12, 2021

  This is a genuinely funny mystery. We need funny these days, don’t we? If you haven’t heard of E.J. Copperman, read my reviews of two of his earlier books: The Question of the Missing Head and its sequel, The Question… Read More ›

• Punching down or punching up?

  By ljd42 on June 10, 2021

  “Why do we have to have a Black History Month?” whined one of my less favorite Weston students in February of 2016. “Why don’t we have a White History Month?” “Because,” I replied without taking time to think, “every month… Read More ›

• All Girls

  By ljd42 on June 8, 2021

  As you can tell from the title, this novel is about an all-girls school. Or maybe you can’t tell that, but it’s still true. We’re not talking about a working-class Catholic girls’ school from South Boston, but a traditionally preppy… Read More ›

• Yikes! Lying with statistics! About COVID! And from Massachusetts officials, no less!

  By ljd42 on June 6, 2021

  Apparently schools are magical places where kids don’t get COVID. You know, because youth. To prove this, the Mass Department of Public Health has just released this informative graph: Look at the bars. As you can tell from a mere… Read More ›

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