Category Archives: Independent Practice

This is material either specifically designed for or appropriate to use for what is more commonly known as “homework.”

A Learning Support on Writing the Exclamatory Sentence

Posted on July 26, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a learning support on writing the exclamatory sentence. I wrote this one myself, synthesizing a range of material and editing it down to a single page. You will find in the text, of course, support for using the exclamation point in this kind of sentence.

But a single page it is, which is not to say that the text can’t be cut into pieces and repurposed into worksheets. It’s a Microsoft Word document, so it’s yours to do with as you wish.

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.

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The Weekly Text, 23 July 2021: A Lesson Plan on the Greek Word Root Neo-

Posted on July 23, 2021 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Greek word root neo–. As you most likely know, it means, simply, new. It can also mean recent, a slightly different temporal shade of meaning from new. This is a very productive root in English; it can be set as a prefix across a wide variety of nouns and adjectives.

I start this unit, to hint at were it’s going, with this context clues worksheet on the verb innovate (nov is the Latin equivalent of neo). You’ll need this scaffolded worksheet on neo to execute this lesson.

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.

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Antiglobalization

Posted on July 23, 2021 | 3 comments

Here is a reading on the antiglobalization movement in the United States along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

Because this relatively short reading focuses on the United States, it serves only as a general introduction to a movement that is, well, global in scale. If you scroll down from here to the sixth post below this one, you’ll find a reading and comprehension worksheet on the Bretton Woods Conference that might complement this reading–or vice versa.

I’d like to thank friend of the blog Adelaide Dupont, who called my attention to a typo in the reading in this post.

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.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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A Learning Support on Verbs and Number

Posted on July 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

Last but not least on this perfect summer afternoon in Vermont, here is a learning support on verbs and number. This is about a half page of text that leaves enough open field in the document to contrive a worksheet with it. In fact, since this document is formatted in Microsoft Word, you can do pretty much anything you need or want to with it.

This one, too, comes from Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage. This one, too, does a very nice job of explaining its central piece of procedural knowledge, how writers lose track of subjects in complicated sentences and often commit subject/verb agreement lapses because of that.

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.

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Bretton Woods

Posted on July 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on Bretton Woods  along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

Bretton Woods, you may recall, is shorthand for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in June of 1944, at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.  The hotel is right at the base of Mount Washington, a beautiful spot. This article, from the Intellectual Devotional series, serves as a good general introduction to a highly complicated subject–the post-World War II global economy.

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.

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Barry Goldwater

Posted on July 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

Last but not least on this clement Wednesday afternoon, here is a reading on Barry Goldwater along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

This is a good general introduction to the late senator and presidential candidate. Senator Goldwater, relatively speaking, was a nuanced thinker and, in the end, no subscriber to the kind of rigid ideology conservatives today profess.

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.

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A Learning Support on Gerunds and Pronouns

Posted on July 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a learning support on gerunds and pronouns. This is about a half-page of text, so there is room (and the latitude, since, like just about everything on this blog, this is a Microsoft Word document you can manipulate for your particular use) to make a worksheet of this should you see fit.

Basically, the text here explains the proper use of possessive pronouns following gerunds. It’s both simple and complicated at once, but as Paul Brians explains (this is drawn from his book Common Errors in English Usage), the advice in the passage will improve the quality of student writing.

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.

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Cultural Literacy: Fine Arts

Posted on July 20, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of fine arts. This is a very short document: a one-sentence reading and two comprehension questions.

In other words, the barest of introductions to the idea of fine arts–but an introduction nonetheless.

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.

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Common Errors in English Usage: Ethics (n), Morale (n) and Moral (adj)

Posted on July 20, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on using the nouns ethics and morale, and the adjective moral. As always, this worksheet, which consists of ten modified cloze exercises, comes from Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage, available–amazingly–in its entirety on the Washington State University website.

These words, and the concepts they represent, I submit, are things kids should know, understand, and be able to apply both in specific and general discourse.

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.

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Third World

Posted on July 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on the Third World along with its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

For the record, I disdain this term, which smacks of colonialism and in fact, as far as I am concerned, is a legacy of colonialism. The colonial powers expropriated wealth and labor from their colonies, then saddled them with a moniker that makes it sound like poverty and underdevelopment is somehow their own fault. If this reading didn’t point out this term’s problems, however blandly (“In addition, some artists and intellectuals adopted the term Third World to describe the common history of imperialism and decolonization shared by many countries in the group” and “Though some now regard the term as insensitive, it remains in use to describe impoverished parts of the globe….”), I probably wouldn’t publish it at all. That said, the reading does open a door to a critical discussion of colonialism and its atrocious legacy.

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.

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