Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

Drag Racing

Posted on October 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

Last but not least today, here is a reading on drag racing and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I wrote this when I was working with a group of students in a rural high school who were interested in all manner of fast cars. It was high-interest material for those students, which leads me to suspect it will be of high-interest elsewhere as well. If that turns out to be the case in your classroom, could you leave a comment?

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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Word Root Exercise: Bar/o

Posted on October 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

This  worksheet on the Greek word root bar/o yields in English, as Greek roots tend to, a number of words related to the physical sciences. In this case, bar/o means pressure and weight. You find it at the base of weather-related words like barometer and millibar.

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: Renumeration and Remuneration

Posted on October 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here’s an English usage worksheet on differentiating the use of renumeration and remuneration. In reality, since neither renumeration nor the verb from which it would spring, renumerate, are words that have disappeared under the much crisper recount (although renumerate can also mean to renumber–also crisper than renumerate) this is a worksheet on the meaning and use of the noun remuneration.

To remunerate simply means “to pay an equivalent for.” When you receive your paycheck, your employer remunerated for your labor.

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: Liberalism

Posted on October 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

Because it presents an extremely narrow, time-bound (it restricts the refers to liberalism only in its manifestation in the twentieth century) definition of the ideology, I almost trashed this Cultural Literacy worksheet on liberalism.

Talk radio hosts and social media have reduced liberalism, a complicated political and moral philosophy to a caricature of itself. This worksheet, while narrowly useful, doesn’t generally help much in clearing up misconceptions about this Enlightenment ideology.

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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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Posted on October 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

By posting this reading on Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that it is appropriate for high-schoolers (it might be, for the right ones), or of particularly high interest (again, it might be, for the right one) or demand. I actually wrote this for one student who was very interested in philosophy, but not otherwise interested in school.

Anyway, any reading on Liebniz can complement a calculus class, particularly if you want students to know something about the history of the field. More broadly, if you are conducting inquiry into the Enlightenment, or teaching Voltaire’s Candide, this material will provide some context for that novella.

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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The Weekly Text, October 16, 2020: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Blot It Out”

Posted on October 16, 2020 | Leave a comment

It’s Friday again. I don’t know about you, but I am experiencing time in some very strange ways during this pandemic. Anyway, Hispanic Heritage Month 2020 has come and gone.

So, this week’s text is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Blot It Out.” I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the phrase “Art for Art’s Sake” (incidentally, when you watch movies, new or old, produced at the Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) studio, you’ll see the Latin phrase “Ars Gratia Artis” above the roaring lion’s head as the film begins to roll, well, you can now explain that phrase to students and children). You’ll need this scan of the illustration and questions in order to conduct your investigation. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key so that you can make allegations and bring your suspect to the bar of justice.

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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Cultural Literacy: The Federalist Papers

Posted on October 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

Last but not least today, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on The Federalist Papers. This is only the merest introduction to these foundational documents to our republic, but sometimes that’s what a teacher needs. If so, help yourself.

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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Charles Manson

Posted on October 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

Charles Manson’s death in late 2017 prompted a flurry of questions from the students I was serving at the time. As I do whenever students demonstrate an interest in something, I worked up some new materials, to wit, this reading on Charles Manson and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

And while I’m neither proud of or happy with the fact, these documents quickly became high-interest materials in my classroom. Ergo, they appear here. Did I mention I’m not exactly happy about students’ interest in this monster?

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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Word Root Exercise: Ax

Posted on October 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

Moving right along this morning, here is a worksheet on the Latin word root ax. It means, simply, axis. If you click on that hyperlink, however, you’ll see that “simply” isn’t the right word: axis is a complex polysemous word in English. In any case, I suspect this document would be useful in a certain kind of math class, or perhaps a mechanical drawing course. At the same time, it is also a general vocabulary-building exercise.

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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A Lesson Plan on Data Storage from The Order of Things

Posted on October 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

As you get older, you take it for granted, but it’s still fun to experience synchrony. A friend of mine and I land on synchrony quite often while texting–often using the same words simultaneously. In this case, the same day I interviewed with some very nice, clearly talented, unusually engaged and deeply committed folks at a computer-themed career and technical education high school in the North Bronx, I pulled out this lesson plan on data storage, adapted from text I grabbed from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s The Order of Things. I expect this would work well at a school such as theirs. I hope they find their way to it.

For your students, here is the list as reading and comprehension questions, which is the work of 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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